Inca Trail Day 2

Day 2 - the hardest day of the trek!

Starting altitude: 3000m
Highest altitude: 4205m (Dead Woman's Pass)
Finishing altitude: 2650m
Distance covered: 16km
Weather: It was pretty warm during the day with sunshine but it was a bit cold up the top of Dead Woman's Pass!

We started with a 5am wake-up call (if you don’t count the rooster at 4am!) with coca tea delivered to our tents. We had breakfast at 5.30am (bread and jam/honey, porridge and even pancakes with our names on it in caramel sauce!)

We commenced our trekking at 6.30am. Today we were basically able to go at our own pace as there was only one path and a guide would always be with the last person. Daniel went ahead with a group of the guys whilst Gab walked further back with some of the girls and our head guide, Joseph, who pointed out different plants that only grow at altitude and told us about different animals and birds in the area. Most the the morning was hot as we ascended with steep hills and steeps over 1100m from our campsite to ‘Dead Woman’s Pass’ at an altitude of 4200m. It was pretty cold at the top but definitely very rewarding! The view was amazing!

We then descended what felt like the same as the incline before arriving at our campsite around 12:15 pm. We had quick cold ‘showers’ in the river (Daniel managed to completely submerge himself by lying down) before a much needed lunch which started with a cold vegetable dish, then pasta vegetable soup followed by beef stir fry and then a desert of apple/banana cake - crazy to think that they cooked it up in the mountains.

We then chilled around the campsite and played some cards before having our happy hour of pizza, crackers and hot chocolate.

Dinner consisted of soup, chicken with rice and vegetables. It was very cold during the night as the campsite was around 3600m and plenty of condensation in the tents!Lue lisää