Inca Trail Begins

At Ollantaytambo Lodge we had a good breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese, bread, panacakes, and fruit. This spread set us up for our first day of the Inca Trail.

The Beginning 

At 8am we were driven out of Ollantaytambo to the starting point and queued with the other hikers at the checkpoint. A stamp in our passport indicating that the trail had begun.

Queuing at the checkpoint

Our group was twelve-strong - four Norwegians, two other Brits, a couple of Canadians, an Australian, and a Swiss Italian. Two guides and a team of 24 - two cooks and the rest porters - accompanied us.

Porters carrying the baggage we did not have in our day packs, along with their own things, camping and cooking equipment, raced past us. Expert in the trail and terrain, they would reach the lunch spot before us in order to pitch the tents and cook up a meal.

Inca porters

The route on the first day was what the guides called "Inca flat". We finally got underway on the 11km hike at 10am, filing along the dirt and rock path, past the infamous San Pedro cactus, containing mescaline, and which is used by shamans to induce hallucinogenic states.

Altered states of cactuses

The path wound through the valley, following the Urubamba river, as we had done yesterday, and occasionally alighted on ruined settlements of the Incas.

Ruins of a civilisation

A welcome rest came with our arrival at the lunch spot. The cooks had already arrived and had prepared us a soup, as well as a simple meal of vegetables, rice and avocado, followed (of course) by mazamorra morada.

A well-earned rest

The weather had the good grace to rain only while we were under canvas, but strained to bring us all four seasons in one day, requiring us to layer up and down as we went.

There were plenty of other rest stops along the way, which weren't always required but let the heroic porters race by, carrying their 25kg load. In fact, the 42km Inca Trail is used a mountain marathon, the record holder of which came in with 3h37m. He was a trained mountain marathon runner, while second place (at 3h45m) went to a former G Adventures porter, who had no training apart from his work.

We reached the first campground at Huayllabamba around 4pm. Again, the porter team had beaten us there to set up our tents. We were given formal introductions to the whole support team, the majority of whom were farmers, supplementing income for six months of the year. Their ages ranged from 19 to 56.

Huayllabamba campsite

Shortly after arriving, we were treated to tea, with crackers and jam, as well as popcorn. This was an unexpectedly civilised aspect to the trail.

After a small break, we had dinner of rice soup, followed by mashed potato, sautéed mushrooms and vegetable rice. This was, as lunch, taken in the communal eating tent.

After dinner, darkness had fallen, and the clouds had disappeared, leaving a perfect view of the Milky Way. This signalled an early night to bed under the stars, as we would be woken tomorrow at 5am.