Machu Pichu: Day 2

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As there is no such thing as sleeping in on the Inca Trail (that would put us behind schedule, or, on Chilean time, as Raul called it), we were up early again on Day 2. This is the hardest day of the trail and we had to be ready for it. As I (Megan) am a total wimp, I decided to pay a porter to carry my bag for this day as we had to climb (approx - can't remember exact numbers) 800m uphill, go 600m downhill, another 200m uphill and finally another 200m down to get to our camp, I knew that I would fare better that way. As it turns out, I probably could have done it with the bag, but it was far more enjoyable for both me and my bad knee not to have that extra weight, especially on the downhills.
The first part, the major uphill, which was estimated to take 4 hours, actually took Kara and I about 3 going at a steady pace. We therefore reached dead-woman’s pass around 11am. 4200m above sea-level, this is the highest point of the Inca Trail. It is called “dead-woman’s pass” because at the top there is a hill that looks oddly like a woman’s breast sticking into the air. Of course, as we reached the summit, the 9 Aussies were already ready to climb to the “nipple” (an option that Kara and I chose to pass on). Because the pass was still wet with rain, however, it was interesting to watch the Aussies easily scale the hill and then come slipping and sliding their way back down the other side! After a good, triumphant rest at the top of the hill, we had some walking downhill to do. It was here, that Pacha Mama (Mother Nature) decided that she wasn’t happy with us and slowly began to rain. At first it wasn’t so bad - the red ponchos came out just before lunch and it looked like it might be clearing up as we set out for the second leg of the hike. Not so much. Now we understood why the Peruvians called this the “wet season”. Throughout the afternoon hike we passed a couple of cool Inca ruins, but could only stay a couple of minutes as the rain was soaking through and making us very cold if we stopped moving. By the time we arrived at the final camp, around 6pm, the train had essentially become a small river and even our fancy gore-tex boots, which had been doing so well up to this point, had started to let water in. We got to camp and dove into our tents in an attempt to get dry. Because Kara and I had packed so heavily for Colca Canyon and we didn’t want to make the same mistake twice, we didn’t have a lot of choice of clothes and some of our most important clothes were now soaking wet. Luckily, the sweet Llama Path porters each took one piece of clothing from the hikers and worked on drying them overnight. The next morning, while not completely dry, we were very happy not to have to get back into soaking-wet clothes to continue on our expedition. That night we were also happy to get more milo and coca tea, along with fresh popcorn, animal crackers and another amazing meal prepared by our chef. It is definitely nice to be spoiled after a day of cold, wet and hard trekking!

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