Trek to Ingapirca: 1 - Preparation and Arrival

We spent the first night in Alausi, a small town which the train over the "Nariz del Diablo" stops at. We all wanted to arrive in on Saturday afternoon, Raz and Matthieu from Quito, Ioana and I from Riobamba so we would be able to leave early on Sunday.



The weather was extremely foggy but not too cold. That should have been some kind of warning to us...



Raz and Matthieu managed to get there late on Saturday and even though we had to find something to replace Raz's non-existant sleeping bag on Sunday morning (!), we managed to get underway by truck around 9am.



Winding our way up the mountains: the start of the actual walking was at Achupallas, which lies at 3300m.



Great views from the truck, though we did get jolted around quite a bit.



Even the weather seemed to have cleared up somewhat for us



Matthieu, our backpacks, the tents, mattresses, cooking gear, burner and so on.



After the chilly ride in the back, the sun was out at we hat to spent 10 minutes re-packing jackets.



Raz looking a little beat, but I think I just caught him at an unfortunate time



Backpack on the back with one of the tents on top of it, daypack at the front. You could say I was weighed down.



Before-shot with the way back to Achupallas to the left.



We stopped just 30 minutes out of Achupallas to hire a donkey (burro) and driver, because Ioana was feeling a bit weak. What looks like a block of coke was in fact panela - pure glucose wrapped in leaves. The only thing that kept us going, as it turned out.



Nice man who started talking to us when we had a rest and got us the burro, driver and panela, good tips on the path and just plain friendly and helpful.



I was quite happy to give up my backpack as a counterweight for Ioana's on the burro's back. Our Donkey-man Ricardo on the right.

And that was the time we really started the trek. Everyone was rested, everything was prepared (so we thought) and the guys at least were chafing at the bit after all the waiting.