Inca Trail Day 3

Words cannot adequately express this LONG day.  We climbed straight up and straight down TWO different 12000ft mountain passes.  They were both very beautiful and very difficult.  Definitely not for wimps!  We were hardly together, so we do not have pictures together.  This was another sort of solitary hiking day...kinda nice .  The first two hours were extremely steep  UP and then 2 hours straight down on the uneven rock steps (darn those Incas).   Up another beautiful mountain, through a bamboo forest, and there were some pretty steep places up, up, up.  About this point, I lost most of my energy, all calories (I had not eaten much), and had to take it step by step for a while.  This was my turn to fall behind the others and I was thankful for Carlos and Manuel staying behind me, at a distance so as not to push or prod, and every so often they would catch up to me and check up.  By the time I reached the peak, where the porters had set up the kitchen and dining tents, as well as a tarp to lay on, I felt  pooped.  The peak was between 2 different valleys of mountain ranges and it was soooo beautiful.  We really never stopped to rest except at lunch ... just kept going and going all day.  Great test of endurance.

We layed down a bit and it felt good to be horizontal for a little while.  After eating a little bit, because my appetite was low, I  asked if I could  start off again down ahead of the group just to get a head start.  The next several hours were spent going ONLY down on some of the steepest tall uneven steps ever.  It went on and on.  I got about a half hour head start and  really pushed myself, but carefully.  Thank goodness we had rented some great hiking poles, we would have died without them.  I was passed up by most of our group but then saw no one but porters for the next few hours.  Linda, Brenda, and Kris, along with Carlos and Manuel were somewhere behind me.  We walked through some caves-tunnels along the trail which was a little spooky at first.  

Finally, hours later, a porter pointed out to me as he was walking by the rooftop of some tents below and said that was our destination.  I was sooo happy, yet it was another hour or two before I actually arrived there!  Our campsite was down at the bottom of the sites and you had to hike back up a way to get to the bathrooms...sitties!  Finally, no more squatting!   Our tents were set up on a terrace overlooking the valley. Machu Picchu was just on the other side!   It was a little warmer, relatively speaking, during the night and I had to get up to use the  facilities..,.after  putting on my boots, and hiking back up the  hill, I found them to be locked.  DANG IT!  What to do?  So I found a secluded rock and did my business like any good camper!  We felt quite accomplished this day and saw some amazing  views that noone else would see unless they did the hike.

Notice how the vegitation changes during the day...and the steepness of the steps going up and down. Pictures cannot capture the magnitude of it!  It was an amazing experience.