Inca Trail, Day 2

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Day 2 is known as "challenge day". you actually only hike about 8 km, less than the 11 km of day 1, but you go from around 10,000 ft at the campsite up to 14,000 ft at the "dead womans pass". it was a lot of climbing. we took it slow, chewed a lot of coca, and got through it.

this was, in my opinion, the most beautiful day. the scenery on the entire hike is very dramatic, but day 2 really was nice. the entire way up was just breathtaking, and i{m sure that my photos will not do it justice. as we climbed it got colder and colder, but with all the hiking we were sweating constantly. i layered my clothes with some long underwear, t shirts etc and managed not to feel too terrible.

the dead womans pass, also known as the first pass, was a very nice view, but more importantly, it was a great sense of accomplishment. at 14,000 ft it is the highest point in the trek. it was all downhill from there.

only downhill sucks. actually, downhill sucks worse than uphill. the steps on the inca trail relaly start to wear on your joints after a while even if you take them slowly and use your walking stick to suppport your weight. yet the entire time, the porters who carried all of our tents, food, cooking equipment etc, all flew up and down the trail. a common theme on the hike was to hear people yell "porter!" as a warning that a porter, carring an ungodly mass on his back, was running down, about to pass. these porters can only legally carry up to 25 kilos, but they do it with these ghetto ass backpacks made of rice sacks. it is incredible how fit they are. they must be destroying their bodies though. iwas struggling with my nice backpack carrying little more than 13 kilos.

so we arrived at camp after a long downhill on those terrible steps. i was destroyed. my legs felt like jelly and i had no energy left. i crashed in the tent and asked the guides to bring me lunch in the tent. jason and tom gave me a lot of shit for that, but i had no energy toi get up and sit for lunch.

once again the food was excellent, this time we even got some chicken with an orange sauce. it is unbelievable that they can make such great food out in the middle of nowhere.

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Photos

Incan Steps
These steep bastards are hard on the legs. I guess the incans didn´t understand ergonomic step design.

Jason and I atop the First Pass
At 4215m, this is the highest point on the trail.

Porter
These poor souls lug huge loads with shitty backpacks up and down the steep trail. And I was bitching about my comfortable, small backpack.

In good spirits
Chrissy, Jason, Tom and I are still feeling good after the first day. But Day 2 would nearly break us.

Comments

[anonymous]

arent they short?
werent the incans really short? like 3 or 4 feet full grown? seems kind of inefficient. but that photo is quite beautiful, professional almost - gerg