We woke early to start our hike, because we were never able to start hiking on our actually first day we had some time to make up, 12 km to be exact. You have permits for specific days on the Inca trail so we couldn't just push everything back one day and start a day later, besides we actually couldn't have don't that even if it was an option as we had a plane to catch the morning after. So we just had to make it work. We arrived at the check point to start our hike at 5:30 in the morning.
Unfortunately our porters weren't able to make it to the trail head the previous night so once again, our guides had to use their charm and convince the guy at the check point to let us go ahead with the promise that our porters would be shortly behind us. They agreed to let us ahead with Eric while Andy stayed behind to make sure the porters made it. The really great thing about this situation was that we were the only ones starting the hike this early so there were literally no other people around! We had the trail 100% to ourselves.
We weren't sure how far we would make it this day, our goal was to do the whole first and second day itinerary in just this one day. So we set off at a fairly steady pace.
We then started ascending gradually to our first archeological site, the Inca town of Llactapata (Terrace Town). Our vantage point was from a flat bluff above the site so we were able to get a great view of everything. This site was built as a fort because it commands the entrance to the Cusichaca Valley. The surrounding terracing system was used during Inca times for growing maize.
From here it was suppose to be another 3-4 hours until we reach the village of Wayllabamba which would normally end the first day. Marking a total of 12 km and a 620 m ascent. We got to this point before noon, if this had been all we would have done our first day it would have been a breeze! Of course it was only the beginning for us, but we were pretty oblivious to what was coming at this point.
Our porters still hadn't caught up to us so we decided that we would just continue climbing. The next stage of the hike was way steep, and we were sure we would be pretty slow going up and the porters would catch us easily, hoping for lunch around 2.
Normally on day two you gain 1,200 meters in elevation planned in 2 stages. Which had us hiking approximately 2 more hours to our lunch place and then another 3 or 4 after that. This part of the trail is old Inca stone steps, surrounding with beautiful snow-covered peaks. But I just have to say, the Inca people seem brilliant and innovative in so many ways.. but who makes steps to climb a mountain. I'm just saying, I have done my share of hiking and it is about 1000 times more enjoyable if it is just switch backs or a path or anything really rather than stone steps!! This part of the hike, for me, got super hard!! My pack started to feel really heavy and the air started to feel super thin. It was like you would breath and breath but never feel like you were getting a satisfying breath. Up until this point both Dahlin and I hadn't felt any effects of the higher altitude, which was super fortunate as we gave ourselves less than 24 hours to acclimatise before beginning our hike, but I was definitely feeling it now. It was also a little frustrating because we had rented backpacks and they were way smaller than we had expected so we had to evenly distribute our stuff between both Dahlin and I's packs. Dahlin obviously taking the heaier items, but he could have easily handled more of my weight he just didn't have any room for it. So while I struggled to climb every single step I had to watch as him climbed with no problems at all, which always makes me a little grumpy. If it weren't for the steepness of the steps and the awkwardness that having a pack in front of him would have caused I definitely would have made him carry my load as well as his, but it just wasn't really a possibility. So we slowly made our way to the top, and I mean slowly... it seemed like snail pace as we did it but somehow we made it to Llulluchampa, where we were planning on having lunch, in less than 2 hours.
Our porters did catch up to us sometime during the steps, but they seemed super exhausted as well! The amount of stuff they carried up that mountain was ridiculous! Propane tanks, stoves, chairs, our tents and most peoples sleeping bags, clothes, and air mattresses. Plus all of our food and gear to prepare it with. At one point one of the porters had to ask Dahlin for water. We didn't know this until later but most of our porters were not regular SAS porters but just porters from other companies they had found to randomly fill in, and some of them had just finished getting down from a trek the previous day to start all over again and then they had to try and rush in front of us to get lunch ready for us. It seemed pretty cruel actually. In normal circumstances, and on our other days, I think the porters are treated pretty decent with this company, but this particular day we felt pretty bad about the whole thing.
The scenery was pretty amazing!
By the time we had lunch it started to pour and everyone was pretty exhausted. Because the majority of the rest of our hike was still steps and it would be getting dark soon we decided to call it a day and do the rest of day two tomorrow. We got to sleep at the beautiful lunch spot all by ourselves, which we didn't even know how lucky we were until day three when we started to run into other hikers.
This was also our coldest night as we were up higher so it was nice to be able to crawl into bed early. And Dahlin got really sick this night. He had a super bad headache and a fever. We weren't sure whether it was from the altitude or from being in the sun all day. Thankfully he seemed better in the morning.
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