Porters and Final Thoughts

The porters are amazing! We had 14 people in our group and 19 porters. We were each given a green GAP dufflebag that we were allowed to put 6 kilos of stuff in. That included our sleeping bag, air mattress and whatever clothing we needed. Everything else, including snacks and water we carried on our backs in a day pack. Each porter carried 30 kilos on their backs!
That included all the tents, folding chairs, tables, our dufflebags, cooking utensils and equipment, all the food, propane tanks, and their own gear. They helped us load and unload the bus. They hiked the whole trail carry all of that.

They left after we left, and arrived before us, walking uphill or running downhill, to set up camp for us before we arrived. They boiled water for us to drink, they prepared all our food in a tent. The food was good, especially considering where and how they made it. We had trout, chicken dishes, omelets, rice, soup with every meal, porridge in the morning, no complaints.

They set out hot water in pans for us to wash our faces or feet with. They even blew up our air mattresses, because we had no air left! and deflated them the next day. Then we would leave, they'd clean up the whole camp, and race off, pass us and set up the next one. They worked hard and sweated a lot!! Without their help, there is no way that we gringos could have completed the trek. Thank you!

I asked Ali, why they have to keep moving camp. It seemed to me that if they were coming back over and over again to these camping sites, that they should be able to have semi permanent campsites, but, the government says that each site has to be cleaned and emptied after each night.

Everyday, there are 500 hundred people allowed on the trail and that includes porters.
I just realized that I haven't told you how far we hiked. So, over the four days we hiked: 11km, 13km, 16km and finally 6km for a total of 46 km of very challenging hiking.

After completing the trip, we lined up for a bus that took us, via dirt road switchbacks all the way down the mountain to small town at the base. From there we took a train back to Ollanataytambo and finally a bus back to the Prisma Hotel. We arrived at 9:00pm.

Ali had lots of great lines, but the best one was simple. He said "most people who can't complete the trek are defeated by attitude sickness, not altitude sickness". Having said that though, on average 10 people per year die on the trek from severe altitude sickness or heart attacks or maybe falling off!

There is lots more to tell or type, but that's enough for now.