As expected, I woke up with huge anxiety! Every time I'm anxious about something I get a stomachache and this time it wasn't any different! I felt a huge hole in my stomach, my heart was racing and I felt like throwing up! I couldn't even eat breakfast because I was a nervous wreck about the inca trail. I tried to breathe and relax but nothing seemed to be helping!
Sam was actually a great support and had been telling me for a couple of days that I was going to be fine. That morning her excitement and cheer actually helped me a little.
At 8am we were picked up by our Inca trail tour guides, Jeiko and Elias, who seemed very nice and caring. It took 45 mins to get to km 82, where we were starting our hike, and where we met all of our porters.
We had a total of 21 porters plus 2 chefs. The porters carried all of our bags (6kg per person) plus tents, kitchen equipment, food, tables, water buckets, toilet tent, sleep mattresses, and their own belongings. To be honest I was amazed to see how much these little guys can carry!
At about 9am we started our journey in the inca trail! First, by taking a group picture!
And my own (showing some fake excitement)
Then we passed the first check point, stamped our passports, and the real adventure began!!!
We all hiked together and stopped near a cactus plant where Jeiko cut some of it and mixed it to make a red paste and put some on our faces... We were now Inca Warriors!
Here is Sam looking super cute
An hour or so after we started our hike we saw all our GAdventures porters pass us by with huge bags and we were introduced to the head chef. We applauded and thanked our porters for carrying all our things and doing such a hard job!
The hike started easy and then it got a little challenging for me, I ended up creating my own breathing technique with the walking sticks and making sure I was taking big breaths because I usually forget to breathe and get out of breathe easily which makes me panic a little and my heart starts racing.
Back in my first semester of grad school Dr. B assigned us to read Thich Nhat Hanh and I always remember one passage that says "Breathe in I calm my body; breathe out, I smile" so that was my mantra for these for days to calm my body down and remember to relax.
In addition, talking to Sam has also been very helpful; one day she said "my life, my timeline" and it really stuck with me! Not only in terms of this trip but in general... I can not compare my life to anybody else's because we all live our life with our own timeline, we do what we need at the right time and when it's right for us. I believe this saying goes hand in hand with my mom's famous "God's timing is perfect!"
For the inca trail I tweaked it a little and it was "my hike, my pace" I don't have to compete with anybody to get to the top, my only job is to make sure that I'm ok physically and that I am not pushing my self too hard because I have to keep up with the rest of the group! I really liked having Jeiko and Elias because they really encouraged us to take our time and walk at our own pace, take breaks, look at the scenery, take pictures, and TAKE IT ALL IN!!!!
Her I am in one of our stops, Llactapata, a small inca ruin.
For me this is a once in a lifetime opportunity ( next time I'm taking the freaking train) so it wouldn't be smart to exhaust myself trying to hard and forget to live the here and now and really embrace my whole experience in this magical place.
Mid day we stopped at our lunch spot and saw for the first time the dining tents and how much work the porters do for us to have a pleasant time.
Every time I travel I make sure to take my time and mingle with the people helping us out. Today I introduced myself to some of the porters and thanked the chefs for our food. I also took some pictures of them at work.
I find it very important to be thankful and appreciate for the work that they do for us. I know that for me it is very easy to do so because I can communicate in Spanish but even in Africa I made an extra effort to mingle with the locals. To be honest I really think they feel appreciated when there is at least some effort to communicate with them.
The lunch spot was in a beautiful area surrounded by mountains and the food was delish! We had soup as a starter with garlic bread and then rainbow trout and an omelette for the veggies.
The view from our lunch spot... Yeay! I made it!
We kept walking uphill after lunch and I was happy in the back hiking at my own pace. I was so lucky that Mia decided to stick with me and walk slowly and take everything in.
One of the girls in the tour got really sick with very painful cramps and mid hike I got my magnets out and put some of them... My mom would have been proud! And then gave her 2 magical charcoal pills and she felt a lot better... I love my magical first aid kit!
The Inca Trail officially starts in Km. 88 but the hike starts in km. 82 so for a long stretch we could see people living along the trail and I loved seeing this guy holding up a landline phone to get signal!
We kept hiking up and we saw a little "rancho" with people watching the Argentina- Holland game.... Even some of our porters were there enjoying the game!
At around 4:15 (6+ hours from starting time) we finally reached our camp site, which was in a beautiful location and the porters had it already all set up for all of us!
I immediately took my hiking boots off and enjoyed the view.
I partially loved seeing the mountain in front of us and a white moon rising right behind it... It was simply stunning.
After another amazing dinner we all gathered in the dinning tent for some card games and some camping fun :-)
Here we are playing Elias favorite game... Shit head!!
Oh! Here our tent potty! Only for girls AND ONLY FOR #TWO!!!!! Otherwise nature it is! Haha
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