day 4 - the beginning of the Inca Trail

The start of the Inca trail. This was the day I was terrified of for weeks. 

We woke up very early and took a bus to the town of Ollantaytambo for a hearty buffet breakfast. This is where we first got to know our group. We had an excellent mix of people, all of which were friendly and wanted to get to know everyone else. We had 3 other people from the US, 1 from Portugal, 1 Aussie/Brit, 1 Aussie, 2 from Holland, and 2 from Sweden. We were accompanied by our two guides, 18 porters, and 2 cooks. 

Since I was the slow poke in the group, I got to talk to some of the porters and practiced my spanish with them frequently. They were always willing to talk soccer through me to Snoopy, they loved hearing a genuine thank you for their hard work, and they loved hearing about how beautiful their country is. 

Urubamba River

Urubamba River, crossing the bridge to begin the trail

Urubamba River - from a different point near the start of the trek

Walking through the mountains always left me breathless (or maybe it was the altitude?!) - the Andes mountains are both gorgeous and ominous at the same time. 

Through the first couple of days on the trek, we were walking with people who still live in the lands passed from generation to generation. We learned from our guides that even though this land is protected, the families who have been there are permitted to stay.

I got to this site kind of late, so I am not sure what the name of it was. We could only see it from a distance. 

random grazing horse. 

Lindsay taking pictures of baby animals? No way. Unheard of. 

After about 4-5 hours of hiking, we reached our campsite where we would sleep for the night. Here, we could hear roosters crowing and cows mewing. We were hoping to get a glimpse of the stars, but it was a cloudy night. 

A church in the distance. 

This was only the beginning and we had a long, long way to go.