Inca Trail Recap Part 1

I owe you all a better entry on the inca trail. I am going to lift from my journal and try not to keep it too long :)

First things first, we booked with a tour group called Llama Path. I had a few personal recommendations to use them and I'm very pleased that we did. 'Only' 500 people (including porters etc) are allowed on the trail a day, so we had to make reservations back in January. We brought our personal belongings in a backpack and rented sleeping bags & a trekking pole each. After we arrived in Cusco, we mutually agreed to hire a full porter between the three of us ($140) because we didn't have a convenient way to carry the sleeping bags or mat. As it turned out, we each were also able to throw a couple pounds of clothing etc into our porter carried duffel to lighten our loads. Totally worth it. Only four people of 14 in our group didn't have some share of a porter, and they were not happy about it on day 2!

The evening before the trek, we met in the Llama Path office for a 'briefing' and to say hello to our 11 new friends. That night, I could barely sleep in anticipation (I found out later the average amount of sleep in the group was 3-4 hours so I wasn't the only one!)

Pick up for the beginning of the trek was at 5:00am, and I was terrified. I slept fitfully on the bus and picked at breakfast. Then as we headed out, I ran into a little hitch. You see, my Inca Trail ticket read "Katie" and my passport says "Katherine." My tour guide Miguel had to step in and argue, even yell in Spanish for a good five to ten minutes. I sat on the edge of the steps looking at my whole group across the bridge ready to go. At this point it was something completely out of my control, so I tried to keep calm. To come all this way and be turned back was not an option. By the time Miguel sauntered over casually with my passport like nothing happened, I was 100% committed to dominating the trail. All fear and nervousness was gone. Let's go!!