Inca Trail Day 2

We were jarred from our sleep about 4am to a rooster just as happy to start his day as ever!  We slept OK, but not comfortably really.  We had breakfast outside - a beautiful fresh fruit tray, yogurt, granola, etc. 

 This day, Sunday, we were to encounter Dead Womans Pass.  We definitely felt the prayers of all our families and friends as we approached this difficult section.  We spread out pretty quickly, mainly keeping with Carolyn, Rick, me, Linda, and Brenda.  We were climbing to our highest altitude of 14000 feet and you could feel the effect on our hearts and lungs. 

We began by walking next to a river with small waterfalls in a jungle for several hours.  Way cool!  We came upon a little hut-house with a potty to use and Gatorade to buy for an arm and a leg.  The paths were steep (a common theme you will see over the next few days) and absolutely beautiful.  We did not have lunch today, and we should have taken more snacks for energy, that is for sure.  At one point, a group of rainbow fairies...yes, you read it correctly, came singing up the hill.  Each in a different color leotard, tiara, and  other  stuff celebrating  Cuzcos birthday (their flag is the rainbow).  They were actually hiking in color order!  Too funny.  Once we got out of the jungle area HOURS later, the views opened up to  open range and browner colors as we got above the tree line.  We could see people as ants up along the steep inclining trail and on Dead Womans Pass at the top.  Sometimes it felt like we would never get up there!   Finally, we reached it at different times and celebrated everytime someone reached the peak.  It was freezing and windy up there.    It was so hard to breathe up there and our hearts were pounding out of our chests.  As soon as our little celebration was over, we looked around and realized that we were NOT at our destination!  We had a LONG uneven, rocky, steep climb down for several more hours before reaching camp for the night. Again, the  views were amazing as usual.  We could finally see our campground in the distance and VERY much lower than we were , and continued on for another hour or two.   We had not eaten since breakfast at 6-30am   and now it was  like 4-30pm!  Our gatorade was gone as well as our energy.  We were very weak.  The Porters clapped as we entered camp (the did each day) and gave us juice and snacks.  We felt very accomplished and grateful to have made it past the highest peak that day.  That night was our coldest night, but we were ok.

Top of Dead Womans Pass