Support for the Peruvian People (Inca Trail - Day 1)
A comfortable train from Cusco to Machu Picchu takes ~3 hours. But that’s no
fun.
What is fun?
4 days of walking an ancient Incan pilgrimage route, battling altitude at
4200m (13.7k feet), sleeping on the ground, and rationing toilet paper.
The journey begins with a couple days spent acclimating to the elevation.
Cusco stands at 3400m (11k feet), which means feeling out of breath just
walking up a hill. And there are a lot of hills in Cusco. As the pre-hike to
my hike, I thought it necessary to “train” by trekking up to the Incan ruins
around the city. Did not disappoint. Here are the highlights of that.
And now, onto the main course.
Day 1 is relatively easy - 12.5km (8 miles) over 6 hours.
We rise before dawn for a 2 hour bus ride to Kilometer 82, the starting marker
for the trail. Nested deep in a valley in the Andes mountains, it's a bit
outside of the teeny mountain town of Ollantaytambo, I meet the rest of the
crew - the porters, cook, and guide. Make no mistake, this is glamping at its
finest with hot meals, warm tents, and someone else to carry the majority of
my sh*t. I like to think of it as economic support for the Peruvian people.
Another glimpse of how the other half lives, the path to the campsite passes
through family farms, as I hesitate to call 3 houses in a row a village. Made
of brick and mud, metal roofs, and always equipped with a DirectTV antenna,
but strangely enough no modern farming equipment. I guess I’m not the only one
that make things unnecessarily hard.
The women sold snacks, juices, or a trip to the restroom. Soap and running
water will always get me to part with coin. Orchids, cactus and fruit trees
abound, and donkeys or feet as the only modes of transportation.
I got a glimpse of the original Incan walls and explored excavated ruins,
letting my imagination run wild over what transpired in between these
labyrinth walls in the ruins of Llactapata.
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