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Inca Trail: Day 1
We did our Inca Trail holiday with Explore! who (out of necessity as I understand it) subcontracted to a local tour company. At some point something went wrong with getting permits for the trail. The story we were told was that the local agent forgot to apply for our permits, but several other people in the group had had permits delayed, so we concluded that there had been a more general permit mix-up which was simplified for our consumption as "forgot to apply for your permits". The up-shot of all this was that instead of travelling as part of a group of ten walkers with a guide, cook and porters it was just the two of us with a guide, cook and porters, setting out a day after everyone else with the aim of catching up with them at Machu Picchu. This was a mixed blessing, we got a lot more time with our guide and didn't have to worry that we were slowing anyone down, on the other hand it felt like an awful lot of staff for just us and even though our guide as very good at leaving us alone for various stretches, or sending us off on our own to explore things, it was quite intense.
This is the team that supported us packing for the start of the walk. Our guide, Wilbert, is the man in the checked shirt. The cook is sitting on the camping stool.
Once we had shown permits and passports we were at the start of the trail.
The first day's walk was just over 12km and pretty straightforward, though the Strava trace shows us climbing steadily at the end, but we only gained about 300m overall, ending the day at about 2,900m in height. Cusco, where we had spent three days acclimatising was at 3,500m and I had had a headache for all those three days. I was fine on this stretch of the trail - which was just as well since I was down to my last four ibruprofen. The headache briefly threatened to return as we got over about 3,500m but I was actually fine for the rest of the trip.
This part of the trail was inhabited by several communities, so there were plenty of locals on the trail selling fruit, souvenirs and so on.
This is Wilbert, the guide, buying fruit for us.
There were also horses and donkeys on this stretch of the trail. I'm afraid we failed to document for posterity the most exciting moment when we were over-taken by three bolting horses being pursued by their owner. The third horse stopped fairly quickly and we left its owner trying to resettle its pack. We caught up with the other two some time later and gave them a cautious berth. The owner later passed us with all three back under control.
Towards the end of the day we enountered our first ruins on the trail.
This is Patallacta, though Wilbert used it's other name of Llacatapata.
Wilbert explained that the Inca's divided their empire into provinces and beneath them districts and beneath those, I think, divisions and he described Llacatapata as a division capital. Wikipedia does not mention this. We're pretty sure most of what Wilbert told us was true, but equally sure that quite a lot was personal interpretation, exaggeration and, in a handful of cases, outright lies uttered for dramatic effect. I'm inclined to believe this fact.
We didn't go down to Llacatapata, though the other group that had a slightly different set of campsites did visit it. Instead we went to Willkaraqay which was on the route we were taking.
According to Wilbert, Willkaray, was a barracks (again Wikipedia doesn't mention this fact, but Wikipedia's entry is very brief). You can also see three porters. These are not ours, but a fact of life on the Inca Trail is that you regularly have to stand aside to let a porter carrying a vast backpack run past you. On the last day, when there was mobile phone reception, they often did this going down steep steps while talking on their phones.
I feel I look pretty glamourous here for someone nearing the end of a 12km walk.
From Willkarakay we could just see a man made entrance in the side of the mountain opposite. Shown above courtesy of the rather impressive zoom lens in B.'s phone. Wilbert said it was the burial site for an Inca mummy.
To everyone's amazement, our campsite for the night included a building containing a bar, with sofas, draft beer and wifi. Wilbert insisted this be documented for bragging rights and indeed the other group were pleasingly jealous when we finally caught up with them at Machu Picchu. Though, at that point, they had just spent a night in a hotel, while we had walked 14km, getting up at 3:30am in order to meet them in time, so I'm not sure we came off best in the "experiencing luxury on the trail" stakes.
These were the last sofas we saw for four days.
This was the view out of our tent - though to be honest the views throughout were stunning so this wasn't, perhaps, as special as I thought it was at the time.
This is the team that supported us packing for the start of the walk. Our guide, Wilbert, is the man in the checked shirt. The cook is sitting on the camping stool.
Once we had shown permits and passports we were at the start of the trail.
The first day's walk was just over 12km and pretty straightforward, though the Strava trace shows us climbing steadily at the end, but we only gained about 300m overall, ending the day at about 2,900m in height. Cusco, where we had spent three days acclimatising was at 3,500m and I had had a headache for all those three days. I was fine on this stretch of the trail - which was just as well since I was down to my last four ibruprofen. The headache briefly threatened to return as we got over about 3,500m but I was actually fine for the rest of the trip.
This part of the trail was inhabited by several communities, so there were plenty of locals on the trail selling fruit, souvenirs and so on.
This is Wilbert, the guide, buying fruit for us.
There were also horses and donkeys on this stretch of the trail. I'm afraid we failed to document for posterity the most exciting moment when we were over-taken by three bolting horses being pursued by their owner. The third horse stopped fairly quickly and we left its owner trying to resettle its pack. We caught up with the other two some time later and gave them a cautious berth. The owner later passed us with all three back under control.
Towards the end of the day we enountered our first ruins on the trail.
This is Patallacta, though Wilbert used it's other name of Llacatapata.
Wilbert explained that the Inca's divided their empire into provinces and beneath them districts and beneath those, I think, divisions and he described Llacatapata as a division capital. Wikipedia does not mention this. We're pretty sure most of what Wilbert told us was true, but equally sure that quite a lot was personal interpretation, exaggeration and, in a handful of cases, outright lies uttered for dramatic effect. I'm inclined to believe this fact.
We didn't go down to Llacatapata, though the other group that had a slightly different set of campsites did visit it. Instead we went to Willkaraqay which was on the route we were taking.
According to Wilbert, Willkaray, was a barracks (again Wikipedia doesn't mention this fact, but Wikipedia's entry is very brief). You can also see three porters. These are not ours, but a fact of life on the Inca Trail is that you regularly have to stand aside to let a porter carrying a vast backpack run past you. On the last day, when there was mobile phone reception, they often did this going down steep steps while talking on their phones.
I feel I look pretty glamourous here for someone nearing the end of a 12km walk.
From Willkarakay we could just see a man made entrance in the side of the mountain opposite. Shown above courtesy of the rather impressive zoom lens in B.'s phone. Wilbert said it was the burial site for an Inca mummy.
To everyone's amazement, our campsite for the night included a building containing a bar, with sofas, draft beer and wifi. Wilbert insisted this be documented for bragging rights and indeed the other group were pleasingly jealous when we finally caught up with them at Machu Picchu. Though, at that point, they had just spent a night in a hotel, while we had walked 14km, getting up at 3:30am in order to meet them in time, so I'm not sure we came off best in the "experiencing luxury on the trail" stakes.
These were the last sofas we saw for four days.
This was the view out of our tent - though to be honest the views throughout were stunning so this wasn't, perhaps, as special as I thought it was at the time.
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