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Day 1-The Inca Trail
It was an early start on Monday morning when Gilbert (Puma) picked us up from our hostel in Cuzco at 5.20am! The previous day we had hired a 50ltr bag and left our big backpacks in storage at the hostel, so armed with suncream, mossie repelant, very few clothes and our camera we set off. After we had picked up the other 11 people in our group from various hostels in Cuzco it was a 2 hours drive to the town of Ollyantaytambo where we stopped for breakfast. When we got off the bus there were groups of women tring to sell things. I got a walking stick shoved in my face several times and told it was necessary, it would only have annoyed me and probably have been chucked away half way through the trek so i didn´t bother. After breakfast it was another 45 minutes to km82, the start of the trail. Again there were women telling us that it was necessary to have a walking stick and we had to be quite firm with them to get them to leave us alone! Some people had hired extra porters to carry their belongings and there was a bit of a commotion when a German guy was told he had too much in the duffle bag. (The porters were only allowed to carry 5kg of personal things, his apparently weighed 7kg). He argued for a bit that the scales were wrong; i´m glad we didn´t have a personal porter, they had enough to carry-25kg each! Before we could begin the trail we had to get our passports stamped and hand in our entry permits. After that The Inca Trail was all ours! Bobby, our main guide said that the first day was "Inca flat". This left us with the impression that the first day was going to be nice and easy...it certainly wasn´t the hardest day but Inca flat turned out to be up, down, up, down and up and down again! Walking and 2,600m also leaves you quite breathless. Along the trail Bobby showed us lots of flauna and there were several communities that you see along the way who still live off the land. It was quite impressive! When we arrived at the camp where we were to stop and have lunch, the porters had already set up the tent, with tables and chairs and prepared the food. They all stood round and clapped as we arrived which we found quite embarrasing as they had just ran the whole way with 25kilos on their backs! Lunch was amazing, as was every meal. We had three courses for lunch and four for dinner all of which included some kind of soup and lots of hot drinks to keep us warm. The porters were also amazing, i felt they did far too much for us and at times felt uncomfortable having them run around after us so much! But they do seem to enjoy their job and they have a laugh whilst they´re doing it. After lunch we carried on trekking until we arrived at Wayllabamba where we were to camp for the night. Again the porters had arrived before us and had set up camp. There were no showers and the toilets were pretty grim-squatters!! But the scenery was great and we had a good group of people. On the first day we had climbed from 2,600m to 3,000m, we were all pretty tired and advised to go to bed early and it was an early start again the next day.
Day 2
We were woken up this morning by Gilbert at 5.30am, the cup of tea he brought was much appriciated! Breakfast was at 6am and we set off at 6.30am. The trek today was really hard and if anyone tries to tell you any different, like our guide did, don´t believe them!! It was uphill all of the way to 4,200m. It made it worse that we were at the back because we had stopped to use the toilet, and so it was more pressure to catch up with the rest of our group. The lack of oxygen can leave you feeling sick and light headed. We finally caught up with the rest of our group and climbed the rest of the way together until we reached Dead Womans Pass. The views from the top were great but we needed to sit down to catch our breath! The rest of the way was down hill to Runkurakay at 3,800m. This wasn´t particually easier as it was a strain on your knees!
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