Dec 19th
I woke up this morning at 6:45am to shower and get myself packed for the day. At 7:30am we all met downstairs and have breakfast together. It wasn’t my ideal breakfast, especially because I knew that I would need a lot of protein to get me through the long day of hiking. Breakfast consisted of a single flat pancake, mango juice, and a piece of bread with jam. Luckily I had brought peanut butter so I got at least a little protein. At 8:30am we loaded back on the bus with all of our duffel bags and we were off. We drove for about an hour and got to the starting point of the Inca Trail (kilometer 82). We had to show our paperwork and passport (we even got cool stamps- my passport is quickly filling up) and we were off, starting our hike at 10am. The first hour of the hike was great. I lead the way (believe it or not!), it was all flat and very easy. I was very excited to be keeping a good pace. The four hours following were completely horrible. We started to go up tons and tons of stairs. I quickly felt out of shape.
I have since learned that the Canadians who all know each other are part of the Canadian Army, and they are all in good shape. I wasn’t last, but stayed towards the back of the group for the remainder of the day. I huffed and puffed my way along, hating how awful I was feeling. We have already seen some really cool ruins and Mario has given us a lot of good information. At around 1pm we stopped for lunch. I was shocked to learn the porters carry literally everything besides water. Our group consists of two guides, 16 tourists and 22 porters. The porters basically run the whole time. When we arrived at the lunch stop they had set up a make shift kitchen and were busy cooking for us. One guy was responsible for carrying the propane tanks which they use to cook, another carries all of the pots and pans, another carries the tables and chairs, another carries all of the utensils and plates/cups/bowls, etc., its unbelievable! Lunch consisted of asparagus soup, veggies, and chicken, I was so hungry that everything tasted great! We hiked for about another hour and a half after lunch. During which time the porters cleaned up the lunch area and sprinted past us with all of the belongings so that they could set up our tents and sleeping bags before we got to the camp site. We arrived at the sight at 4pm. I was exhausted and happy that we were done for the day. The worst part for me is that today is supposed to be the “easy” day and tomorrow is supposed to be the most difficult! I am in trouble! I really don’t know how I’m going to make it through the day. Everyone seems to be a little scared about tomorrow, but I am especially scared since I was towards the back of the group. Let’s hope that tomorrow I am well rested and ready to go. Tomorrow is 9 kilometers straight uphill. We pass “Dead Women’s Pass” which is supposed to be awful. I hate going uphill, I am fine with the distance as long as it is straight. I carried my computer as well as a lot of electronics that I was afraid to leave in the hotel. Tomorrow I am definitely going to put more in my pack for the porter to carry. I feel kind of bad doing that, but I literally might die if I don’t. We officially met all of the porters when we got the campsite. We have 2 cooks, 6 guys carrying our backpacks and sleeping bags, was well as 4 people carrying the tents, and 10 people carrying all of the food that we will eat. Each porter is only allowed to carry 25 kilo, a law set in place by the Peruvian Government. There are several checkpoints and sometimes some of the bags need to be rearranged. I was shocked that the guys were a range of ages from 21-48 years old. Most of them had children and families back home. Almost all of them only wore sandals- which blows my mind. Our cook recently won a race the same distance and parts of the Inca trail that we could be hiking over four days. He completed the race in 3 hours and 45mins. That’s pretty astonishing because we hike at least 5 hours a day for 3 days straight and about 3 hours on day 4. We had tea and popcorn at 5pm and played cards for about an hour. At 7pm we all had dinner which was trout, rice, and veggies. I wasn’t a huge fan of the meal, but I knew I needed to eat something. We were all tired and have a long hard day ahead of us so we went to bed at 9pm.
Bye for now. Pray that I make it through tomorrow!
Love,
Katie
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