Early rise for the Inca Trail
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2007
1
20
118
Trip End
Jul 31, 2008
82km from Cuzco, Peru
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Our lead guide was an Andean called Ruben and he was assisted by Jose. Ruben was extremely entertaining, very enthusiastic about the Anden people and the Incas. Family, Family, Family became a familiar call to gee us up in the morning but it actually sounded like he was shouting hubbly, hubbly, hubbly..
The SAS luxury transportation to Ollanta
. he made us laugh so much.I was amazed at how the porters set up a tent for us to have lunch in, even half way through our first day of treking. They set out bowls of cold water with soap and towels beside the tent so we could wash our hands before we ate.
Our campsite on the first night was very basic (and they didnīt really improve), with a hut with french style hole in the ground toilets, no flush, no lights, lots of awful smell, and we heard wild dogs fighting in the night. Happily the porters (who proved to be fantastic at catering to our every need) brought us hot coca tea at 6 in the morming and a bowl of hot water so we could wash (and I could put my contact lenses back in - thank the lord). Feeling great we set off at 7am for day2, notoriously the hardest day of hiking, hopefully surviving Dead Womanīs Pass at a height of 4200m and passing through the valley of PACAYMAYO to second night of camping.
We were quite amazed at the level of catering that Mario and his 2 assistants managed to conjure up at 3600m, especially for us vegetarian - there were 6 out of 15. This night a very tasty minestrone style soup, followed by fabulous sweet and sour chicken, baked tomatoes, Cawliflower fritters, mixed vegetable rice (with chips!), jungle potato fritters (which I think was casava) and other vegetables
Ruben, our Andean tour leader
. Followed by Jelly. Every meal was a feast. Day 3 was mainly down! THERE ARE ABOUT 2000 STEPS (for that read very un even bolders of miscellaneous size) DESCENDING FROM PHUYUPATAMARCA TO WINAYWAYNA, SO IF YOU HAVENīT HAD KNEE PROBLEMS IN THE PAST, YOU PROBABLY WILL AFTER THIS!
My knees as we know are in perfect condition - NOT! so they were screaming most of the way - thank goodness I had the 2 hired walking sticks. Having survived the first 2 days they were certainly letting me know that I probably already have arthritis! Anyway I reached the Campsite for night 3 and at last was able to have a hot shower (similar scary water/electricity arrangement as Cuba) but who cares after 3 days without! And also a mobile phone signal. Longest time out of communication in as long as I can remember. Although it turned out that I could only receive messages not send them.
Ruben gave us a a tour around little Matchu Pitch that afternoon, a place for meditation and reflection. With 14 terraces, 14 retaining walls, 14 water falls and 14 huts, significant because of the 7 colours of the rainbow and this being a valley of many rainbows everyday.
Tomorrow would be a big day as we would get to see the sun rise over Matchu Pitch from teh sun gate, although in order to do that we will have to get up at 4am. Joy!
