I had gone to bed with a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt and a fleece on top, and a pair to lululemon pants on the bottom. Half way thru the night I woke up with cold legs. Shot I will never get back to sleep now. I must of slept off and on because before long the porters were delivering coca tea for our 5 am wake up call. It was time to start Day 2.
Day 2 started with a steep climb consisting mostly of stairs for the first hour and then a short rest before commencing the very steep climb up to Dead Woman's Pass. We would climb for 2 1/2 hours taking rest breaks on a very regular bases. Thank goodness for the porters. The rule of the pass was you always need to make way for the porters so anytime one caught up to us we took a small break to let them pass. Even the porters needed to take a break once in a while so we found ourselves being passed by the same ones a few times throughout the morning. Our climb would see us, gaining an elevation of 1200 meters at the top of the pass, to a high of 4270m. Could we blame the elevation for how tired we were or how difficult the climb was? Regardless, upon reaching the top we felt on top of the World. Here we sat for a rest as we congratulated our hiking mates for reaching the summit.
By this time the 9 of us had divided into 3 groups. The 2 brothers, Robert and Daniel and Holly, all from England made up the fast group. Randy, Ryan (a young man from Calgary) and myself the middle group and Laurie (Toronto), Jonathon (England)and Purval(Calgary) in the slow group. At the top of the pass we would all wait until the entire team arrived before making the journey back down the mountain. We had been about 10 minutes behind the fast group and together we waited for another hour for the final members of our team to arrive at the top. What an amazing view as we looked out over the valley and across at the surrounding mountains. This had been the hardest hike of my life and the sense of accomplishment was overwhelming. We had another 2 hours ahead of us before we would rest for lunch and stop for the day. Now you would think that trekking downhill would be way easier than uphill and from the cardio and breathing perspective it was. However from a technical perspective it was just as hard and sometimes harder. You have to carefully watch every step to make sure you don't slip and fall. The decline was as steep as the climb to the top was and my neck was getting sore as I concentrated on where to place each foot. I certainly spent less time admiring the scenery than on the way up. Thank goodness for the walking poles!!
At about 2:30 we stopped for lunch and that would also be our camping spot for the evening. Demas said we needed to rest from our hard journey before starting day 3. So most of us took a well earned nap before tea. Today we got fried cheese with our tea, and it was devoured in no time flat with a request for more. Again the porters continued to amaze us. To keep us entertained between Tea and supper we played several hands of UNO. Everyone got into the game and we enjoyed lots of laughs and friendly competition. The treat with tonight's supper was a camp baked spice cake including icing. Feed, watered and exhausted it was 7:30pm and dark. Time for bed as tomorrow would again start at 5 am. Tonight I was going to ensure I wasn't cold and so I dresses in long johns and track pants. Low and behold in the middle of the night I was to warm and had to take my fleece off. Too Cold, too hot, maybe tomorrow I would get it right.
The morning of Day 3 we woke up to an amazing view of the clouds covering the mountains. This is what they must mean when they talk about the cloud forests. Day 2 was supposed to have been the toughest and then some short inclines at the beginning of Day 3 before starting our long trek down. So how could it be that we continued to climb upward all morning? While not quite as steep as Day 2, I was still finding breathing a bit of a challenge. Surely we would reach today's summit soon. As we walked along the path, the clouds continued to cover the valley and left us with a bit of an erie feeling. Literally we were walking with our heads in the clouds. Finally we reached the lunch spot, but none too soon for me as my stomach decided it didn't want to play nice anymore and was rebelling. I skipped lunch today, afraid to put anything else into my stomach and eventually it settled down.
Lunch finished, we started the trek downward with 3000 stairs. Now I am not sure there are actually 3000 stair as it felt like a lot more and I certainly wasn't going to count them. For the next 2- 3 hours we carefully climbed down the mountain. Our descent would see us drop 1000 meters in elevation. Slowly and carefully we enjoyed the view as we made our way to the next set of ruins that would overlook our campsite for Night 3. The ruins never seize to amaze me. How the Inkas built the fortresses, leveled the tresses for crops,and built the retaining walls,etc. without the use of bulldozers, or any mechanical equipment is hard to imagine. We are not sure that any of the pictures will ever do it justice.
We still had another 200 meters to descend before reaching our final resting place for the evening. But surprising enough our legs still felt strong and we weren't sporting any aches or pains. Just a strong desire to be done for the day. Apparently we were intruding on the paths of a few local llamas who blocked our final path into camp. Was it safe to pass, should we try and shoe them away? In the end we carefully walked around, stopping to take a quick picture, with no harm done to anyone or animal. Another fun adventure! Today we finished hiking at about 4:30. It had been another very long day. Time for tea and popcorn then a few more hands of UNO, while we waited for dinner.
Tonight our campsite was on the side of a terrace with little space between the tent door and the edge of the ledge. One step the wrong way and you may find yourself falling. Just enough space for a person to walk by on their way to their tent or the bathroom.
It was much warmer tonight, as we were at a lower elevation so I wasn't worried about being cold. Demas sent us to bed right after supper as we needed to get up at
4am on day 4. So to bed we went and I was ready for a good night sleep. Somewhere around 2am it started to rain and again panic set in. The trails would be treacherous in the rain, as the rocks would be so very slippery. Plus it would be darn right miserable hiking in the pouring rain. Again not sleeping I prayed the rain would stop before morning. Fortunately the rain stopped before we had to get up. So why were we up at 4am , when it was still dark and we couldn't pass through the last checkpoint until 5:30? Our porters had to pack up all the tents and supplies and be down to the train station to catch the 5am train. How they managed I will never know, since it meant they needed to be running down the trail at full speed in the dark.
We on the other hand headed to the checkpoint in the pitch dark with our headlamps on and then waited for 45 minutes for the gates to open. Once through the last checkpoint we headed upwards to the Sun Gate, hoping that the clouds would burn off before we arrived so that we could see Machu Pichu from above. Yes, I did say we were heading upward again. I thought the last day was supposed to be a short descent into Machu Pichu, so why were we climbing upward again? Climbing upward was always a combination of uphill inclines and lots of steps made from large rocks. Finally after about a hour of climbing we reached the Sun Gate, but unfortunately it was still cloudy. Oh well at least we could stop and catch our breathe before the final descent into Machu Pichu. Fifteen minute later we started to pass people climbing up to the Sun Gate from the other side. We were almost there. Then we saw Neil our Gap Adventure tour guide waiting to greet us. We had arrived! One of the 7 great wonders of the world opened up before us. The view was amazing!! Our passports would now be stamped entered and and exited the trail. Four days of intense hiking and three nights camping in the Andies, we conquered and survived the trek through the Inka trail. The emotion was overwhelming and tears ran down my face as we past through the exit gates of Machu Pichu. It was 7am in the morning, we were emotional, exhausted and for some reason very hungry. The ham and cheese sandwich we were handed when we left camp that morning was now very appealing. Randy and Ryan wanted a beer, Laurie and I a coke as we devoured our sandwiches in celebration of are arrival.
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