|
|
Everyone meets at the SAS office on the Plaza de Armas as the sun rises from behind the cathedral at 6.30am for breakfast, to leave luggage that is not required and to meet the other members of the group. Our group consists of Dederick and Anneleise (who you already know), Tony and Jackie, Yoshi and Yumi, Kismet, Marcel and Andrew. After our breakfast we jump onto a small bus, meet our guide: Oscar and drive out of Cusco and into the surrounding mountains along cliff-hanging roads and round tight hairpin bends, to arrive in the main square of a small town. All the tourist buses heading for the Inca trail stop here and their buses are surrounded by porters dressed in traditionl dress (the park authorities force them to dress like this) trying to get jobs as the porters for the various agencies and various people trying to sell you walking sticks, cocoa leaves and sweets. We go for a pee - not sure when the next nature break will be and have a chat.
Back on the bus we drive off along a single lane track past houses seemingly in the middle of nowhere, stopping for mexican-standoffs with vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Our bus comes to a halt at a small village where we disembark, put on our backpacks and watch the porters strapping unfeasibly large loads onto their backs. Dederick, Anneleise, Claire and myself prepare our shared pack and hand it over to Oscar. At this point Oscar says that our combined pack weighs more than the allowed 20Kg limit and I must admit that I rise to the bait and lose it. At this point in time Oscar seems to me to be pulling a classic South American stunt - your pack's too heavey you'll have to pay more money. There's no way the pack is over 20Kg, it might be close say 16 - 18Kg, but definitely not over 20Kgs. I feel sympathy towards the porters who have to carry the stuff, but its interesting that SAS didn't weigh our pack before we set off. Anyway all that is exchanged is words, if I had to do it again I'd hire a personal porter at the trail head - nuff said.
The walking is at a medium pace through the green misty valley with the porters jogging past us with their massive loads wearing tyre sandals. Climbing slowly we take in the surrounding scenery of steep rock faces, the fast flowing river and lots of green vegetation including huge cacti. The damp air seemed to accentuate the smell of the pungent flowers. The weather is overcast with occassional rain. Towards the end of the first day's walking we start climbing up the first pass. The going is hard, the problem being that the thin air doesn't have enough oxygen to satisfy our lungs and muscles. Andrew flew into Cusco on Saturday from Maryland, USA, and is feeling the effects of altitude. We collapse into the mess tent to eat the evening meal prepared by the cook and collapse into bed at the socially unacceptable hour of 8.30pm.
|
