Thursday 14th May
We were woken at 5am with our cups of coca tea and orange bowls of warm water to have a wash in. It was a quick get-ready to leave as soon as possible again, and after our breakfast pancake we were all made to stand in a line opposite our team of porters. We all had to say our names and where we were from and then the porters did the same. They did not speak any English so our guide translated. It's amazing how many people were behind the scenes in our team, and the job that each of them does is fantastic. It's true that we wouldn't have been able to complete the trek without them! Each day they would pack up all our tents as soon as we left, carry goodness knows how heavy loads to the next stop, running past us on the way in sandals and have the next camp set up by the time we got there! |
Our team of porters
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The view of Dead Woman's Pass - where we had walked down from the day before!
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We finally got going and it was uphill straight away, getting seriously hard and steep at some points. We ended up climbing to 4000m again, with amazing views of where we'd been - Dead Woman's Pass - on one side, and where we were going on the other.
There was a small hill above the trail that we climbed up to get even better views of the mountains surrounding us. Glen captured a nice photo of Matt S just after he'd asked him to stand guard while he tried to go to the loo in the bushes! We also decided that we should be renamed the British Fart Foundation, as there is a condition of altitude sickness called HAFE - High Altitude Flatulence Emissions - so none of the men have been worried about being polite and holding things in!! |
At the top of today's mountain
We saw a few more Inca sites on our travels today. The first was Runkurakay, where we had a talk about the camp where we'd stayed the night before. Apparently if single men stay at the camp on their own, a mermaid calls to them in the night and leads them away from the camp, so in the morning they have no idea where they are. The guide's accent made it sound like he was saying 'marmite', so from then on we called ourselves 'Team Marmite'! It is also said that people staying at the camp often have nightmares while they sleep, which we thought was really strange as we had both told each other about the bad dreams we'd had as soon as we woke up! |
Looking ahead to the next part of the trail
Team Marmite on the Runkurakay ruins
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Today was the first time we were able to get any phone signal, so we could update everyone on Twitter! The guide let us walk on ahead at our own pace to camp after the Phuyupatamarca ruins. The whole way was a really steep 1100m descent with tonnes of steps and we were told it should take us around two hours, but with Mountain Goat (Teri) leading the way with the knowledge of showers at camp (such luxury!) we managed it in 65 minutes!
There were a couple of tunnels on the way, one of which had an incredibly steep first step and was so dark you could barely see where you were putting your feet!
There were a couple of tunnels on the way, one of which had an incredibly steep first step and was so dark you could barely see where you were putting your feet!
Once we had reached the last camp we ended up walking further than we needed and had to come back up to our set of tents as we couldn't find them the first time! We went straight for a shower and then headed to the 'bar'. This camp was a lot busier than the others we had spent time in, as it was the last stop before Machu Picchu. We had an absolute ball staying here, and spent our last night of camping having a great laugh with our fellow trekkers, drinking beer and looking at the fantastic views.