Machu Picchu Day 2

We are woken at 5am by a porter with a cup of cocoa tea for me, and he has even remembered to bring the sugar. The cocooa tea will give me energy and by god will i need it today as we will trek for at least 10 hours. Once again we are brought a bowl of warm water and a flannel, and after a quick wash i dress warmly as its pretty cold this morning. We are serve a delicious breakfast incluing quinoa porridge fresh fruit and more cocoa tea. After breakfast we have 10 minutes before we set off and once everyone is ready off we go. When they said it was uphill they werent exaggerating, it is just step after step after step, I take it slowly and wind my way up. I have to keep stopping and catching my breath, and by this time i am chewing on cocoa leaves like a llama and draw my energy boost from this. We trek like this for 4 hour and i am absolutely exhausted, i really dont think i can do this. As we come round the corner i beieve that this is the top, but apparantley this is called the false pass for exactly that reason. When we reach the top the view down the valley is amazing and we take a group photo and sit down to enjoy a cheese sandwich and some cocoa tea At this point i realise its Mothers day (sorry mum for not sending card) Dan is still not with us but standing on the top of the mountain after trekking up it makes our bodies really cold so Efry tells us to push on . Its a 2 hour trek downhill from here before lunch is served. We once again arrive and the porters are already here with our field tent set up and we have half an hour to just relax and suck it up. The weather is a little cloudy so we dont have a great view, but the smell from the kitchen is enough to distract me. Lunch once again is amazing , and we eat beef saltado , vegetable tortillas and numerous other dishes. The attention to detail is beyond belief as the food is decorated with animals made out of vegetables , even the portaloo has an air freshner in. When we come out from dinner the weather is definitely coming in and rain is imminent. Within 10 minutes of trekking it starts to rain. We are all prepared and dressed in our wet weather gear so its onwards and upwards from here . If i never see a stepagain it will be too soon but im sure i will . Within the first few minutes we are rock climbing rather than walking up stes for nearly an hour until we rach the first inca site from the mirador all we can see is a drizzly mist and in a way its a dissapointment but just the sheer achievement of getting this far overwhelms me . We keep climbing an climbing, it really is relentless and we eventually arrive at the next Inca site. We are only 30 minutes away from the base camp and i just dont have the energy to climb anymore steps so make my way towards camp. The walk takes me through the jungle and before too long i arrive at the most beautiful place. The sun is starting to set over the snow capped Andes and the weather has cleared slightly making it look as if we are above the clouds. The rest of the family arrive shortly afterwards and after eating our snacks of popcorn and apple samosas we do some star gazing. Once again we are served gourmet food , but its bitterly cold so as soon as weve eaten everyone makes their way to their tents to get some sleep.Read more