June 28-July 1, 2009: Inca Trial, oops, I meant Inca Trail

Inca Trail Gate - KM 82, originally uploaded by Andrew & Yvette's world travel.

Part 1 of 4: June 28: Wayllabamba to Ayapato

We started the day bright and early at 5am, and promptly fell asleep on the 2 hour bus ride to KM 82 where the Inca trail starts. Our group was relatively small comprising of our guide, Ramero, Andrew and I, and Catherine, a 62 year old female. Also joining us were Llama Path’s Red Army of 7 porters and 1 cook who would be carrying our tents, sleeping bags, foam mattresses, personal effects, seats, food, propane tank, pots and pans, and everything else needed on our ‘luxury camping/trekking’ 4 day adventure to Macchu Picchu.

Today’s hike would take us to Wayllabamba and Ayapato. To enter the trail, we first registered at the registration office where our passport got a Macchu Picchu stamp! Way cool! During the first 20 minutes of the trail however, Andrew and I had déjà vu Belize as we were swarmed with mosquitoes. We quickly applied deet and while that was effective in preventing flies from landing and biting us, it didn’t prevent the buggers from hovering close and forming a wall around us. Anyhow as Ramero said (over and over), you’re on an adventure!

Anyhow, our hike today was hot but relatively easy. On the way to our lunch site at Wayllabamba we saw the first of many Inca sites: Llactapata. Andrew and I also spent most of the hike by ourselves as we outpaced Catherine and Ramero. We spent our first night camping out at Ayapato. It was the first time either of us had been camping in a long while so it was a bit of an experience reliving sleeping at tents. As I said though, this trek was ‘luxury camping’ because once we arrived at the site, the porters had set up our tents and the cook had tea and popcorn ready for us. We also had a 3 course dinner and enjoyed a lovely night surrounded by the millions of stars above.