Inca Trail, Day 3
The day started with a bit more up stairs, which after the previous day should be nothing… but nobody was particularly happy about it, nonetheless. But the 3rd day should be the good one… in theory, we should be pretty used to the hiking now, and the hardest part is over, and the scenery on Day 3 is some of the best… except for the fact that most of the day is spent going down these Incan steps. It started bothering Joe pretty badly… his knee starting giving out and was having to take things rather slow. Lindsey, on the other hand, was wise enough to hire a porter for the day after nearly dieing the day before. At times she was kind of bumming about not being able to pull through the whole way, but we assured her it was for the best. She proved herself plenty, and there was no reason to overdo it and put herself in any danger through overexertion. Besides, this way she could actually enjoy herself for the day, and not struggle through it. So today was quite the shift in dynamic as she plowed ahead and skipped down parts of the trail. I had my 2 REI trekking poles, and though much more expensive than the walking sticks everyone else bought in Ollayntambo, I was sure glad I had them. Using two poles to support my weight I think helped a lot on the way up, and definitely did on the way down. Once I got in a groove, I was able to pick up quite a bit of speed cruising down the steps.
This is Dead Woman’s Pass from the backside, the little peak in the middle. It’s called so because it looks like the profile of a woman lying down, not because someone actually died there. It’s a bit easier to see in person, but if you look at the highest peak in the valley, that’s the woman’s forehead, then there’s a slight bulge at the nose, comes back down for the mouth and neck, then another slight bulge for the breast…. Do you see it? Keep trying…. it’s there…
The scenery was some of the best, though. Snow capped mountains were constantly in the distance.
There were also several ruins that we got to stop at or pass by on this day.
First those of Runkuracay
then Sayacmarca
and Phuyupatamarca
But my personal favorite of the day was Wiñaywayna. Not everyone made the trek to the ruins. Those that were feeling tired stayed at the restaurant at the top of the hill (yes, we’re getting back towards civilization now…) But Tim, Blu, Lindsey, myself, Rachel, Erin, and Michael did the extra hike. There was a lot of energy here, and you could definitely feel the awesomeness of the place.
I knew that this photo wouldn’t be able to accurately capture it, but you can try anyway… Each one of those ledges is about 6 feet high…. so count em up… You just get swallowed by how huge it is.
It was only about another 45 minutes to camp from here. We had to take an alternate route because of the landslide that happened a couple weeks prior. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to come into Machu Picchu the traditional way through the Sun Gate. Instead, from Wiñaywayna, we headed down and camped by the river. In the morning we would follow the train tracks to Machu Picchu Town (Aguas Calientes) where we could leave our gear, and then get bussed up to Machu Picchu itself. Kind of a bummer that we couldn’t do the whole route, but at least we’ll get there, anyway.
After dinner, we had a little ceremony for the porters. I don’t think I’ve elated enough about them yet. These guys are fucking phenomenal! They ranged in age from 18-47 (though he didn’t look like he could have been any older then 32!), and carried up to 22kg strapped to their backs… not with the nice and fancy comfortable backpacks that we had… but instead with the traditional Andean slings, and rope. I saw one guy with a propane tank just tied to his back, and another with a cooler sitting on a pillow, and all of it tied to him… and then these guys would just run down the trail, in sandals, with no poles, carrying all this weight, as the rest of us huffed and puffed carrying half of what they were… And after that, still made camp for us and had food ready. They were amazing. I have enormous amounts of respect for them. During the ceremony we went over again who everyone’s name’s were, and then presented them with their tips. I tipped as much as I could, and still didn’t feel as if it was enough (of course, in USD, it wasn’t much, but goes a lot further in Perú.)
Off to bed, because we’re waking up super early in the morning to finish off.
Tags: Inca Trail, Peru, ruins, South America, Travel
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