Wakeup at 5 does not agree with me, whatever timezone I am in. It did not help that the porters provided scalding hot tea in metal cups. I tried to pick it up and proceeded to spill it all over me and my roommate Kari and our sleeping bags. Using my pants as a towel, I managed to mop up most of it before it seeped into our sleeping gear.
I gave up in terms of the bag situation. One always has the option of paying the porters an extra 100 soles or approx 40 dollars for carrying your bags. On the hardest day, with a 1200 m altitude climb and a seriously heavy pack, I thought it was worth it.
While slightly cold in the morning, hiking quickly warmed me up to the point that I was only wearing a light rainjacket. I really loved the mystique of the mist in machu picchu.
We took a lot of pictures of the same mountain, because as we changed elevation, the view changed as well. Plus on a hard day like this, it was nice to have the excuse, oh I just have to stop and take a picture.
We hiked through areas that I didn't really expect when thinking abstractly of the inca trail. Apparently there are jungles in the incan trail. Who knew?
We had a lot of uphill. The group started to separate, with the bulk of the group straggling, while myself, mary and toby pressed forward. Without my giant backpack, it wasn't nearly as bad. Still, there were a lot of steps. A lot.
I should talk about the porters. They were badass. Carrying significantly more than everyone else ( you can kinda see in their huge bags), taking less breaks, and setting up the campsite before we even got there, these men were heroes. Considering that some of them were over 60, they put us slow westerners to shame. They also ran, literally ran down the stairs where we slowly eased ourselves down every step.
More stairs. What a surprise
I told you that we took a lot of pictures of that mountain.
More stairs.
We had to search for water, because the elusive water station that the guide Ramero told us about never seemed to come. Toby and I kept asking porters how soon the water stream would come, and they answer never seemed to diminish. When we asked a porter who said that it was an hour away, as opposed to the twenty minutes away, twenty minutes ago, we searched for a stream and purified our water. Of course, the water station was right around the corner, where we then waited up for the group.
I am not going to lie; this was a hard trek. I pushed my limits, but somehow managed to keep going, even with my legs and lungs burning. I was the first from our group, with Toby and Mary close behind. Then we got to enjoy the view for a good 45 minutes as the rest of the group caught up.
Me at the top of the mountain. This is the highest up a mountain I have ever been, with Dead Womans Pass registering at 4200 m or approx 14000 feet. Again, that does not make for easy hiking.
Nearby mountain
It was really cool, a man was playing a very mournful tone on his wind flute. As the group came in, they were greeted with an awesome soundtrack.
just some perspective, see that valley that barely registers as a speck. Yeah, that is where we started from.
The rest did eventually join us, and we posed at the top of the mountain
We had another 5 hours of hiking from there, first down the stairs. Our legs were like jelly as we finally made our way into the camp site.
Sanctuary at last!!
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