Happy happy step step

December 29th, Cusco

Big day, we begin the 4 day Inca trail ending at Machu Picchu! For the uninitiated Machu Picchu was voted a wonder of the world recently and there are many ways to get there. Train or bus from Cusco... or the actual trail the Incas took starting from Km 82. To do this trek, you need to book it at least 4 months in advance as only 500 people are allowed per day including porters. We booked our trek through an agency called Uncover Latin America and had a very good experience. Everything was coordinated by Chris Mahoney and I felt like we were in good hands.

The actual trek was led by an agency called Extreme Turbulencia which is the main agency with multiple partners, Uncover Latin America being one of them. We were in a 3 people group and we were nervous the third person in our group was going to be super fit and leave us behind. Our guide was Jhonathan, a Cusco native with a great positive attitude and lots of information to share. The third person was a pretty 23 year old girl from Switzerland who was at the end of her 3 months in South America.

We were also accompanied by 6 porters to carry all the equipment which included tents, food, gas cylinder, etc. The porters are allowed to carry 28 kilos and they practically run up the hills in sandals with their huge bags. When we first saw them, all of us were shocked. They look old and some frail but oh how their looks deceive!

Day 1 started off quite nice and easy, but quite quickly became uphill. Very soon, we realised that our Swiss friend was a machine and there was no hope keeping up with her, though Bernie tried for a bit. I quite enjoyed my place at the back of the crew. There were a couple of other groups alongside but we didn't see them too much. The trail is absolutely gorgeous... Every mountain you go around, and every pass you climb over has a completely different view. Suddenly a cliff overlooking a river turns into a range of ice capped mountains and then a tropical jungle surrounded by cliffs and tall trees.

By the end of day 1, the puffing and panting got quite bad. The altitude combined with our lack of stamina began to get to us and i began to wonder if I would make it to the camp, let alone the rest of the days! We'd already taken our pills for altitude sickness, but Bernie began to have muscle cramps and began slowing down.

The last half an hour of the uphill climb was gruelling, I began chanting "happy happy step step" which was the mantra that got me through the hardest days of my Himalayan trek a couple of years previously.

When we finally reached camp, I was so relieved but also so scared, because day 2 is the "real hard day". But we forgot about our fears at the camp with amazing food and laughs. Tomorrow is another day...

Ready to take on the Inka Trail

Checking the porters IDs and bags