Day 3 (May 16)

On this morning we were able to eat and then head off in a bus to the airport. Without belabouring the drive, it only involved a rolled over tour bus, driving down the wrong lane of a narrow twisty road down the sea-wall, and foggy conditions with a defective windshield defogger.

Safely at the airport we attempted to check in at the LAN Peru desk when we discovered that of our group of 14, 7 of us (myself included) had no ticket for the flight to Cusco. We were short on time for when our flight was to depart, and our guide from the agency was of limited help. Our guide was able to get in touch with someone from the GAP office who arrived in the nick of time before the 7 of us purchased our own tickets for a flight later in the afternoon. It turned out they were able to get us seats on the next flight to Cusco, about an hour later.

Disaster averted, we all successfully cleared security and made it to the proper gate on time. The flight to Cusco is brief, only an hour or so, and beats taking a bus which takes several days to make the drive. Landing in Cusco is an adventure as the airport is located at an elevation over 10,000 feet and is in the midst of peaks taller than 14,000 feet. Needless to say, the approach is involved, and you spend a great deal of time looking up at mountain peaks as the plane is twisting through the valley.

The trip from the airport to the hotel was brief, and we were soon able to settle in to our hotel room before heading out into town to explore.  It was only a few blocks from the hotel (The Prisma) to the main square in town the Plaza de Armas. Cusco was the capital of the Inca empire when the Spaniards conquered them. Many of the buildings in town have Inca stone foundations with Spanish structures built on top of them. An interesting, albeit touristy, town.

Visiting the square it soon became apparent that most of the locals were talented artists or photographers, seeing as so many young men were present selling paintings or postcards. They were also well educated, as most claimed to be there on a day off from school. They must also be very closely related, because a great many of the pictures featured their family, which looked suspiciously similar one vendor to another.

Those that weren't graphically gifted were able to find 'employ' by selling various local crafts like whistles, dolls or other various trinkets. Don't worry about the locals without any talents, as they were able to find an occupation by standing outside of the many restaurants, holding menus, and chasing down tourists with offers of 'free Pisco sours' (It also became apparent that when our group walked together through the area that we were a very valuable target, as we would have a half dozen or more of them harangue us as we wandered by).

That evening our tour group met again to discuss the requirements of the Inca Trail and meet our Trail guide, Victor. Each of us was given a small duffle bag while Victor did his best to alternately frighten and reassure us about the rigors of the trail. Six kilos of gear could be packed into the duffle which would be carried, along with our food and tents, by the local porters. Anything that would not fit into the duffle would have to be packed on my back.

I ended up with about 12 kg (they provided a scale) of gear to be carried on my back. In hindsight, I packed more than i needed, and carried one of the heaviest loads of my group.