first day started early (as i thought at the time) .. they were gonna pick me up between 5:20 and 5:40.. i got downstairs at 5:18 and managed to even eat breakfast before they arrived to pick me up. i managed to pack all the needed clothes and things into my little pack-pack. last night i also picked up the sleeping bag from the office of the tour provider so that was attached to my bag as well... so my bag must have weighed about 12kg or so (clothing for 4 days + minimal medical things + documents + 2l of water + sleeping bag + sleeping mattress). the bus picked up all the other travelers from all over cusco as well.. it took about 1h to do that and our group had 15 people in it:
- a young couple from scotland
- a young couple from UK
- 2 girls from autralia
- 4 people from seattle.. older couple with their daughter + her husband
- 2 girls from seattle
- couple from Netherlands (i think that is the proper name for Holland :-P )
- and me :)
our tour guide was Victor and an assistant tour guide was William - both very nice and friendly.
bus left about 7 i think to head out to KM82 where the trail starts... we also stopped in one little town.. perhaps its name was Ollantaytambo :) can´t remember for sure... there we had breakfast and then moved on. on the way the local porters were picked up as well so the bus was full by now.
we started the trail from KM82 at 10am, the altitude was 2600m. when i first got my back bag on i thought i won´t be able to carry it for more than 20 minutes :) ... but after some time i could not even feel the weight anymore. most people had hired personal porters to carry their bags. at the start of the trail we all passed a check-point where they checked our tickets and passports.
this was a short and easy day :) we had to hike only some 12km or so and the altitude did not differ too much. there was one difficult uphill staircase which took more than 10 minutes to climb, but it was not too bad. our guide then announced that tomorrow we have about 5 hours of this kind of uphill :) and then there was very loud cry of NOOO from 15 people :D on the way we made some stops and our guide talked about the history and give some insight to Inca culture... he had lots of knowledge on the matter and was sharing it with us along the way. we got very lucky with our guide. first day the scenery was beautiful and there were some ruins we stopped at. trail was mostly flat with some up and downhill.
after some hours of walking we had lunch. first of all the lunch took place in a tent.. with a long table and chairs! you were able to pretty much walk around in the tent. before entering the tent there were small bowls with water and soap for each one of us to wash our hands. then the table in the tent was all nicely set with metal spoons/forks/knives and napkins. unbelievable. it was soo nice... and were were in the mountains - in the middle of nowhere.. away from civilization.
now eating - first arrived a tiny plate with delicious salad.. i thought well.. maybe we will get a cup of tea as well.. that would be nice. the salad was very good.. then the plates were collected... and they handed out big bowls of soup... "oh that is great" we thought.. so we ate the delicious soup gladly... and then.. then the main meal arrived :) and the food.. it was good! i haven´t had that good food even in the restaurants here! we were all sooo full after the meal and we still had some 2-3 hours to go :)
we arrived at the camp in Wayllabamba around 5pm i think. the altitude was 3100m. all the tents were set up and I got my very own tent :) that was nice :D changed to dry clothes and we had a nice evening chat with other people in the group. dinner was served at 6:30.. dinner was amazing again.. with excellent food (again many things - soup/main meal + desert)... everybody was very pleased with the food :D
then to bed :D .. it gets very cold at night but the rental sleeping bag is nice and warm so I had a good sleep.. until.. until the rooster started to "sing" or rather scream at 3:30 am.. and i was up :(
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