On the 28th, I departed for my Inca Trail trip. The people in my group are: Collette, John, Sandy, Kristen, Eric, Sharon, Sati, Ravi, Saz, Ruth, and Steve. I was the odd person out as most were either couples or friends. Our main guide is Juan, and our second guide is Alex.

We met up at the SAS office at 6am, took a bus to a breakfast spot overlooking the Sacred Valley and the Urubamba River. Later, we drove to Ollytaytambo to buy last minute supplies like water, walking sticks, etc. I should have picked up a few chocolate bars!!

We headed off to the starting point of the Inca Trail...

The first day was actually quite okay -- not too bad, but very hot. At first, it was a bit uphill, then it tapered off. We followed the river for a while, and watched a few trains go by as well.

We stopped at a set of ruins...which I don´t remember the name of! They were really neat. Juan gave us the history of the ruins. There is an alternative, lower Inca trail that goes by them as well.

We then hiked a bit to our lunch stop. The food that SAS provides is amazing! MMmmm. I felt really spoiled!

After lunch, we hiked some more, and made a pit stop at some benches. I saw Patrick (the English guy I met on the Sacred Valley tour) approaching with his group, so we chatted for a bit. Ends up he´s with a different company.

After a hike uphill, we finally got to our campout point. It was beautiful -- mountains surrounding us everywhere, with snowy mountains in the distance.