Day 1
- We were picked up at 5am. We were a group of 7 with two from England, 2 from Ireland, 1 from Sweden, and the two of us. Only my friend and I carried our own stuff. The rest of the group hired porters.
- The bus took us to Ollantaytambo where we had breakfast. I had a Spanish omlette and coca tea. We had breakfast with Nike (pronounced as 'Nee-kah) the Swedish girl. She seemed nice but was quite unprepared and unfit.
- When we got back on the bus, the porters and the Chef were already waiting for us on the bus. The bus then went on to drop us at km82, the start of the classic Inca Trail!
- As we stepped off the bus, it started to rain! I knew all along that it was the end of the rain season. But we've been so blessed with the weather that I didn't think it would actually rain on us. And definitely not on the most looked-forward-to part of the trip! I had my Gore-tex shell and raincover. But I took my chances on a pair of light and highly breathable Solomans and I was starting to worry. My Mont-bell Gore-tex shell worked brilliantly though.
- The first day was relatively flat. The total distance travelled was 13 to 15km, with an elevation of 700m.
- My friend and I were the fastest in the group despite having to carry our own packs. :P
- The porters were sure fast! They had to carry a lot of our stuff, e.g. cooking utensils, tents, four days' supply of food, their own stuff, a kitchen tent, a dining tent, etc. We had some really good food on the trail. The food we had was probably more delicious and healthier than what we have been eating throughout the trip! Not only did we have three meals a day (well, only two meals on the first day), but we also had trail snacks and afternoon snacks after we got to our campsite! Fresh, hot popcorn...
- We had a lot of rest breaks. I didn't think Day 2 would be a problem anymore despite the altitude and everything.
- We saw parrots (or were they Macaws?!) again. There were also hummingbirds.
- We didn't see Carlos though. :( I kept looking out for him, especially at our campsite. But he was nowhere in sight.
- We got to camp at around 5pm. The porters already set everything up for us. There were our sleeping tents. Snacks were waiting in our kitchen tent. The porters and the Chef were busy preparing our dinner in the kitchen tent.
- It was pretty cold. I put on my tuque. My (fake) Mammut Next-to-Skin Windstopper kept me very warm though. I was very impressed with this shirt on this trip.
- It was a good day with a good workout. Our campsite was at Yuncachimpa and the stars were amazing. The sky in the Southern Hemisphere was really different from that in the Northern Hemisphere! I saw the Southern Cross for the first time. It started to cloud up not long after dinner, though. We then called it a night.
Day 2
- The porters woke us up with a morning tea at 6am. It rained twice over the evening and it rained pretty hard the second time. We had everything packed, ate breakfast, and were ready to go at 7am.
- The first ascent of the day was 1,000m. We waited for the group at a rest point after 500m up. Then we continued on with the second 500m ascent. We were still the fastest in the group despite having to carry our own packs. At the last 100m, i.e. while we were at 4,100m, I felt myself gasping for air and I had to take a short rest every 20 steps or so. I could finally feel high altitude at work. I knew I should take it easy and walk slowly. But being so close to the Dead Woman's Pass and knowing there were only 100m left, I kept walking anyway, passing the other panting hikers. I started developing a headache at where my eye brows were. When I finally got to the summit, I took a couple of pictures and sat down to wait for my friend. I had to put on my tuque again because of the headache. It was pretty windy up there too. After my friend caught up with me at the summit, we hurriedly took another couple of pictures and I started my descent without my friend. I was starting to feel nauseated and at one point I wanted to throw up. I knew it was time for me to get going.
- I felt very weak. My hands were cold. My right arm was numb. It was a very strange sensation. As I went down, the numbness started to move up my arm. As I went further down, I became warm again. I was still feeling weak. I really wanted to sit down to rest but I kept telling myself it'd do me more good to keep going down than to sit. At one point I had to sit down to have a candy. People asked if I was okay cuz I just sat still on a rock. My friend caught up with me and I told her to go on. I had food and water on me and I knew I'd be okay. So I kept going down till I got to our lunch camp 700m down. Just when I got inside the tent it started to pour again. I felt so blessed. There was even hail coming down at one point.
- Lunch was delicious, except that I had absolutely no appetite. It was another new sensation to me. I knew the food was really good. I wanted to eat more, but my stomach refused. I could throw up if I made myself eat more. What a shame. I just took in the fluid part of the soup to replenish my fluids. The headache didn't go away the whole afternoon and I felt pretty sick.
- Jo the English girl gave me Tiger Balm which I put on my temples. I think it helped. We just stayed in the tent and chatted while we waited for the rain to go away.
- After lunch we had our second ascent of 400m. This time I took my time and went up slowly. It felt more tiring and I didn't push myself. I just took frequent breathing breaks. Another 300m descent followed.
- Despite all the ascent and being tired and all, we went up the steep stairs of the Sayaqmanka ruin and took more photos. Then we continued on with our descent and went to our campsite. We felt like we were in a jungle already because of the flora and fauna. There were mosquitoes as well.
- I was very hungry for dinner. My headache was gone. I felt energetic again. Altitude sickness was definitely gone by then. We had some great food for dinner again. I headed straight to my sack after dinner since I was so tired. I also was glad that I watched the night sky for a bit the previous night because it was raining again tonight. It rained hard all night. I was impressed by the waterproofness of our tents. Not a drop of water entered our tent despite the continuous downpour.
- I felt good because I conquered Day 2 with a good speed. I was more in shape than I thought. :) I still didn't run into Carlos, though.
Day 3
- So we woke up at 4am, had breakfast at 4:30am, and were at the gate to the last section of the Inca Trail at 5:30am.
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