We were supposed to leave Cusco today at 5:30am to begin our trek. However, we got around to leave and ended up waiting for another hour because our bus driver got in a wreck coming to pick us up… not a good sign!
Anyways, we finally left around 6:30am and had the opportunity to meet our trekking companions. Hilbert and Edison were our Peruvian guides, and they were joined by Eric and Sarah (from Pittsburg); Leah, Doug, and Alex (from Canada); David and Ray (from Sydney, Australia); Marco and Varna (from Germany and Italy); and my personal favorite, Jenny (from Australia originally, now living in Venezuela).
We embarked our trek at kilometer 82, which is located in the town of Ollantaytambo. We crossed the river, took many photos, and started our trek with clean clothes and good health.
Today’s trek was pretty mild, though many people were sick due to the altitude. Ginger had a throbbing headache and Eric and Sarah struggled to climb even the smallest of inclines. It was very obvious there would be trouble with altitude sickness among the group and eventually Eric started vomiting and had to be carried via horseback to the first camping site. Ginger was a complete champ and kept up with me at a pretty good pace even though she was not feeling well. Alex, the 16 year old son of Doug and Leah, pretty much ran up the mountain and made the rest of us look like panzies. The Australians, David and Ray, proved their hiking ability and kept a click very similar to Alex. I was very “middle of the pack” and appreciated not looking too out-of-shape even though I was winded pretty much the entire day.
We finally reached camp fairly late in the day (around 5:30 or so) and settled in for the night. I think at this point we had hiked around 14 kilometers in 6 hours. Eric was still vomiting at this point and we were all getting worried about his ability to climb the mountain and survive day 2, the infamous “crier” of a day ahead.
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