Inca Trail Day 1

We met our guides, Mauro and Diane, at 6:30am and drove to Km 82, the start of the Inca Trail. We are at 2750 metres above sealevel. As we got our gear together, our porters were carrying our duffel bags. We were amazed as they had between 20-25 kilos on their backs and were running to the checkpoint. One guy even had a gas cyclinder on his shoulders!

We had our photo taken at the start with big smiles!! We walked to the first check point and got a stamp in our passports to say that we'd begun the Inca Trail (we will also get one at the end to prove we've done it!!) We crossed over the bridge and were ready to begin!

We walked gently uphill, taking the route along the river. The views were amazing (spoilt only by the fact that we could see pylons along the valley!) We climbed some steps and stopped at our first resting point. We had bananas to re-charge the batteries and fed the skins to the waste-disposal unit - the local pig, who also tried to eat Karen's bag as well!

We continued on until we overlooked Llactapata, an Inca ruin that used to the the place where they mayor lived. Mauro gave us a brief history of the Incas: They were around from the 12th til the 16th century and were eventually conquered by the Spanish. They believed in inter-breeding and eventually had a mad Inca (or king). The people of Cuzco overthrew him and replaced him with a sane person! Cuzco was seen as the centre of the Incan Empire (which covered 5 countries). They did a lot of rituals, including human sacrifice!

We carried on (mainly uphill) and Kate, Jimmy & I played the name game to pass the time. We arrived at our lunch spot - Wayllabamba (at 3000 m) - after walking 11km! The porters had set up an dining tent for us and we soon tucked in to an impressive lunch of ravoli pasta (starters), asparagus soup, trout with lemon sauce, carrots, beans and rice. We couldn't believe it! We'd been told that we'd get the best food on the Inca Trail but didn't expect this!

I was not looking forward to the last 4 km of the day - for most groups this is usually done at the start of the 2nd day but we wanted to stay one step ahead of the rest! We have to climb 800 metres in 4km (to 3800m). We began slowly (especially as the altitude was now starting to have an effect on us, despite eating cocoa sweets)! Katyo and I took the leisurely walk up with Diane admiring the view and the many waterfalls around. It took an hour and a half to arrive at the campsite at Lluchapampa (we were the last but only by about 10 minutes!)

We were given tea, which consisted of hot chocolate (with rum in it!), animal biscuits and popcorn. We then met our team of porters - there are 15 of them ranging from 18 to 50 years old! We even had a chef (Carlos) who was dressed in chef whites! They introduced themselves and then sang a Peruvian song. We then had to introduce ourselves and say where we were from. They wanted a song from us so we did the hokey kokey (including the actions), which was very funny!

Dinner managed to be even better than lunch - vegetable soup, chicken in pineapple sauce, vegetable, potatoe cake and rice, with banana flambert for desert! It began to rain so we headed to our tents and got into bed (at 8pm!) .