Woke up again today at 4:45am. Last night, pretty much all night, you could hear a fellow camper violently vomiting over and over and over. Turns out Joe's dad had gotten food poisoning from some food he ate in Cusco. He was so weak that Russell had to make plans for him to be transported via horse down to one of the villages we passed yesterday. Sucks so bad. Poor Joe. After breakfast, which we ate at 5:30am, we were on the trail again at 6:00am. Today was a pretty grueling hike. We had achieved as much altitude as we did all yesterday within the first two hours. Around 8am we reached a nice break point that had a large open field and a building with some squat toilets. The field was littered with many llamas and alpacas and offered an amazing view of the valley we had been hiking.
We stayed there for about half an hour before we hit the trail again. After hour and a half of very steep climbing and frequent stops, we had reached Dead Woman's Pass which is the highest point we'll reach the entire trek, about 13,700'. We stopped up there for a short snack and enjoyed the views offered in both directions. You could see 3/4 of the rest of the hike we had left for the day. But perhaps, the most interesting thing was that the valley we had just hiked up was completely sunny and the one we were about to descend into was covered by clouds. At about noon, we started our descent to the lunch spot. It was at this point where I started to fear I was being affected by food poisoning. The descent was long and steep and all on stone path. We got to lunch at about 2 and it was very hot. I don't think I ate anything. It's been a trend this trip that the chef would bring out what we thought was lunch and we'd eat and be full and then he'd bring out four more platters of food and we've been increasingly eating less and less. After lunch, we embarked on our ascent to the second pass of the trek. It was steep, but not nearly as long as the first half of the day. Right before the pass, we stopped at an archeological site that acted as a resting point for messengers and people traveling the trail. Russel told us they do a marathon on the trail every year and he has done it in 5.5 hours which seems incredible. He also instructed us to pick up a small stone for the site to bring to the pass to pay tribute / make a wish. When we got to the pass, we placed the stone wherever we felt was a good place. I climbed up a little side area where there were some chairns and I placed mine on top of this. Russell then gave us another lesson about coca leaves and why it's so popular in the region. Turns out that chewing coca leaves releases 7 different kinds of nutritional benefits.
Once we began our descent Brian and I kinda cruised ahead and checked out an epic archaeological site perched up on a cliff with views of snow capped mountains in the distance and a large valley below. We took pictures here for a bit and then realized that a nearly full moon was peaking it's head over the pass from whence we came. Ever more epic. It was at this point we heard our names being yelled out loud and realized Russell was waiting for us at the entrance. The sun was setting and he didn't know we had head lamps. We hustled back to camp and on the way witnessed our first taste of the rain forest section of the trek. Lots of green. Really cool. Once at camp, I started feeling like crap so I just went to bed.
Brian and I do a 360 spin at our first break spot.
A group of porters ascend the trail up to Dead Woman's Pass, the highest point in the hike at over 13k'.
A 360-spin at the top of Dead Woman's Pass.
That same team of porters descending the other side.
Another shot of the trail descending from Dead Woman's Pass.
Brian making a push for the final bit of major incline for today.
The views were nonstop on this day. Just around this bend waited an impressive ruin.
Brian and I do a 360º spin atop the epic ruin near the end of day 2.
This ancient place boasted magnificent window views.
The last bit of trail for the day. If you are hiking Inca Trail, may I suggest tough soles.
