Day 3 of the Inca Trail -- as SAS states...unforgettable, and that it was...

It started off by going up steep steps up to an Incan ruin. I had stopped, and stepped aside as I was tired, and some biotch told me to get out of the way. I felt like pushing her off the cliff...hehe. I mean, and excuse me is good enough, don´t be a biotch about it!! Anyways, I ran into Doug and Wendy from the other SAS group as well.

The ruins were interesting. Juan had given us a brief tour. Most of the ruins had been restored. From there, we walked up more Incan steps to a pass. In the middle of that, it started raining, so everyone got their raingear out. I only had my ´waterproof´Columbia jacket. yeah.

It was a tough climb to the pass. It started raining harder. After the pass were Incan steps down -- very trecherous when slick! I walked down for a while with Doug. As we were walking down, a porter comes down carrying a girl -- probably about 16 years old! I didn´t see any leg injuries, so I was a bit curious.

We walked down to another set of ruins. The rain started coming down a lot harder. I walked around for a few minutes. Going up to the ruins on the stairs was challenging. Coming down the same set of stairs was trecherous!

After the ruins, it was a long, long hike to our lunch stop. I was soaking wet, and all my stuff was wet as well, thus adding weight to my gear.

A lot of the hike was uphill. At points, I had to stop, think, ´why am I doing this to myself?´ and go on. Gawd, it was awful! I lost my group, so I did a lot of hiking by myself.

We got to the flushing toilets, and there was a SAS tent. I was so frikkin´hungry!! But doh, it was the other groups. Ours was an hour or so more of hiking. So hungry! It rained harder, I walked on, pausing, questioning, walking on.

There were a lot of uphills on the Incan rock paths, steep cliff sides, a daunting and dark tunnel as well. I just kept on thinking about lunch...

I finally got to the lunch site. It was cold and rainy. I put my pack in a tent with everyone else´s. I went into the lunch tent. Everyone was wet and cold. I was just miserable, but excited to be there! Ahh..finally, a good lunch!

After lunch, it was a wet hike for a few hours to the campsite. Luckily, the rain had let up, and the sun came out. Finally!

We came to a Y, were we could take a right or left. The right was the shortcut, so I took that because I wanted to get to camp and put on some dry clothes...We passed by points where we could see Wiñay Wayna, a terraced Incan ruin.

Steve, Ruth, and I were the first to the campsite. Ah, finally..I dig through my bags, and everything is damp, or soaked!!! The only thing I could wear was the sweater I bought in Cusco, as it was the driest.

The scenary at the campsite was very amazing. We were at the top -- campsite #1. Down below us was the valley, and afar were mountains, and snowy mountains.