TUESDAY 11th
The Inca Trail.
Apparently the School teachers are up in arms about not having had a pay rise in twelve years. Their ploy was to disrupt the tourist industry.
Therefore our guide said that he would be picking us up from our hotel at 4am instead of 6am. Ugh. A 3:30 start. That was a shock to the system.
We drove through Ollyantotambo to what is called the 82km mark.
We beat the teachers planned disruption but did see evidence of large rocks that they had dispersed over the roads to disrupt traffic yesterday.
The 82km mark is where the Inca Trail begins.
I remember reading that there are a maximum of 500 people per day allowed on the trail. What I hadn't realised is that only 150 of them are actually paying tourists. The rest are guides and porters. Our group is 27 strong. Nine tourists, two guides, a chef and his assistant, one man in charge of the two potties and the tent and the rest are gophers. One potty is for #1's and the other for #2's. We somehow have to sort ourselves out by peeing before pooping. No mixing allowed!! I haven't given myself that challenge as yet. Anyway, to me that is unbelievable that it requires 18 staff to look after 11 of us. The porters bags are all weighed at various checkpoints along the way. They are allowed to carry a maximum of 25kg. Peruvian men are very short and so their packs tower at least a foot above their heads.
We are allowed to have the porters carry up to 6kg of our belongings which includes the 2kg sleeping bag which we hire.
That means that our own backpacks are weighing in at around 5 to 8 kg.
The trek begins.
Our group is ready to start.
Day 1 has been very leisurely. The walking distance is 12km which we've managed to walk in 7 hours. There are many places to stop where the guide gives us a talk mainly about the Incas. Several archaeological ruins to marvel at and stunning views of many mountains high above us. Even though we are at 3000m it is warm and green and almost tropical.
Our first Incan ruin.
We arrived at our luch stop 6km in. Firstly we were handed a cup each and given a drink of peach juice. A tent had been erected and inside was a dining table and seats with cutlery and serviettes. Incredible that they carry all this in for us. So we moved into the tent to be served lunch.
First up was garlic bread and asparagus soup. Then two baskets of fresh bread buns arrived followed by items to make a sandwich. Ham, cheese, cucumber, tomato and lovely fresh avocado spread. To finish off, fresh mint tea to aid digestion at altitude.
We were then required to have a 45 minute siesta to allow the food to settle before we continued to our overnight camp.
Meanwhile the porters struck camp and headed off to set up our tents 6km further on.
Eventually we were allowed to continue. More up hill in this half but still pretty easy going. Several stops later we arrived to see seven spacious two person tents awaiting our arrival.
The porters clapped each of us as we arrived.
Late afternoon we gathered with the porters and they introduced themselves to us and we to them. Most of them speak Quechua, the native language and a few of them speak Spanish as well.
Our group of 27 strong.
We then had the most wonderful meal.
Hot chocolate and popcorn.
A noodle soup with a chilli condiment for those that wanted it.
A main of trout, rice and broccoli.
Finished off with flambé banana and chocolate sauce with a cup of mint tea.
All cooked beautifully.
There is a trout farm in the village that we are camping at.
The tour company tries to buy as much produce as possible from the local communities.
All feeling happy and fit. In bed by 7:30. We get a wake up call at 5:30 tomorrow with a cup of Coca tea in bed. Then we climb tomorrow from our camp at 3000m to a saddle at 4200m before descending two hours to our next camping ground.
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