Day 1 of the Inca Trail hike is known as the “training day” for Day 2. Day 2 is considered the hardest day of the 4 day hike. It’s also where you will go to the highest point during the hike, which is the Dead Woman’s Pass.
Early morning start
It was ten people in our group in total. Our guides first picked eight of us up from our airbnb, around 4:30am. Then picked up two members from their hotel. Once all the members of our group were picked up, we drove for about 90mins, and stopped at “Ollantaytambo Restaurant” for breakfast. On the table were pancakes, a fruit platter, a ham & cheese platter, bread, avocado, cereal, milk, and different kinds of juice.
After a great breakfast, we loaded back into the car and drove to the trailhead. We arrived around 8am, where we met our porters, and chef. While the porters were weighing our duffle bags and getting ready to head on the Inca Trail, I setup my walking poles and used the restroom. There’s also a shop nearby that sells snacks, drinks, hats, and more.
When I returned to my group, they were getting ready to head to the checkpoint. Our guide put us in a line in alphabetical order, to show our passports at the checkpoint. After everyone showed their passports, we began our trek on the Inca Trail. It was so exciting… our adventure was finally beginning.
Let the adventure begin
The first 45mins of the hike was pretty easy, it was mainly a flat, uphill hike. It was great for sightseeing and taking pictures & videos. Everyone was speaking and laughing, it was a great start to our hike to Machu Picchu. I even told my boyfriend how much I was enjoying myself and how we need to do things like that more often. Uh… well… I completely changed my mind about 4 hours later, but we’ll get there in a few.
We stopped for about 20mins, at a grassy area with lounge chairs, a restroom, and a small shop. Some members of the group relaxed and even slept on the lounge chairs, and some, including myself, took photos of the scenery. I also had a strawberry icee, and refreshing is an understatement.
Losing two group members
The last 30mins to the first Inca site, Patallaca, is where it began to get a little challenging for me. We had to walk up a lot of high rocky steps. I began breathing hard, using my walking poles, and taking short breaks. This was actually the first time I felt like I needed to use my walking poles. It took me some time, but I finally made it up the steps and was super proud of myself. While waiting for some members of my group to make it up the steps, I relaxed and embraced all of the beauty around me.
One of my group members struggled making it up the steps due to the altitude and decided he could no longer continue the hike. Unfortunately, we had to leave the Inca site without him, but one of our guides stayed back with him. About 30mins later, another member could no longer continue, due to the altitude as well. The rest of us were really concerned about them, but we had to keep pushing, we still had a 2 hour hike left until our lunch break.
When someone can no longer continue the hike, a porter carrying their belongings and a guide has to take them back down the Inca Trail. They will stay at a hotel and wait until day 4 of the Inca Trail hike to board the train to Machu Picchu. That’s where they will meet their group, so everyone will be together again for photos.
Lunchtime
The rest of the group successfully made it to lunch, and was rewarded with a lot of food. I read other posts regarding how much food they received during the Inca Trail hike, so I was aware. But I was still pretty shocked to see so much food on the table. Definitely knowing the porters carried everything and the chef had to hike and still had energy to cook all of the food.
After eating, I was full, tired, and hot. Since I was one of the first people to finish eating, I decided to lay in the grass, on my coat. It was really hot, so I picked a nice spot under a tree. A dog in the area came by and laid out by my coat, I guess we both had a long day.
Hiking at night with no tour guide
Both of our guides had to eventually leave us during the second part of our hike, due to the two people having to drop out. But before leaving us, one of our guides went over the map with us and told us exactly what we had to do, and where we had to go. We then hiked for about two hours without a guide, and about 30mins of that hike was at night. Good thing we all had headlamps and flash lights. My Victoper rechargeable headlamp was amazing and actually made me feel a lot more comfortable. I highly recommend it.
When it started turning dark, I think most of us started to feel impatient because it felt like it was taking forever to get to camp. To make things worse, I started getting a headache. That made me really nervous because I didn’t want it to turn into a migraine. Hiking at night with a migraine, that outcome wasn’t looking good to me. I did have Excedrin with me but didn’t feel comfortable going through my bag at night and possibly losing something. So I continued pushing through, taking my time.
We all were determined to make it to the campsite.
First campsite
After finally reaching the campsite, we found our duffle bags and tents. My sister and I shared a tent, so we put our duffle bags and backpacks in our tent. After about 15 minutes of getting ourselves situated, it was tea time. During tea time they served tea, popcorn and other small snacks. Then about 30 minutes after tea time, dinner was served.
During dinner everyone were speaking about the hike, how they felt, and about losing two people already. I was excited about how much food was served, they even had a variety of vegan options.
After dinner one of our guides updated us on the two guys that dropped out. He also stated that if anyone else wants to drop out to please let him know in the morning. I was actually contemplating if I could make it through day two, since night one I got a headache. Day 1 of the Inca Trail hike is considered easy/moderate and day 2 is supposed to be much harder and longer. So I was pretty nervous. Even though I was contemplating it, I decided to wait until the morning to see how I felt.
The campsite had a restroom but no toilet paper or showers. So before I went to bed, I brought my baby wipes with me to use the restroom. Then, I went to my tent and wiped off my entire body in the tent. Most of us wiped down with baby wipes because there were no showers. I then put on my pajamas and went inside of my sleeping bag.
Day 1 of the Inca Trail hike was a success.
For information about booking the hike, how to prepare for the hike, and more, check out the link below:
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