Inca Trail-Day One, Part One

Ted at the start of the trail in Piscacucho.

The Inca Trail runs from the Sacred Valley to the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu. It was part of a network of trails that covered the Incan Empire, which stretched over an area from Southern Columbia to Northern Chile at it's peak before the arrival of the Spanish.

A "Happy Strawberry" has a nice view of the road as we get closer to our starting point on the trail.

We were picked up at 6:00 AM from our hostel for the 2.5 hour drive from Cuzco to Piscacuchu with a brief stop in Ollantaytambo to pick up a few provisions including bamboo walking sticks, plastic rain ponchos and coca leaves.

You must have a permit to hike the Inca Trail and the best way to obtain one is to book a guided trip through a travel company that specializes in doing so. They are all over Cuzco but they are not all alike. The government restricts the trail to 500 trekkers per day and of those 500, 300 are porters. It is suggested that you book your trip months in advance and we were lucky to go when we wanted to in late March. April and May at least were already booked.

Breakfast was our first meal just before we headed out on the trail.

A couple of adjustments for Ted's pack.

And we're off.

There are several checkpoints along the trail and you have to check in at least once per day. The porters check in separately at the start of the trail to insure that they aren't carrying more than 25 kg (about 55 lbs), one of the regulations instituted in 2001 to prevent abuse of porters and protect their health.

Our first checkpoint.

The Urubamba River, which will ultimately become the Amazon River, flows past Piscacuchu.

Just past the first checkpoint, we crossed over the Urubamba and onto the trail.

A close up of Ted, Joette & Megan crossing the bridge. Our own "Abbey Road" moment.

At about 8,500 feet in elevation, the Urubamba flows pretty rapidly.

A look back at the bridge and checkpoint.

A train passes in front of Qhanabamba, a small Inca complex.

We stopped at a village named Miscaig for a break.

Rush hour in Miscaig.

At the bridge over the Huayabamba River