May 4, 2000
Day 195 Day one: Cusco and Inca Trail
We are expected at the SAS office at six am for breakfast. Before that we have stored our wrapped bikes and duffel bag in the hotel storage place, and have packed our canoe bags with sleeping bags, and clothes. We have paid an extra $40 to have our personal gear also carried by porters. That was a good idea, it let us enjoy the trail a lot more, and gives locals a job.
At the office on the main square, we meet up with the rest of our group. There are fourteen other hikers, Alex our guide and Guido the cook. We have breakfast in the office, a nice touch to let us get to know each other. There are Americans, English, two Israelis, a guy from Malaysia and us.
We get in the tourist bus and head out of town. First, a long climb out of the city, then through the sacred valley, past Urabamba, a short stop in Ollantaytambo for supplies, and on the km 82 along the railroad to Aguas Calientes. There are several other groups and lots of independent hikers there getting their gear together. In Urubamba, we pick up eight porters. They load unbelievable stack of gear on their backs, tied together with rope, a simple sling over their shoulders and haul all up rocky mountain paths wearing car-type sandles for shoes. All that for 65 soles for four days.
We cross the Urubamba river over a long bridge, and start hiking up the valley wall. After awhile, we see our first Inca ruin at Patallacta and turn off into a side valley, steady climbing. We see villages, farm fields with corn and grain and eucalyptus trees along the stream. Just afternoon we stop at a riverside picnic site where the porters have erected a fold out table and chairs.
For lunch we have soup and cut vegetable, followed by tea or coffee. Good food! After lunch the trail starts to climb a bit more serious. Through forest, past a house here and there. The trail is mostly narrow and unpaved, unlike the later part where we find Inca stonework. We hike as far as Yuncachimpa, where a few houses and some camp areas are found.
Our tents have already been pitched, nice little dome tents for two people each. The porters have also erected a dinner tent, cooking tent and a small toilet tent over a square hole they freshly dug. We get to camp just in time. The drizzle we had ever since passing Huayllabamba turns serious and it pours for awhile. We all retreat in the tents, read and write awhile.
Dinner is at seven. Good food considering they had to carry all ingredients and cooking gear up this mountain. It gets dark early, but we sit in the tent by candlelight, eat and introduce ourselves to each other.
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