Inca Trail Day 2

September 24th

View from the campsite on the morning of day 2.  Not bad.

The day began with a 5:30 wake up call from our guide Yawar. Shortly thereafter, coca tea was delivered outside our tents.  Coca tea is made of the leaves of the coca plant and is supposed to help the body deal with the high altitude. Its flavor was generally mild and somewhat bitter.  Within a few minutes of waking up, two bowls of warm water were placed outside of our tent for us to use to wash our hands and face. One bar of soap was provided to be shared among the three tents.  Thirty minutes after the wake up call was breakfast.  Before breakfast we needed to pack up our bags, stuff our sleeping bags into their stuff sacks and move out of our tents. Our tents would be broken down by the porters during breakfast.

Our duffel bags (black and red) are ready to be taken by the porters.  We will carry our backpacks ourselves.

In the dining tent, the table was set for breakfast and more hot beverages were waiting for us. Breakfast began with a hot porridge.  The porridge tasted like it was made with rice with a yummy spice - possibly cardamom. Toasted bread was served (unfortunately no longer hot- just like at many restaurants) with butter and jam. An omelette followed. It was excellent to be served a hot breakfast so far from civilization.  We finished breakfast just as our tent was being broken down and the porters were packing our duffel bags into their large backpacks.

Our tent being broken down.

Before we began hiking on the second day, we took a moment for the porters to introduce themselves to us (and vice versa) and give us a traditional Quechua greeting. Each porter told us his name, his age and what he was carrying.  The ages ranged from 24 to 54(!)  Our guide translated because, sadly, none of us spoke any Spanish. We could generally understand their names and ages though. After the introductions the traditional Quechua welcome was delivered with jumping, flower pedals, and hugs.

Our porters introducing themselves to us.

Our group of hikers with our porters.

Shortly after 7:00 we began hiking. The weather was cold at first but we warmed up quickly once we started hiking. I think we had been hiking less than 10 minutes before we stopped to shed layers.  The weather soon got warm and sunny. The first part of the hike was not too steep through forest along a creek. After an hour or so we stopped for a rest near another campsite that had bathrooms and a little stand selling snacks and drinks. We did not purchase anything -- we had plenty of water (boiled and cooled for us by our cook) and we were even given a snack (in addition to the bunch of Clif bars we brought ourselves).

View of the mountains above

Toilet huts at one of the campgrounds at which we stopped to rest.

Taking a rest.

As the trail climbed further, we exited the forest into alpine tundra with good views of the valley behind us. The trail surface itself was mostly "paved" with stones. The steeper sections were stone steps.  Our final stop before climbing over Dead Woman's pass was a site at which many hiking groups were having lunch. Rather than have lunch at 10:30 am and then climb over the 13000 ft pass hauling a full stomach, our group's plan was to get over the pass and descend to the campsite before having lunch. It would be a long haul but hopefully be doable.

Fueling up at the final rest stop before the 13,700' Dead Woman's Pass

 At the final rest stop before the 13,700' Dead Woman's Pass

Buying M&Ms at the last place to buy things before the end of the trail.

The site at which we stopped was a large grassy area with a great view. And a toilet. As before there were snacks and drinks for sale. This would be the last place on the trail selling stuff, so we opted to buy a bag of M&Ms and some Gatorade. The Gatorade seemed expensive at s/. 12
($4) but someone had to haul it ll the way up there. We were beyond the point on the trail where pack animals are permitted, so human porters must have been used to haul up the goods.  We were now at such a high elevation that even though it was sunny, the wind was cold and we needed jackets. We stopped for a surprisingly long time here.

View of the mountain valley.

Getting close to the top.

Getting close to the top.

The trail was sometimes flat and gradual.

and sometimes steep and uneven steps.

Looking back down the valley.

Onward to the top of the pass was quite tough going. The trail was primarily steps with brief slanted "landings" and an occasional turnoff for a rest. We could see the top of the pass up ahead beckoning us to continue. Man it looked like an awful lot more up. The trail was cut into the left hand side of the valley with a steep drop off to the right. Down in the valley we could see wildlife- goats, llamas, and sheep I believe. The view down the valley behind us continued to impress.

The air was extremely thin. We climbed quite slowly, one step at a time, and were breathing hard like we were running. Each member of our group had a unique pace or strategy. V, the fellow 30-year old from New Zealand led the way.  C found it easiest to move at a moderate pace (i.e.fast) and stop to rest frequently. This allowed his breathing to be in sync with his steps (quick breaths=quick steps).  The frequent stops afforded lots of opportunities to look at the views. A found it easiest to take a slower more measured pace with fewer stops.  One other member of our group appeared to be having more trouble and was behind us.

Getting enough oxygen was a constant battle as we were now over 13,000 feet above sea level.  That level is higher than nearly all ski areas in the US Rocky Mountains, and over 1000 feet higher than either of us had ever been before.  The cold wind helped keep us from overheating on the uphill.  Slowly and steadily we ascended to the top. The ant-like people we could see on the top of the pass gradually grew.

Almost there...

13,700' / 4200m.  Done!

almost there...

Made it to the top!

Lots of hikers at the top of Dead Woman's Pass.

At 1:00 PM we finally reached the top of Dead Woman's pass. 4200 meters. 13,780 feet. Tired legs. And quickly it got cold. Hats, sweatshirts, and windbreakers came out of our backpacks. Once our entire group made it to the top we took a group picture.

Group picture at the top.

And then it started to hail. With some raindrops mixed in. Everyone else in our group pulled out brightly-colored ponchos. We had not brought ponchos. The rain was cold on our exposed fingers.

We couldn't linger too long at the top because we still had 1600 vertical feet of descent between us and lunch (and our campsite). That's 1600 vertical feet of stone stairs going down the other side of the pass.

The hikers looked like ants as they descended the backside of Dead Woman's Pass.

The going continued to be slow as we descended. Fortunately the rain and hail soon stopped. Although easier on the quads, going downhill posed some risk to the knees and ankles. In all hiking we'd done previously, the downhill was normally at the end of the hike, and if your ankle hurt at the end of the day it wouldn't be a big deal. This descent was different- we had two more days of hiking ahead of us. Injury was not an option. Although we both took it slow on the downhill, the group member who had the most trouble on the uphill had become a speed demon.

After 1.5 hours of descent we could see our campsite in the distance. It still looked like a long way down!  Then from below we saw one of our porters walking up the trail towards us. It was unusual to see anyone at all going in the opposite direction because all hikers hike the Inca Trail in the same direction. Even more odd was to see a porter from our group.  When we met him he stopped and pulled out a thermos of tea and a bag of sandwiches for us! After hiking since 7 am with no lunch, it was quite nice to get a little bite to eat to reenergize us for the final descent to camp.

Our porter Isidro brought us tea and sandwiches!

We finally made it to camp just after 3 PM.  Lunch was served quickly. Another hot meal, with soup to start followed by a white pizza, fried quinoa (like fried rice) chicken drumsticks, and dried potatoes. Everything was yummy except the dried potatoes. They were unanimously terrible. I hope the porters enjoyed them because we left plenty on the tray. Of course hot drinks to finish. Next we would rest until dinner (not too long). Some people napped.  We opted not to sleep so as not to jeopardize our 9 pm bedtime. We just chatted and relaxed in our tent. The campsite had a gorgeous view of snow capped mountains.

Our campsite below.  The red tent on the left is ours.

Our camp.

Dinner #2: Fried quinoa, chicken drumsticks, pizza, and dried potatoes.

Nice view from our tent.

Dinner was yummy as usual. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) we were hungry for dinner not more than two hours after we finished lunch.  Dinner was quinoa soup, spaghetti with tomato sauce and yummy pan friend eggplants.

After dark the moon came out and lit up the mountains and snow capped peaks. Maybe all this hiking was worth it after all.