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The day we had both been quietly dreading for the last three months was upon us....INCA TRAIL DAY ONE!!!
Picked up from at our hostel at 5:30am we were in for a long day, being the first to be collected we had time for a mini nap in the back of our bus while the others joined us. Thankfully we met our group last night for an introduction meeting at the Cusco office, only a nice number nine of us in the group and from just that meeting I could tell we had- thank the lord -been blessed with a great bunch to spend the next four days with.
DAY 1 @ altitude 2750 metres- So kind of a sort ourselves out day, get used to things and gradually set in the pace for what was to follow. After a morning driving to our starting point we were quite eager to stretch our legs and get going. There was a lot of sorting; bags, sleeping mats, ponchos, porters all little things that took a bit of time, oh, and I should mention that it is RAINING!!! So along with all this we are trying to get covered to relief having a wet and soggy start to the trail.
Our starting point is in Ollyantambo, here, we check all permit documents, get the all important Machu Pichuu stamp in our passports, take the infamous photo under the Inka sign (see photo-I'm the little round yellow thing on the right) and be on our way...in the rain!!!
The trail wasn't hard today, our guides Chachi and Marco (AKA Mamma and Pappa) are edging us in easy letting us get our bearings, taking in the already fantastic views and let everyone get to know each other, where a bottle of Old Times whiskey; thanks to Michael; came in handy for a quite warm shot to take the edge off.
After a few hours of walking we stop for a fantastic lunch made my our wonderful chef and porters, serving up fish with avocado, rice, mixed vegetables..best food we have had for a while! The porters and chefs set off before us and also move ten times quicker than us to get ahead of the game and get things set up and ready for us, they are beyond human; running the length with 35k bags on their back with ease, I'm sure the sight of us must give them something to laugh at. With such good will for the cause and surprisingly friendly too, again blessed with a great team as well as group.
We carry on for a further couple of hours with brief informative stories along the way from Chachi and Marko, with continuous outstanding views the beauty is a lot to take in. After what we all realise is going to be our easiest day of the trail are really happy to get to our point of rest for that evening, yank off our walking boots, ditch our bags and chill out for 'Happy Hour' before tea. Happy Hour consisted of warm fresh popcorn, coco tea, hot chocolate and cheesy crackers..And this is all before our tea, they feed us well. We have an early night to prepare for another early start in the almost certain raining conditions, after more coco tea we retire to our tent for two before our 5:30am coco tea morning wake-up call. The porters too cutely bring us coco tea to the tent door, coco tea helps with altitude, no significant taste but a nice warm kick to get you going supposed to whiskey.
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