Inca Trail Part I
It was 5:15 AM as Peru Treks arrived at my hostel for my Inca Trail pick up. On the bus were already a few hikers who were all sleeping. We continued to pick up a few more throughout the city before we headed off to Km. 82, the start of the Inca Trail.
On the hike:
-Bill age 23 and Kyle age 22 from Chicago, recently graduated college and taking 3 months to backpack South America
-Julia age 35 from London, recently laid off of her teaching job and spending 5 months backpacking the world
-Peter age 40 and Angela age 32 from London, dating couple backpacking the world together for a year, friends of Julia
-Dan age 31 and Neil age 27 from Boston, dating couple taking a 2 month leave of absence from their jobs, backpacking through South America together
-Thor and Rega both age 30 something, friends from Iceland backpacking the world together for 4 months
-Dad age 45 with his two kids age 16 and 14, for some reason I never learned their names, from Norway, Dad took kids out of school for 1 month to backpack South America as he feels the best learning experience for his children is to travel
-Christian age 20 from Australia, on 2 month college break, backpacking South America
We were lead by a main guide who has been working for the company for 3 years and an assistant guide working for the company for 1 year. The assistant guide, Puma, took a liking to me and called me “Bicki Bicki” the entire 4 days and got on my last damn nerve. I guess the Peruvians cant pronounce the Vs.
18 Porters-these are the local Peruvians who carry nearly 50+ pounds on their back; food, propane, tents, tables, tableware, etc. etc. Not only do they carry so much weight on their back but they run the entire Inca Trail in sandals while holding onto a radio
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1 Cook-the cook made us 3 great meals a day plus tea time with fun snacks such as cookies and popcorn
Before setting off for the hike we purchased a few last minute items. Ponchos and walking sticks mostly. I went ahead and purchased two walking sticks as I knew I would need all the help I could get. Fortunately I purchased a small cheap backpack in the jungle to carry a few days worth of clothes as I heard it was very difficult to carry your huge backpacking backpack while hiking for 4 days. Most of us backpackers are semi cheap so we don’t hire the Porters for the extra $35 to carry our belongings; backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping mat.
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We all popped in a few coco leaves with some kind of chemical that actually releases the cocaine from the leaves and set off for day 1 of the trail. Day 1 is not terribly difficult but there was some up hill steep climbing. After roughly 3 hours I already had sharp shooting pain in my neck and shoulders from the backpack. It seems that since I was a kid I have always had pain in my neck and shoulders no matter what I carry on my back. I became a bit worried knowing Day 2 was the hardest day, nearly 7 hours of uphill climbing. Day 1 progressed through lunch, more hiking, and camp around 5pm. Every time we arrived at camp our tents were already set up for us, lovely. I shared a tent with Julia from London. A very sweet girl with great stories and it was nice to keep each other company.
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‘That night after a delicious meal our guides informed us we could hire a Porter from the local town for Day 2 if we felt we needed one. It took me about 2 minutes to decide I would fork out the 60 soles as I knew I would not enjoy the day carrying that backpack. They continued to scare us a bit letting us know we would literally be hiking for roughly 7 hours, each step would be up and up and up until we eventually reached the highest mark, 4200 meters. That evening I had a surprisingly great sleep but very crazy dreams. We all awoke to morning tea handed to us in our tents.
After packing up our belongings and eating pancakes for breakfast, we step foot on Day 2, the hardest day of the Inca Trail. We were all able to go at our own pace but had to stop at certain points to wait for the entire group. After 3 hours of challenging hiking we arrived at our first meeting point for an early afternoon tea time. Unfortunately there were 3 hikers in our group who were extremely slow and feeling the sickness of the high elevation. The morning had been good weather, mostly sunny with a few clouds. As tea time progressed it became overcast and started raining. As we looked outside of the tent we looked up and could see a few people hiking to the highest point, I gasped at the height and how much more we had to climb to reach the highest mark. It seemed to just get steeper and steeper. At that point I was so grateful I had hired the Porter for the day.
Tea time ended and a few of us set off a few minutes before the others. Every step seemed to be a struggle for all of us. I found myself talking to myself the entire way up. Coaching myself, telling myself I could do it, telling myself what a great experience this was and how lucky I was to be able to do such a difficult and rewarding hike. About every 3 minutes most of the hikers would stop for about 30 seconds to catch our breath. Then we had 3 more minutes of intense energy to keep going. The uphill climb seemed never ending, especially as the rain progressed. After roughly 3 hours I made it to the top. I was number 3 in my group to make it first, and that was only because I had no backpack! We stood up there for a while and admired what we had just accomplished and watched the others from way down below struggling to climb those last few hundred meters.
Off to dinner with some new girlfriends…will try and write more tomorrow. I have a special Inca Trail story to share!!!
Tags: Inca Trail
