In contrast to yesterdays “challenge”, today is known as “the beautiful day”. Certainly the view from the campsite at the start of the day had read the memo:
Morning view
Breakfast today was toast with butter and jam, and then a kind of quesadilla which was tasty and a welcome start to the day. Unfortunately the day started with news that both Ruth and Simone were suffering from some sort of stomach issues – probably due to the altitude adjustments yesterday. Both agreed to soldier on through the day, although Simone had to have her pack carried for her at various points.
Having walked down hill for 2 hours yesterday, the last thing we wanted to see in the morning was an uphill section but that is exactly what presented us – 2 hours uphill to start the day off nicely! After 2 hours, we reached the “second pass”, which was pretty spectacular as it was bordered by two higher peaks – which we had the option to climb (and I did).
Steffi and Katie on a typical section of uphill path, being overtaken by running porters
Stunning views… again!
At the second pass
After the pass we headed down through the cloud forest to another inca remain, which the Incas kindly placed at the top of 100 steps – just incase we hadn’t had enough of going downhill to go back up hill! This remain was really impressive, with some clever mechanisms for door locking, and it acted as a great lookout point to spot the others coming down the hillside.
Steffi and I made it to the ruin first
The stairs were steep!
Amazing view!
On a ruin
Door locking
Door locking
Arty photo
We spent around 20 minutes at the ruin and then headed to another break point (during which time I spotted a beautiful butterfly visiting something dead):
Butterfly
The pathway at this point really was incredibly beautiful, passing through cloud forest and along the edge of some hills and mountains before occasionally plunging into tunnels carved right out of the rock.
Beautiful pathway
Steffi and a tunnel
Our lunch break was at the “third pass”, another peak and as it was our final lunch with the porters (who will depart before 5am tomorrow), they went all out to impress! Lunch was served buffet style, and included stuffed tomatoes, a noodle and broccoli bake and some fried rice balls which were divine if insanely filling. Everything was really yummy!
A spot of lunch
After the main food was over, the chef joined us and presented Al & Asfia with a honeymoon cake. Let me write that again. The chef baked a cake on the mountain. And decorated it. On the fricking mountain. I have no idea how you would even go about starting to bake a cake without an oven!
Honeymoon cake!
Happy Honeymooners!
This was such a sweet moment and left Al and Asfia really speechless. The rest of us were quickly speechless too, stuffing our mouths with cake! The icing tasted like bubblegum, which was a little strange, but it was such an amazing gesture! Even trying to refill our bodies with calories, we were only able to demolish half of the cake so gave the other half to our porters, who I am sure really appreciated it!
During the lunch break Israel advised us that the lunch toilet might be a little “unconventional”, since the site we had been allocated for lunch didn’t have a toilet block. Instead, we were to use a tent toilet. It was, literally, a tent with a toilet inside it. Upon enquiry, we found out that one of our porters has the cr*p job of carrying this toilet the whole length of the inca trail… including any deposits we make! I think we all took pity on him and left the solid problems till later!
After lunch Israel briefed us on the rest of the trail for the day, with the cheerful phrase that we had “only 3 hours downhill” to go! The pace was good and we stopped at more ruins on the way, so the time passed pretty quickly (and thankfully, my blisters from yesterday had all but gone!)
Arty photo from a ruin
Ruin
Guinea pig rock
There were (my notebook says) “lots and lots and lots of stairs!”… nothing was impossible, we paced ourselves well and somehow I managed to stick in the front half of the group the whole way down. After about 2 hours of downhill, we were treated to our first bout of rain since starting the trail. Ponchos out, we soldiered on, although some short bouts of thunder and lightning quickly had us cowering under an overhanging cliff for a while.
Collectively, we decided that we would take the “porter shortcut” to the next camp site, cutting off 30 minutes of trek but avoiding one of the most spectacular ruins on the trial. In the rain, the ruin is all but insivible anyway, so it wasn’t a hugely challenging decision – plus I really needed the bathroom!
I arrived at the camp site first, and the porters were still setting up the tents! They scrabbled to give me a round of applause, which whilst cute was thoroughly necessary when all I wanted was to take my poncho off and use the toilet! After a quick trip to the bathroom, I returned to the camp site and was awarded another round of applause… I never thought someone would applaud my toilet usage!
Once the others arrived, just a few minutes behind, we cracked out the camomile tea and packs of playing cards to start up some more games of Shithead. I lost one of them, which was the first time i’d been “Shithead” since we learned the game!
Quietly whilst playing cards, we passed around envelopes to fill with tips for the porters, Javier and Israel. I find that part of the process pretty awkward, but of course it’s important to reward the good service. And the service really had been amazing!
Dinner was next, with asparagus soup, mash potato, sweet potato, sauce, rice, roast potato (triple carbs today!), broccoli, mange tout, and jelly for dessert – yet another feast!
Dinner
After dinner it was time to thank our porters. They worked incredibly hard, and Al made a short presentation (with Israel translating) before handing over our envelope to the chef – he distributes the tips to the porters. The porters have to leave the camp site before 5am in order to catch the only train of the day back to their base… if they miss the train, its a 6 hour hike, which i’m sure none of them wanted. But their 5am departure time means that we had to be up at 3:30, take breakfast at 4am, and depart by 4:15, to give the porters time to pack up after we were gone! That concept didn’t appeal too much!
Thanking the porters
So, even though the day had been beautiful and we were all full of anticipation for tomorrow, it was bedtime by 7pm. It was much warmer at night, with an elevation of 2700m, which meant I was able to leave my hat, gloves, etc. packed away – a welcome change after last night! I charged my camera using my battery and prepared myself for a full day of photos tomorrow at the main event – Machu Picchu!
Adventures of a Time (zone) Lord 