Framedlight

Map of the Inca Trail Monday April 15th - Day 1 of the Inca Trail. We had to get up really early and crept out of our hostel to meet the bus at 4.30am. We were not in the best of health - Mairi had had a stomach upset for a few days and had spent most of the preceding day in bed. I had not slept properly for 3 nights. Naomi seemed Ok, but she was to suffer later on in the trek. The square was dark and the Llama Path porters, or chatskis as they will be referred to (an Inca term meaning runners) were on hand serving coca tea (we did not indulge as it tastes really bad, although it is supposed to be good for altitude.)   The bus drove us up in to the hills to Ollantaytambo, where we stopped for breakfast. Dawn was just appearing. The Chaskis in smart Llama Path gear Early morning Ollantaytambo We then drove along by the railway line to Km88 (2,800m - the official start of the Inca Trail. Here we met our two guides - Saul the main man who had excellent Engli...

We caught the bus up to Ollantaytambo in the Inca Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River. The Sacred Valley runs from Cusco up to Machu Picchu. The journey lasts about 2 1/2hours passing through the rather ugly town of Urubamba, named after the river. The town itself is grim but it sits under mountains and the Veronica Glacier, so we could see a snow capped peak. Urubamba was apparently, in the 70's, the home of a bohemian set and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards spent time here when Jagger was filming for Werner Herzog in Fitzcarraldo (he never did appear in it as he went on a tour with the Rolling Stones and was not able to keep to the filming schedule). Mairi had stomach problems and so when we reached Ollantaytambo we took things fairly easily. The bus stopped by the railway station where the line runs up to Agua Calientes and Machu Picchu. We walked down towards the town and the Inca site following a mountain stream The site is incredibly impressive with Inca terracing ascendi...