My Journey to Machu Picchu (Day 1)

I had to get up at 4:15am this morning because I was being picked up at 4:45am. I was still a bit upset about Kelly's goodbye but I figured that this trip was going to help me forget. I was the first to be picked up and the van picked up five other people (two of which were from Holland, more about one of them later). The other people in the van were not in my group for the trek.

We showed up at a place near the Plaza where a bigbus was waiting for us. Once I got on the bus, i saw Hassan waiving at me with an open seat next to him. Wes and Danny were a few seats back. It was really cold this morning and I was hoping that my sweater was going to be enough. As I mentioned that to Hassan, a cute girl next to us smiled at me. She was probably thinking the same thing since she did not have much on either.

I was still very tired so although Hassan and I tried to talk a bit, we both ended up sleeping the whole ride there. At around 8am, we arrived in Molleypata (our first destination and where we will start our trek). Our guide, Edwin, introduced himself and told us that we would start after breakfast. At breakfast, I got to meet the rest of our group: Hiroki and Chin (two guys from Japn, but studying in Spain), Bjorn, Stig and Peter (three guys from Danemark).

I decided to carry my backpack for the day and see how it would go for the next few days. We hiked through the village and up the mountain. There were big buses that passed us by. I asked Edwin why and he told me that other companies drove to the first camp site (how lazy...). For a good part of the trek before lunch, I talked to Edwin. I found out that he studyed tourism and has been doing this job for 3 years. He treks every week and only gets paid 20 USD a day. He aslo seemed really excited for us to go to a club in Santa Teresa.

Along the way, there were kioks that sold water, and other snacks for energy. However, these kioks knew that if anyone was going to buy something, it was because they were desperate. I found this out by asking the price for water (5 Soles!) and Snickers (6 Soles!). For the rest of the trek, the people in our group would rate how expensive a place is by the price of the Snickers.

We stopped for lunch in Sayllapata. I was surprised how good the food was. We had spaguetti with soup. During lunch, the same girl that smiled at me on the bus was sitting on another table next to us, in a different group. We caught each other looking at each other a few times. I really wanted to talk to her, probably later...

We had 45 minutes after lunch to rest some more. I sat down to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The mountains looked as if they were paintings! It was finally time to start walking again. I took of my shirt to try to get rid of my farmer tan. The sun was blazing and it was an excellent opportunity.

A few moments later, I saw the cute girl from the bus again, walking alone. Iwent to go talk with her and we ended up talking all the way to our first camp site. Her name was Emma and she lived in London. She is a journalist that quit her job to travel.

It was about 6pm when we got to the camp siteand it was getting really cold. I arrived before Hassan, Wes and Danny so I ended up playing with a local boy to pass the time. I wanted gloves, but I realized that they were not in my bag. Thank God that there was another kiosk selling mittens for 8 Soles (they matched my hat, too!).

I was really starting to freeze. The soup during supper felt so goog. Again, supper was amazing! Edwin told us during supper that if we wanted to ride the mules instead of hike tomorrow, we could rent one for 90 Soles. All of us agreed that that was the wussy way.

I knew that the night was going to be a rough cold night. We had blankets and a sleeping bag, but I realized very quickly throughout the night that it wasn't enough. The whole night was freezing. I slept only 3 hours. Hopefully, I was going to have enough energy for tomorrow...