Holy crap - We hiked the Inca Trail: Part 1

Wow. The Inca Trail. Where to start. On the morning of the first day, we, along with Clark and Jessica were picked up at our hotel by Erick, our guide, and several of our porters at 4 - yes 4- am to begin this experience of a lifetime. On the two-hour bus ride over pothole-filled, narrow hairpin curves to our starting location, we met the 3 other unsuspecting tourists in our group. Erick, our guide (more details on him later) referred to us throughout our trek as his "family." Aside from the 4 of us there was Michele -a 25 year old, single U.S. Navy nuclear chemist from Virginia who was a complicated mix of sweet, innocent youth and hardcore rebel, and J.P. and Claudia - a married French and German from Switzerland both in their early 30's. The 7 of us instantly meshed and all of our varied backgrounds and perspectives made the trek even more precious.

Before we recap the adventure, first a few words about the logistics of hiking the famed Inca Trail. There are actually numerous "Inca Trails" in the Andes Mountain of South America. We hiked what is know as the "classic" Inca Trail, which is 4 days and about 46 km (28.5 miles), and leads directly to Machu Picchu. Peru regulations require a permit to hike this Inca Trail and only 500 people (including porters and guides) are permitted on the Inca Trail per day. Because of this we booked 6 months in advance to reserve a spot, but it also results in a very uncrowded trail. It was not at all uncommon for us to see only other porters or locals (no tourists) on the trail for hours at a time.

Peru regulations also require that all persons on the Inca Trail be accompanied by a guide (no solo hiking). For our 7 person group, we had one guide, 13 porters and one cook. The porters carried our tents, sleeping bags, food (we carried only our personal effects and one half-day supply of water). It is our understanding that each porter carried about 50 lbs of weight, which is quite amazing to witness. We booked our tour through a company called Enigma (http://www.enigmaperu.com/). The porters were incredible. They would hike ahead of us so that lunch, dinner, campsites, etc. would be completely set up by the time we dragged our tired, breathless butts into camp each midday and late afternoon. The food was not your typical "camp" food either. We had some of our best meals of the entire vacation on the Inca Trail -- local soup dishes, avacado salads, Peruvian beef, rice dishes, even pancakes.


In addition to the good food, our guide rocked. Erick, who was in his early 30's, was an incredible leader and taught us so much about the Andean people and culture and the mysterious Chechua (Incans). Even more awesome though, he became our friend. We shared so many laughs and stories with him over the course of the trip, he will never be forgotton. He had such an appreciation for his heritage (he was Mestizo, half Andean and half Spanish) and his beautiful Andean Mountain home. His practice of always sharing his first sip of any drink with Pacche Mama - "mother earth" was quite inspiring. There were ruins all along the trail and Erick always sat us down for a break and "storytime" at each and every one to teach us about the archealogical excavations and studies that had been done regarding the site. It's quite amazing how little is known about the "Incas" and their culture (they had no known writings) so it was very interesting to hear about all the theories concerning their empire and culture.

We started our adventure on day one in Piskacuchu at an elevation of 8,800 ft above sea level, after having acclimated somewhat in Cusco for two days at 10,700 feet. The trailhead is located located by the Urabamba River and the local railroad (which in addition to serving as transport for the locals, carries hordes of tourists from Cusco to Macchu Picchu every day). After a breakfast of fruit, granola and coca leaf tea (helps with altitude sickness) all prepared by the porters and cook, we started out. We hiked about 15 km (9.3 miles) the first day and our first campsite, Llulluchapampa, was at a whopping 12,300 ft above sea level. The day was hard both mentally and physically. The morning was mostly rolling hills. We saw lots of locals using the trail and even saw some llamas and burros on the trail too. After lunch in Wallybamba though, we started going up, and let's just say a molehill is truly a mountain in the thin air of the Andean mountains. Our campsite was very secluded (only one other group at the site) and was very cold. We slept with our long underwear and hats and were zipped up tight in our mummy sleeping bags with only parts of our faces exposed. The porters didn't seem bothered though by the cold or their day of hard work. They played soccer for a while after dinner in a nearby field.