Sorry for the delay, but here goes; The day before our trek we had a debriefing at the tour guide office. I knew there were a few people from my hostel going and one of them mentioned that there were going to be at least fourteen on this backpacking trek. I let a little sigh out when i heard that. I like smaller groups, it's easier to manage and get to know new people.
We show up to the meeting greeted with tea and cookies. Half of the people wearing their alpaca hats. We go over the basic logisitcs for the trek. Two days of serious hiking through Lares Valley, then half a day of hiking and a train ride to a hostel, and lastly the long anticipated Machu Picchu.
Here's a short conversation between our friend Jake and Aldo the guide.
Jake: I heard it's going to rain, how should we prepare?
Aldo: Nah, nah... it's dry season. Don't worry about it.
Jake: Well, what about snow?
Aldo: Nah, the only snow you have to worry about is the snow peaked caps, but that's above fifteen thousand feet.
Jake: Will we have to cross any rivers
Aldo: No, nothing serious.
Lake at Huilquijasa Pass
It's pitch black out. My phone alarm is going off and it's 3:00AM. We quietly get out of bed trying not to wake the other dorm mates. Changing in the dark and putting on our backpacks. We sneak out and meet up with the other hostel people doing our trek. Waiting for the bus to arrive we hear the pitter patter of rain on the plastic roof. Not looking good. We pass out on the bus for a few hours. I wake up slowly to the bus taking turns on the top of a mountain with what I think is a dirt road, I can't tell it's covered in snow. Looking even worse. I can feel Aldo slowly eating his words.
We arrived at the bottom of a valley with a few houses made of mud, straw, and corrugated steel. Things were looking good while we had breakfast, but then right after it started to rain on us. Aldo actually gave us the option of turning back and skipping part of the hike. Half the people raise their hands to go back. That wasn't enough to convince Aldo, so we trekked on. The rain started to turn into sleet. Every once and a while there would be a break in the clouds. I'd unzip my two layers of jackets and whip out my camera and try to take a few pictures here and there.
Some of the guys On the way down.
The way our group was setup was one guide was at the head and another at the tail. The porters and horsemen would go at their own pace. I have to say I was probably the worst hiker in the group. My 65 liter backpack was probably a third full. and my camera strapped to my chest. It felt like I was wearing bricks at this altitude and my feet began to move slower. It became harder to put one in front of the other. The higher I went the more frequent I would need to catch my breath. Apparently the guides would typically make more and longer stops for us to catch our breath but they wanted to book it because of the horrible weather. Lovely. The picture above is part of our descent. If you look closely, you can see two of the hikers Jake and Sam wearing their huge backpacks which to me look full and pretty damn heavy. Of course they were always in the front of the pack too. Not doing cardio in my work outs is definitely not paying off.
The porters/mules passing us. [photo cred: Step]
We passed a few more beautiful lakes on the way down. Crossed some ice cold streams. We stopped to talk to the local kids and gave them some food. In fact the guides told us to stock up on food and snacks to give away to the poor farmer kids. we all make it down to the bottom of another valley and find all these tents setup for us with a huge tent for our dining/cooking hall. Finally a place to get out of the rain. They brought us a late lunch which felt like heaven after the first day of trekking. We ascended and descended about 650 meters in only two miles. The hot tea and hot soup was amazing. Maybe because we just touched the sky and came back. We arrived early to the camp site so we took a nap after lunch. Woke up for dinner, and then slept early. End of day one.
