Up and boarding the bus at 7:30 we were anxious to get started. Four people from our tour group combined with 5 people from another Gap Adventure tour group for the 4 day trek through the mountains. Our guides Demas and Henrica would lead the way. We were to carry our day packs , while 17 porters carried our tents, food, duffel bags, sleeping backs, chairs and tables for meals and everything else they would need to make our camping adventures as comfortable as possible.
The porters were amazing. Barely 5 feet tall, they each carried packs on their backs at least 50 - 60 pounds. Often the packs looked bigger than the men themselves. They even carried propane tanks for cooking our meals. Once their packs were packed the porters would run up the path, easily passing us and all set up for our next meal prior to us reaching the designated stop for our lunch or stop for the night.
Before starting the trek, all the paperwork had to be verified and permits confirmed to passports before you could proceed onto the Inka Trail. Turns out we were 9 sleeping bags short. So our guide frantically worked at having the sleeping bags delivered to our porters. The challenge was that we couldn't start the trip until all the porters with enough bags crossed the entrance gate. So for 1 1/2 hours we sat at the border waiting to begin the trek. We were eager to get started, especially since we could see that the initial part of the hike appeared to be straight up hill. What were we in for? Finally our porters arrived, our passports stamped and we were off.
Day one was deemed the training day, with lots of gradual climbs, some flat walks and gradual declines. Spread throughout were a few really steep inclines. The challenge was finding the right pace including timing of stops to catch your breathe so you didn't burn yourself out. Eventually we found a comfortable pace and pushed up and down the mountain. Although i huffed and puffed up the mountain, my heart and lungs never hurt as bad as when we were running the Curling Club hills as part of the marathon training. Today I was thankful for every hill we ran. I only wish we had run more,
Our first stop for lunch was basically a farmers field, but by the time we arrived, the porters had a dining tent set up, with tables, chairs, table clothes and bowls of warm water to rinse our hands and faces off. Pretty impressive. Lunch started with vegetable soup, followed by a fish and rice entree. Then a 1/2 hour rest period to digest our lunch before heading off for another 2 hours of steady hiking before we would stop for the night. The last half hour was straight uphill. The stairs were killers and we had gained over 650m in elevation since the start of the trek. Did I mention it felt like we were always climbing uphill?
Finally we had reached the destination for night one and we were all ready to be done. Tea at 5, including popcorn and crackers, dinner at 6:30 and then we were all ready for bed by 7:30. Climbing into our sleeping bags we knew that day one was supposed to be the easy day and we were all exhausted. Hopefully I get a good nights sleep and stay warm.
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