Thanksgiving Day 2016
Day 1 on the Inca Trail.
We were picked up in Riobamba near our hotel and driven to the start of our hike on the Inca Trail near Achupallas. I should take a break here and say that our breakfast in Riobamba consisted of 2 hardboiled eggs each, still hot, cafe con leche, the best croissants outside of France, and a large bottle of water for $2.50.
We set off at about 11:30 after meeting our horseman Manuel and his three burros. We loaded his three burros down with our food, camping gear, and supplies.
Raul, our guide, led us through the valley, climbing past farms with bacas (cows), toros (bulls), cerdos (pigs), and ovejas (sheep). We saw no other people – it was just us, Raul, Manuel, the three burros, and his horse. The horse was in case we had any illness or emergency, but thankfully we only needed it to get Anika across a river on day 2.
The start of our hike was roughly 3100 meters (10,170 feet) and by the end of the day, we had climbed to 4000 meters (13,123 feet) to set up camp. We arrived at about 4:30 completely exhausted from the sun, climbing, and dirt and dust. Raul promptly told Anika to wash her legs off in the nearby laguna, which he claimed was not frio, but caliente due to el sol. Raul lies to make friends. 
We set up camp and relaxed while Raul and Manuel made our dinner. We didn’t expect much, and boy were we in for a surprise. We ate under the rainfly or shell of a 4 season tent, similar in size to the three-room car camping tents in the States. It was large enough to stand up in and got quite warm with their cooking inside of it. Our first course was a creamy chicken soup with huge pieces of chicken (like whole legs), potatoes, peas, and red peppers. We thought this soup was our dinner and we were quite pleased. When we finished we were offered fish, rice and a cucumber and tomato salad. Wow. Too much food. After dinner was our choice of hot cocoa, tea, or coffee. We finished up, read, and went to bed.
