The Going Gets Tough

We began the day early, with a 5.00 am wake up from the staff. I was already awake and keen to get out of the sleeping bag and into some proper gear. Our guide Jeiko, had already warned us that this was to be a tough day of walking with at least 10 hours ahead of us. Not exactly a pleasant proposition.

After breakfast we donned our sun screen (yes it was yet another sunny day), picked up our walking poles and headed off. We were soon climbing steadily and puffing even more steadily in the thin air and ever increasing heat. After a short time we were joined by a colourfully dressed local Quechuan holy man, who was to accompany us for the next couple of hours.

He led us through a never ending series of navigational challenges and scrambles over rocks and through brambles and prickles. It certainly was not what I would call a "trail". When we finally started to descend we though the worst was behind us. It wasn't. We then started to climb ever more steeply up to the hilltop ruins of Pumamarca. It was here that the Quechuan performed a ritual offering to the Sun and mother earth. No matter what your spiritual beliefs, it really was interesting and actually quite touching.

An hour or so later we were back on the go again. By this time the sun was burning and, even though we were again heading downhill, the going was never easy. We started to look at our watches and wonder how we would ever cover the distance we still had ahead of us before darkness set in. As it turned out, we didn't.

By early afternoon we stumbled into Ollantaytambo, right into the middle of their huge festival. The dusty streets were jammed with a succession of brightly dressed dancing groups. We followed them into the central plaza and watched as they each performed their carefully choreographed dances before the judges. South America is NEVER boring.

We then resumed our trek out the other side of the town. A look at the time showed that there was no way we would be able to complete the route that was originally planned. We searched for that ever popular "Plan B". Fortunately there was one and, with a few deletions, we were able to reduce the remaining distance by about 50% and also cut out another huge climb. It was a very popular decision as by that time we were all exhausted.

We made steady progress through the afternoon and managed to reach camp number 2 just before dark. It was situated alongside a large, but somewhat dilapidated home. Fortunately at this lower elevation, the temperature was noticeably warmer than the previous night. After a delicious evening meal, we repeated the antics of getting into our sleeping bags.

Unfortunately there were no repeats of the previous night's celestial performance.もっと詳しく