We were woken at 6am by the porters who brought us tea in bed! They also left a bowl of hot water outside the tents so that we could have a wash! Breakfast consisted of cereal and yoghurt, toast and pancakes.
We began walking at 7:30. Its not an easy start - we're only walking 3km but going from 3800m to 4250m to a place called Dead Woman's Pass (Warmiwañusca). Its pretty much straight up so Carolyn, Fionnuala, Katyo and I formed a group at the back to pace ourselves! We arrived at Dead Woman's Pass to clapping from the rest of the group. The views here were amazing (and there are no more pylons!)
As we were at the top of the mountain, the only way to go was down! But it was a long way down - to 3600m to Paqaymayo, which took us an hour and a half. The porters had been overtaking us since packing up the campsite and were running down big, wet steps. We were surprised that none of the slipped!
We had lunch at 11am, which consisted of potato and tuna starters, mushroom soup and beef and rice. It began to rain so we donned raincoats and ponchos and began walking the next bit - to an Incan message tower (called a Runkuraquy). Young boys used to carry messages across the Incan Empire by running to the next Runkuraquy and passing the message to another boy who'd run to the next tower. They used to be able to get a message from Quito to Lima in 5 days!
The original purpose of the Inca Trail was a pilgrimage so, following the traditions of the Incas, we each took a small stone from the Runkuraquy and were going to place it at our next stopping point - the Second Pass (which happened to be at the top of the mountain at 4000m!!!) We placed our rocks in a pile, wished for good weather (as it was still raining) and continued on our journey.
We walked down throught the Cloud Forest to 3880m and were on the edge of the Amazon. We passed the ruins of Sayaqmarka, that used to be used by the medicine men. We arrived at the campsite and played scrabble until tea (popcorn and biscuits). Dinner was polenta soup, spaghetti with ham & egg with a beef stew topping and desert was liquid chocolate!
Today was a very tiring day - we've done 30 of the 45 km and most of it has been uphill. I'm glad that from here on it's generally downhill!!
We began walking at 7:30. Its not an easy start - we're only walking 3km but going from 3800m to 4250m to a place called Dead Woman's Pass (Warmiwañusca). Its pretty much straight up so Carolyn, Fionnuala, Katyo and I formed a group at the back to pace ourselves! We arrived at Dead Woman's Pass to clapping from the rest of the group. The views here were amazing (and there are no more pylons!)As we were at the top of the mountain, the only way to go was down! But it was a long way down - to 3600m to Paqaymayo, which took us an hour and a half. The porters had been overtaking us since packing up the campsite and were running down big, wet steps. We were surprised that none of the slipped!
We had lunch at 11am, which consisted of potato and tuna starters, mushroom soup and beef and rice. It began to rain so we donned raincoats and ponchos and began walking the next bit - to an Incan message tower (called a Runkuraquy). Young boys used to carry messages across the Incan Empire by running to the next Runkuraquy and passing the message to another boy who'd run to the next tower. They used to be able to get a message from Quito to Lima in 5 days!
The original purpose of the Inca Trail was a pilgrimage so, following the traditions of the Incas, we each took a small stone from the Runkuraquy and were going to place it at our next stopping point - the Second Pass (which happened to be at the top of the mountain at 4000m!!!) We placed our rocks in a pile, wished for good weather (as it was still raining) and continued on our journey.
We walked down throught the Cloud Forest to 3880m and were on the edge of the Amazon. We passed the ruins of Sayaqmarka, that used to be used by the medicine men. We arrived at the campsite and played scrabble until tea (popcorn and biscuits). Dinner was polenta soup, spaghetti with ham & egg with a beef stew topping and desert was liquid chocolate!
Today was a very tiring day - we've done 30 of the 45 km and most of it has been uphill. I'm glad that from here on it's generally downhill!!
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