Inca Trail – Day 1

Today is the day! We officially start out Trek of the Inca Trail, suffice to say we were all rather excited by this.

BTW if you are looking for an amazing tour company for the Inca Trail then you should definitely check out Amazonas Explorer and see if you get can Jimmy as your guide. Well worth the money and you really do not want to skimp on this part, trust me it makes all the difference.

After an early start we headed towards Ollantaytambo (2 / 2.5hrs travel by bus) to investigate the town and ruins located there.

After stopping to buy the last remaining items needed before starting the trek, we split up into 2 groups. One group looked around town and  got to see some of the local housing while the other group ascended the stairs of the ruins and have photos taken and listen to the history of the area.

Back in the bus we headed to the start of the trek, where we had lunch and met our porters for the trek.

Let me just say in hindsight these guys are fantastic and we couldn’t have done the trek without them.

They cook some real mean grub, let me tell you – in fact during the whole trek we ate fantastic food prepared by the chef and his assistant.

After a quick run down and the porters weighing the bags (They are allowed to carry 25kg – 21kg for the company and 4kg for their personal items) we headed off to the Check Point. At the check point we showed our passports and tickets and then crossed the bridge and we were off.

It was approx 2pm at this stage so we walked for 3 or so hours till our first Camp site of the trek (Llactapata)

The camp site was situated 2,788m above sea level in between the valleys of Aobamba and the Salcantay.

This was next to ancient ruins and a running river, very magical.

After getting settled into our sleeping tents, we had afternoon snack and then an hour and half later dinner.

We had our day 1 debriefing and day 2 briefing just after dinner and then took to our tents for a well deserved rest.