6 de Marzo - First day of the Machu Picchu Trek

Ah, day one. I’ll skip most of the details because so much happened each day that if I told you all I did/saw/learned this would be a very long post indeed. Day one was by far the worst day, not because it was the hottest nor hardest day but because so many awful things happened in our group. Holly, my wonderful friend from Madison, took a little tumble on the gravel road. To understand the extent of her injuries you must understand the terrain and the speed at which we were traveling. Gravel road, potholes everywhere, rain for parts of it so it became very muddy, through the mountain where vans and cars stop for nothing and go at high speeds….and just because I am so lucky, I had a bike that was not equipped with brakes (oh, there are pictures of my bruised hands from holding on for dear life). So we were rounding a corner much too fast and a bus came speeding around the time Holly was too. Well she slid very gracefully and scraped herself up good. Shortly after this, another girl from Switzerland was biking through a town and was bitten by a local dog. Two puncture wounds in her leg, but she continued on like a champ. Shortly after, as we were are all soaked and covered in mud from head to toe, the rain stopped and the hot sun was on our backs. Reto, another guy from Switzerland was attacked by a swarm of bees. Add in a few mosquito bites and the biting flies and we had ourselves a wonderful first day. We arrived at a very basic hostel where we tried to clean ourselves up a bit before some beers and our first wonderful meal.

Before I describe the rest of the days you must realize how wonderfully diverse our group was. We consisted of Leo, our Peruvian guide, 5 girls from the states, 2 people from Switzerland, 2 Israelis, and 2 Australians. These 11 people were some of the most amazing people I have met and they each have their own stories to tell. One thing we all have in common, a love for traveling. I couldn’t have asked for better companions on this trip.

Day one: Machu Picchu trail 1, gringos 0.