Inka Trail Day 1
Trip Start
Oct 20, 2008
1
6
12
Trip End
Apr 13, 2009
Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Our chief guide was Ernesto a former quechua farmer who has been guiding on the Inca Trail, as well as the Lares & Salcantay treks for a number of years & is a fountain of knowledge about the history & traditions of his Inca ancestors. His enthusiasm for his job and his respect for the chaskis who each carry 28 kilos from camp to camp including all our food, tents & equipment is inspiring. His assistant guide Ronnie expertly filled in the gaps with his own insights on the trail & ensured that a smile was never far from our faces.
After the first photo opportunities at the trail head we went through the control checkpoint and started our walk for about 2-3 hours before stopping for lunch prepared by our Chaskis or porters who had gone ahead of us. We had 20 chaskis (chaski means messenger in the Incas quechua language ). After lunch, we walked on just past the village of Wayllabamba to our first camp (3000 mtrs). This first day had us walking through the rio urubamba valley. It starts at 2380 mtrs with a small climb to a platform overlooking the Incan site Llactapata where we had superb views of the sacred "Apus" or "Mountain God" Mount Veronica. Llactapata is a combination of two Quechua words. "llacta" means "town" and "pata" means "a height".
It took us approx 8 hours including plenty of stops to cover the 14 km to our first night camp. Combined with the early start & long bus journey, all were glad to tuck into a top quality dinner prepared by the Chaskis and served in our mess tent before collapsing before 8pm into our tents for a deep and welcome sleep.No Karaoke tonight!
