Mark woke up feeling much better thankfully but another two in our group had been sick all night. However, today wasn't as tough as Day 2. We started with a fun introduction of our porters and chef. The conclusions made were that they all looked about 10 years older than they were and had plenty of children (1-6 each).
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| These guys work so hard! |
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| Feeling better, our crew was ready to go! |
Afterwards, we started out with an immediate uphill climb to the Runkurakay ruins which were once an important vantage point over the valley for the Incas.
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| The never-ending steps! |
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| Husband and wife team (wink) showing us how to make rope |
We continued up and over the second pass of the trek to the the jungle side. We walked through Inca tunnels and past Sayaqmarka ruins that are perched on a steep mountaintop before arriving at our lunch spot just as a rainstorm hit. It passed before we finished so that was convenient.
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| Benedicto working his magic in the kitchen tent |
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| The Peruvian specialty of Lomo Saltado |
We carried on along side a steep and sometimes narrow pass, with a steep drop-off on our left that faded into the fog. But soon we arrived to a beautiful camp spot on top of the third pass at 3670 meters (12,040 feet). The rain followed us for a bit but that didn't stop us from tracking down the local llamas for a few photo ops.
As the sun started to set, the clouds intermittently cleared and we could see across the beautiful valley before us, with glacier peaks to our right, Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town) way below us and the intensely bright stars above us. It was phenomenal!
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| Sunset above the clouds! |
After dinner, we were surprised with a beautiful cake from our chef Benedicto who wished us 'Buen Viaje' (have a good trip) and we graciously bestowed tips upon our chef and the 17 porters who made this trek much easier than it would have been otherwise.
We shook each others hands and said Tupananchiskama which means 'see you in this life or the next.' Then it was time for sleep as we were awaking at 2:45 to start our final trek to Machu Picchu!
We continued up and over the second pass of the trek to the the jungle side. We walked through Inca tunnels and past Sayaqmarka ruins that are perched on a steep mountaintop before arriving at our lunch spot just as a rainstorm hit. It passed before we finished so that was convenient.
As the sun started to set, the clouds intermittently cleared and we could see across the beautiful valley before us, with glacier peaks to our right, Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town) way below us and the intensely bright stars above us. It was phenomenal!
We shook each others hands and said Tupananchiskama which means 'see you in this life or the next.' Then it was time for sleep as we were awaking at 2:45 to start our final trek to Machu Picchu!
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