Adventure #9 Peru Day 4 -- The Inca trail!

Sunrise in Cusco 5:20am

 Day 4 in Peru, first day of the trek.  We were told to meet in the square at 5:20am.  You can see the sunrise starting to hit the tops of the mountains.  It was fun to watch our team trickle into the square with all of their gear.  We had the option to fill a yellow duffle bag with some of our things for a porter to carry.  I felt that it was a well spent $65.  However, it could not weigh more than 9kg.  So I put my sleeping bag in there -- bulky, but not to heavy, some clothes, and an extra pair of hiking boots in case I got blisters -- I could switch back and forth.  It is hard to estimate the weight of a bag like that, but I was under the 9kg, and everything else went in my own backpack. 
Once the team was assembled, we hopped on a bus and headed out of Cusco.

Leaving Cusco for the 4 day trek!

We arrived at our breakfast spot which was a small building with a couple of big tables and a little "store" where you could buy anything you might need for the trip that you had forgotten.  I bought some bug spray, a chocolate bar, a couple extra granola bars and a big green plastic bag.  It was recommended that we buy these plastic bags to repack the stuff in  that was in the porter duffle bag -- they aren't waterproof!

Breakfast before the trek starts

Outside of our breakfast spot was a little game.  Not sure of the objective or rules, but some of the guys had fun trying it out:

I think maybe the coins were supposed to end up in the holes, or better yet, the frog's mouth.



Breakfast over, the bus is ready to go!



Then it was time for a little more driving until we got to our departure point.  I took this picture of a political "ad' for Taylor since she is a big Elvis fan.  Maybe he is still alive -- and running for office in Peru!

Took this picture for Taylor!

Then we arrived at the departure point.  We repacked those duffles, had them weighed to make sure they weren't too heavy, and basically got ourselves organized.  There were about 20 porters for the 15 of us.  Also our 2 guides, Javier and Donny, and an amazing chef!  The porters carried not only our duffles, but all of the food, tents, cooking equipment etc.


This women were ready to sell us any last minute items we may have forgotten.



The porters loading up

We are ready !!!

The porters going through the checkpoint.  They can only carry 25kg each.



Our porters are the blue ones



This porter is taking a break! LOL!

Love the spelling!

Javier giving us last minute instructions

Once we cross this bridge, the trek begins!

Jake and Dane #1 (we had 2 Danes!)



I'm thinking I should have picked more attractive sunglasses.



As we were getting ready to leave for our hike, the train carrying Machu Picchu tourists passed right by us.  I was feeling very proud that I was on the trek and not on the train!  Of course when the same train picked us up at Machu Picchu to  bring us back after the hike, it was a welcome sight!


The Machi Picchu train


AND SO WE BEGIN!!



Trumpet flowers



A cemetery

We started hiking before the porters.  They soon passed us with all our gear.  This would happen everyday, because of course they would have to break down camp after we left each morning, and then get ahead of us to set up lunch camp before we got there, and then do it all over again after lunch.  Each time we arrived at camp, the tents were all set up, meals being prepared etc. It was amazing!  They are so strong, so fast, and work sooo hard.


Our amazing porters!



A couple of hours in, we stopped for a rest for about 20 minutes.  It is still morning, but it feels much later!

Our first rest stop - already tired!

We hit the jungle during the next part of the hike.  The scenery was always changing!

And we're walking, and we're walking......



This gives a good idea of the angle of ascent for most of the day -- see the little trekkers? LOL!





Looking back down to where we just came from. Can you see the little people? LOL!

 So whenever I show people these pictures, it seems like the pictures don't do the hike justice as far as showing how difficult it was.  My thoughts before doing it myself were "well it's just walking, how hard could it be?".  Without whining too much, I'll try to explain.  Imagine standing in front of a rocky staircase that you can't see the top of.  Then strap on a 15-20lb backpack (cuz you are a girl and you packed too much lol!), then pick up a little red cocktail straw -- because that is what you are going to breath through (altitude=less oxygen).  Oh, and you are hungover (I wasn't, but the altitude headaches were similar). Now your guide says -- we will be doing this for about 3&1/2 hours, take your time, enjoy the hike, and go at your own pace!  It took a while for me to learn that you had to walk in slow motion to avoid having to stop every 20 paces and gasp for a while.  We took tiny little baby steps, and I learned to "snake" my way up any steps, so that even though you take more steps, there are more "level" steps in relation to the "up" steps.  Some areas were very rocky, others like below were smoother, and some had "steps" (sort of).
I got a little nervous on this day because they said that Day 1 was a warm-up for Day 2 which was the "challenging" day.  really???

Up, up we go!

Made it to the top of my first big hill!

And then it's time to walk again!  Another hour til lunch!

We saw some ruins and terraces along the way.  Every photo-op was a good excuse to stop and take a rest!

Sometimes we went downhill.  Many people said they actually thought that was worse.  Not me, I'll take downhill over uphill any day!  (Although when we get to day 2 of the hike, you will get to hear how I fell downhill more than walked downhill! <G>).

Make way for the donkeys! 

Photo op = rest stop!

Finally we stopped for lunch!! You can tell that everyone was very happy to just plop down on the ground and wait for the food. 
Speaking of food, it was incredible the entire trek.  I wish I remembered specifically what more of our meals were, but they were always delicious, healthy, fresh and way better than I expected!

Stopping for lunch -- already set up by our porters!

Dane found a friend

After lunch we did a lot more walking.  For some reason I don't have any pictures from the afternoon hike.  I must have been a little tired!  Eventually we got to our camp for the night.  Of course our porters had everything set up for us - including our tents.  They brought us plastic bowls of warm water right to our tents, so we could wash up.  We settled in, and had a nice evening tea with cookies. 

Our camp for the 1st night

Mithchum

Annie at our "T-1" tent.  (Chosen in honor of Taylor!)

Me and Annie. Tentmates! 

Annie was a great tentmate.  I really enjoyed spending time with her on the trek!


The "facilities"

  I consider myself to be a fairly tough, low maintenance kind of girl, and I grew up going to bluegrass festivals, so I have seen my share of port-a-potties.  So the "facilities" really didn't bother me - except for one thing:  Try squatting when you have been hiking up and down hill for 6 to 7 hours!  LOL!  And don't drop your roll of toilet paper!!

During our tea time, Javier told us that the porters used to just sleep in the woods and caves, but regulations now required that the porters had cover during the night.  So the dinner tent and kitchen tent were left up overnight and they slept inside together.
Before the regulations requiring better treatment of the porters, there was a porter sleeping in a cave at this camp who died when a huge rock fell on him.  His bones are still there.  Seems weird to us that they wouldn't remove the body, but it is a very different culture.  The other porters would not do it because of their beliefs -- they thought they would die the same way if they disturbed the body.  So when they pass the cave they leave offereings of coca leaves.  Javier took us to see the site - and the bones.  It was dark by now, and a little spooky with our head lamps on.  Someone had a bag of coca leaves and passed them out so that we could each leave one as an offering. 

When we returned from the cave, we had a little time to wait before dinner.  Javier said dinner was optional if we wanted to go to bed early.  I was sooo tired, and had eaten plenty at lunch that I opted to go read in the tent instead -- which quickly became sleeping!  (Altitude can make you lose your appetite too). It was the only meal I missed though!  The food was too good to make a habit of that!

As I fell asleep, my mind seemed to be aware that I was sleeping on the side of a big mountain, and I had dreams of "flying" off the side -- not in a scary way, but like a bird or a hang-glider.  very cool!