March 16: Inca Trail

When Michelle picked me up at the airport in Cuzco two days earlier, she explained to me that my four person group for the Inca Trail would include me and three Swedish girls. After I picked myself up off the floorboards of the car, I calmly replied something like, "Four people... that's a nice size group." A day later, me and the ladies met for the first time at the Llama Path office for our pre-trek meeting. From left to right: Anna, Johanna, Luckiest Man on the Planet, and Helen.

Having stayed up almost all night, I was less than coherent for my 6:30am pickup at the hostel. Packed into a large mini-van, me and the Swedes were joined by our guide - Flavio, our cook, and seven porters. Yes... seven porters. We drove about an hour and a half to the small town of Ollantaytambo where we had breakfast and the opportunity to purchase any last minute supplies. Pretty much every group stops here before hitting the trail, and it's nearly impossible to get even a toe out of the van without being bombarded by local merchants selling you walking sticks. Buy one. For S/. 2.50, you'll be happy you did. Around 10:30am, we reached the official starting point of the Inca Trail.

Over the past several years, as the Inca Trail's popularity among travelers reached outrageous proportions, new rules and regulations were implemented by the Peruvian government. One such rule limits the amount of weight a porter may carry to 25 kilograms (about 55 pounds). Here, at a separate checkpoint, porters from all groups weigh in before continuing on the trail. There simply isn't enough that can be said about these guys as they literally run up the mountain (often wearing old, worn out sandals) to set up camp for the hikers. I chose to carry my own pack - partly frugality, mostly honor. The girls, however, opted to pay the extra $30 for porter assistance. Somewhere in the middle of day-two, I began to question the merits of honor.

Meet Flavio, the guide. While most people sit behind a computer screen and a desk all day, wasting away the hours until it's safe to sneak out of that dreary maze of padded cubicle walls and industrial carpet, Falvio's office is the snowcapped peaks of the Andes Mountains. Whereas your payoff at the end of a long work week might be losing the tie for casual Friday, Flavio's reward is watching the sun rise over Machu Picchu. Despite the fact that we can all just go ahead and hate him for this, I'm still going to give Flavio a nice public thank-you for being a terrific guide.

When all was said and done, the first day of hiking turned out to be pretty much stress free. Passing through scenic countryside at a nice, leisurely pace, your hiking legs get a proper warm-up before the mighty beast that is day-two. Of course, the real moral of the story is that it's OK to enjoy a cerveza or two the night before you set off on the trail. Trust me... you'll be fine. Wayllabamba, our campsite on that first night, was a soft, grassy terrace with great sightlines of the surrounding mountains. Dinner was trout. Starting altitude: 8,923 feet (2,720 meters) Camp Altitude: 9,842 feet (3,000 meters) Total Distance: 6.8 miles (11 km)

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