Inca Trail - Day 3

  Machu Pichu, Peru
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A long day today - 15 km and about 8 hours of walking. We started by walking up to Runkuraqay Pass.



Tara was feeling the pain of having her bag back, but after yesterday the uphill seemed small. Even after three days, we are still impressed by the amount of stuff that the porters carry on their back.



We walked up and down two more passes before lunch. The path was beautiful, easily the nicest part of the trail so far with some great views and lovely flowers.



This part of the trail is mostly original Inca paving



although that doesn't stop some people from relieving themselves in the outdoors. Is nowhere sacred, Steven?



All was going extremly well until we stopped for another tasty lunch and, as we were about to head off for an afternoon of downhill, Steve bent down to put something in his bag and threw out his back. He was on the ground in pain when Tara got back from the bathroom, so much so that she thought she would have to carry him! Kelly and Will very kindly offered to carry his pack but in the end Steve took Tara's lighter pack and she took his.

After a slow start with Steve hobbling along using his walking poles as canes, his back loosened up and he began to feel better. It worked out well because it forced us to go so slowly that we actually stopped looking at our feet and watching the path and took time to take a breath and enjoy the scenery. This was another beautiful stretch of the trek so it was a good time for taking it slow. We went through some caves



and one of the guides, Emilio, hung back with us and pointed out the different orchids and sights. It was like having our own private tour.

After a few hours of nice level paths came the downhill. It seemed like a blessing after yesterday's uphill struggle but after an hour of steep steps our knees, feet and thighs were killing and we had had enough. Unfortunately there were hours more of it ahead and by the time we reached our camp at Wiñay Wayna we had gone down over 2000 stairs!



There was a restaurant with showers at this camp but after 3 days of sweating and stinking we thought, "What's one more day?" After we ate (and also after being presented with a nice big cake - how do the cooks do it out here in the wilderness?) we had to sort out the tips for the guides. Luckily the Amercicans in the group (coming from a massive tipping culture) had already done the arithmetic for us so all we had to do was stump up the cash. Steve got volunteered into making a speech, which he valiantly tried to do bilingually. It didn´t come out exactly as he'd planned, but it did the job.

After that it was straight to bed in preparation for the early start the next morning. No slope and warmer weather so a good night's sleep was in store!