Day 2 of the Incan Trail--Walking Zombies

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The second day of the Incan Trail is billed as "challenging". That is an understatement to say the very least. We started walking straight up hill at 6:30 AM. Nate was not well and neither were several others in our group. But everyone perservered and no llama assistance was necessary (although we learned that they have the right of way on the trail, when we were almost run over by two early on that day).

Our morning consisted of walking up large stone steps put in place by the incans. My theory was that they were an ancient torture devise or used to prevent people from reaching Machu Picchu. Before noon, we had climbed more than 1000 meters to dead woman's pass. I was sucking wind by the end and exhausted. We stayed at the top for about 10 minutes and then started our first decent of the day. The next stage was 600 m downhill on rocky steps. (Wheats would have blown an ankle for sure). This part was not so bad (until the next day when your knees killed). We stopped for lunch and then went back up another 300 meters before we were through that day though. It was absolutely grueling, but at the end of the day we hit the cloud forest which is gorgous. Pictures do not do it justice. The green, the fog... beautiful.

We were all exhausted that day, and were probably in bed by 8:00 that night. It absolutely poured that evening, but that was the end of the rain for the whole rest of the tour.

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Photos

Happy llamas
Dead woman's pass is in the back ground. I will leave to your imagination why.

Before Noon
This is what we climbed before lunch.

The slow group

Top of the world

All of us

The other side