Peru Pt. 6
7/22/2008
We woke up at 0600 to coca tea with honey, which i found to be a pretty tasty wake up call. We had porridge, omelets, cheese and bread for breakfast and hit the checkpoint around 0730. We walked for about an hour and gain 300m of elevation. At the first stop, i bought a Gatorade for a rather atrocious S/8. Did i mention there are shops along the Inca Trail? Of course there are! Then we hiked for about another hour and half through a sort of rain forest area. This part was mostly stairs and quite arduous. We stopped at a place called Lulluchapampa for a mini-lunch around 1030. I've never had a basic sandwich thingy taste so good...
After that, we climbed for about another hour and a half. We did manage to see some big bird, which i think the guide said was an Andean Caracara. This time it was almost all stairs and the rain forest was ending, so we were in the sun again. Fortunately, it wasn't that hot since we were getting pretty high up. Of course, that made it really easy to overexert. Nonetheless, we made it up to Dead Woman's Pass (Warmiwañuska). It's called Dead Woman's Pass because there is a peak that looks a lot like a boob. LOL boobz! And supposedly another piece looks like a nose, but i didn't see that as well. It is supposed to look like a woman lying down. Of course, the views from either side were beautiful. We were all impressed to see how far up we had climbed, since the pass was at 4215m. What a climb... k and i climbed up a little bit higher for the hell of it, but i came back down because my head was really hurting. And it was getting cold and windy. We took another family photo and had a taste of Peruvian rum with our guide. He said, "We are not alcoholics, it's just for the altitude." It tasted pretty good, and he also poured some out on the ground as an offering to Pachamama.
Eventually, we headed out around 1325. The trail for the rest of the day was pretty much straight down hill. Personally, that is the most difficult kind of hiking... My knees were hurting something fierce by the time i got to the campsite. Also, the wrapping i had put on my messed up toes rubbed a blister, but that was really the only one. I should consider myself lucky. The trip down was a bit different since i was walking down alone for most of it. k ran way ahead and everybody just sort of strung out along the trail. The views were great and it felt sort of trailblazer-y. Allow me my Indiana Jones fantasies...
I got to the campsite at Pacaymayo around 1430 and had lunch pretty soon after. Mmmm... Quinoa soup... This campsite had the luxury of a toilet bowl, but no toilet seat... Odd... k and i went watching people come in off the trail and look for hummingbirds, of which i think we saw a couple. Really, though, there was pretty much nothing to do until dinner. It got pretty cold once the sun started going down since we were still at 3600m. We went to bed comically early around 2000, after looking at the stars for a while and coming up with a few new constellations. Did i mention there is nothing to do after dark? In all today, we traveled 9km.
The trail up to Dead Woman's Pass. Note the steep.
Hey, ya'll. Let's climb some stairs through the rain forest!
More stairs, rain forest is coming to an end.
What's that? More stairs?! Awesome!
I climbed that. I am awesome. But not as awesome as the porters...
Dead Woman's Pass in the distance. It's not as close as it looks. Also, lolboob.
Coca tea at lunch. No one threatened to ruin my life for having it. I felt a bit less than secure because of that... Also, i spilled sugar everywhere. Go me!
Aww... k and I nearing the top of Dead Woman's Pass. You can kind of see where we had mini-lunch in the distance behind and below us.
A closer view of Dead Woman's Pass. You can kind of see the nose in the upper left. Also, lolboob.
k climbing up to Dead Woman's Pass. Now it is closer than it looks; you can see people standing up there watching us. And, uh, lolboob.
Family photo at Dead Woman's Pass. Yatta! You can see the trail we climbed just to the right of me.
The reward for making it to the top? A trip down! The campsite is just out of view, but there is a ruin near the middle of the picture that we will visit tomorrow.
The trail down is even steeper than the trail up...
Going down, down. You can kind of make out the campsite in the middle of the picture.
We woke up at 0600 to coca tea with honey, which i found to be a pretty tasty wake up call. We had porridge, omelets, cheese and bread for breakfast and hit the checkpoint around 0730. We walked for about an hour and gain 300m of elevation. At the first stop, i bought a Gatorade for a rather atrocious S/8. Did i mention there are shops along the Inca Trail? Of course there are! Then we hiked for about another hour and half through a sort of rain forest area. This part was mostly stairs and quite arduous. We stopped at a place called Lulluchapampa for a mini-lunch around 1030. I've never had a basic sandwich thingy taste so good...
After that, we climbed for about another hour and a half. We did manage to see some big bird, which i think the guide said was an Andean Caracara. This time it was almost all stairs and the rain forest was ending, so we were in the sun again. Fortunately, it wasn't that hot since we were getting pretty high up. Of course, that made it really easy to overexert. Nonetheless, we made it up to Dead Woman's Pass (Warmiwañuska). It's called Dead Woman's Pass because there is a peak that looks a lot like a boob. LOL boobz! And supposedly another piece looks like a nose, but i didn't see that as well. It is supposed to look like a woman lying down. Of course, the views from either side were beautiful. We were all impressed to see how far up we had climbed, since the pass was at 4215m. What a climb... k and i climbed up a little bit higher for the hell of it, but i came back down because my head was really hurting. And it was getting cold and windy. We took another family photo and had a taste of Peruvian rum with our guide. He said, "We are not alcoholics, it's just for the altitude." It tasted pretty good, and he also poured some out on the ground as an offering to Pachamama.
Eventually, we headed out around 1325. The trail for the rest of the day was pretty much straight down hill. Personally, that is the most difficult kind of hiking... My knees were hurting something fierce by the time i got to the campsite. Also, the wrapping i had put on my messed up toes rubbed a blister, but that was really the only one. I should consider myself lucky. The trip down was a bit different since i was walking down alone for most of it. k ran way ahead and everybody just sort of strung out along the trail. The views were great and it felt sort of trailblazer-y. Allow me my Indiana Jones fantasies...
I got to the campsite at Pacaymayo around 1430 and had lunch pretty soon after. Mmmm... Quinoa soup... This campsite had the luxury of a toilet bowl, but no toilet seat... Odd... k and i went watching people come in off the trail and look for hummingbirds, of which i think we saw a couple. Really, though, there was pretty much nothing to do until dinner. It got pretty cold once the sun started going down since we were still at 3600m. We went to bed comically early around 2000, after looking at the stars for a while and coming up with a few new constellations. Did i mention there is nothing to do after dark? In all today, we traveled 9km.
The trail up to Dead Woman's Pass. Note the steep.
Hey, ya'll. Let's climb some stairs through the rain forest!
More stairs, rain forest is coming to an end.
What's that? More stairs?! Awesome!
I climbed that. I am awesome. But not as awesome as the porters...
Dead Woman's Pass in the distance. It's not as close as it looks. Also, lolboob.
Coca tea at lunch. No one threatened to ruin my life for having it. I felt a bit less than secure because of that... Also, i spilled sugar everywhere. Go me!
Aww... k and I nearing the top of Dead Woman's Pass. You can kind of see where we had mini-lunch in the distance behind and below us.
A closer view of Dead Woman's Pass. You can kind of see the nose in the upper left. Also, lolboob.
k climbing up to Dead Woman's Pass. Now it is closer than it looks; you can see people standing up there watching us. And, uh, lolboob.
Family photo at Dead Woman's Pass. Yatta! You can see the trail we climbed just to the right of me.
The reward for making it to the top? A trip down! The campsite is just out of view, but there is a ruin near the middle of the picture that we will visit tomorrow.
The trail down is even steeper than the trail up...
Going down, down. You can kind of make out the campsite in the middle of the picture.