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Published: June 16th 2017
Trail Head
Our group - Steve, Chad, John and Marleah- Met our group (there are 16 of us) in the main square, bus ride, picked
up some farmers who were going to be the porters on the hike. They
smelled so awful we had to put the windows down. They literally came on
the bus straight from the fields and farms they work/live on. Poor guys,
we thought. Towns seen out the window are extremely impoverished and
sad.
- Stopped for breakfast in Ollantaytambo. You could see the ruins of
another Incan archaeological site from the main square. Wish we could
have gotten closer, really incredible.
- Bus to the trail head/Piscacucho and off we go, first part of the
hike. It was enjoyable and super pretty, somewhat like the desert. The
porters carry all of the stuff for camp-food, water, tents etc., it's
actually shocking and mind boggling that they can carry all that weight
on such a long steep climb. And they go really fast! And wear sandals!
- We stopped for a very long lunch. They set up a food tent and
serve us this multiple course meal. They want us all in
John in Ollantaytambo
Ruins in the background there together
so we feel a group connection, which we will proceed to do throughout
the hike, breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's really hard for us! And
easy for Steve and Chad. We're weird and out of our element and it's
obvious. The real epiphany at lunch is just how screwed we really are
food-wise. The porters are also helping prepare the food, which is fine
except that there is absolutely no handwashing going on and we are both
mortified. We are admitted food snobs (duh) but this is really awful and
very unsanitary. Over the next few days, we will see every meal recycled
into the next, sometimes over three days and never being served at a
safe temperature. Thankfully we brought a LOT of food with us.
- Stopped to look down upon the ruins of Patallacta, a farming settlement.
- Hike the rest of the day until we make it to our 1st camp of the
trip which is at Wayllabamba, 9840 feet above sea level. Marleah is
last, we arrived after dark.
- The camp is so gross! Hole in the ground bathrooms, everyone walked off into the trees to use the
bathroom all night.
- After dinner everyone got totally drunk (not us) and stayed up pretty late (not us).
- John's stomach starting acting weird and he wasn't feeling very good.
Inca Trail, 5.5 miles - Day 2 - The first part of today's hike was so beautiful, trees and flowers and
sunshine. Climbing large stone stairs twisting through the forest. It
was a very special dad/daughter time, spending time together and doing
this hard thing together. John was feeling really horrible so he was
pretty quiet and just trying to make it through the day. Chad wanted to
be best friends with young athletic kids in the group so he was doing
his best to keep up with them at the front of the pack. We didn't see
him very much the entire time.
- When we reached a higher location on the trail it became a
treeless grassland and then began the hardest part of the entire hike.
Warmiwañusca/"Dead Woman's Pass", 13,776 ft above sea level. It looked
like we were walking into Mordor. Low clouds and rain and impossible
mountain peaks.
- The back side of the mountain was surprisingly harder
than the
front. Extremely steep stairs, slick with rain, it also was hailing and
making it hard to see. People kept slipping and falling, it was scary.
- We are always at the back of the pack so we got to base camp way
after everyone else. The guides didn't think Marleah was going to make
it. Well we'll see...
- There are 6 people/3 couples from LA in our group. They are the
rudest and most annoying people! Everyone in our group is totally fed up
with them and it makes the dynamics of the group hard. Plus, the young
athletics kids from Canada don't like Marleah very much because they
want to get to camp first, in other words win and she is slow and holds
them up.
- We're both super sick, really bad stomach trouble so we skipped
dinner and stayed in our tent all night. It rained for a long time and
it was very cold. We deduce that the food is the problem and begin our
trail mix only diet that will continue the rest of the hike.
Inca Trail, 10 miles - Day 3 -
Longest hiking day!! Marleah has bad knees and the stairs down are really hard on knees. Today was difficult and painful.
- Hiked up the pass at Runkuracay reaching 12400 feet above sea
level, saw the ruins of Sayacmarca (“inaccessible town”), the jungle
path went through a jungle area which was totally gorgeous with many
birds, trees and orchids, walked through the Inca tunnel, over another
pass and through the "cloud city" of Phuyupatamarca.
- The porters pass us on the trail and occasionally grab Marleah's
butt. One guy also totally groped her in the camp while walking by.
WTF!?
- The last ruins of the day were Wiñayhuayna (Quechua for "forever
young") and named after a variety of pink orchid that grows in Peru. It
is 8856 feet above sea level.
- Our last campsite was just beyond the last ruins. We skipped
dinner again because of our bad stomachs and we ate trail mix and
granola bars in our tent. Also, because Marleah has a fever. We aren't
doing very good...
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Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0219s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
