The things you see on the Inca Trail!!!!!
Day 262
Trek to Llulluchapampa , Cusco, Peru
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MURRAY!!!! With all our love and hugs!
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Machu Picchu Trek on the INCA TRAIL - Day 2 of Trek 9km´s today
We awoke to the most amazing sunrise. Peeking outside our tent and still surrounded by our soft downy sleeping bag we could hear the porters tapping on their sandles as they brought us a cup of tea. Our choice - cocoa tea. The air was thin. The sun had already risen.
It was going to be another hot day. Thank god we had our arabian hats...good for when it´s cold, up at the higher altitudes, and good for keeping the sun off our necks. (Weird how Greg and i had these unique and unusal Australian hats that we´d bought in the seventies...and brought on our holiday without the other knowinng!)
The sound of the Cusichaka River flowed below.
Local school kids could be seen from outside our tents...donkeys and mules had already started carrying gear...fellow campers were up and ready to eat and trek. The previous day we´d bumped into an Amerian Yoga group that were hard yakking along the trek. One couple seemed to be lagging, an overweight boyfriend of a fit yoga follower. But he was keeping his own pace, taking photos and stopping at his leisure.
Something our group wasn´t doing so much of. We seemed to be in a bit of a race really. Race to what? The Machu Picchu i guess! I really did want to smell the roses a bit more, and Greg wanted to take closeups of the beetles, snakes and orchids we were seeing..but it seemed the pace was set. Jose leading, Jim and Carly out front, The Girls close behind, us and then David and Nada.
There were also a couple and a daughter making the trek. The father seemed exhausted on the first day. We felt worried for him. He was suffering. And it was an even but stony path.
Soon, the porters brought the green bowls of warm water to wash ourselves before we stuffed our sleeping bags and all our gear back into our green duffle bags for the porters to carry.
The cooks had our porridge and muslei and toast and cheese ready in the breakfast tent. We drank more cocoa tea and for the caffeine addicts (me) a cup of strong coffee.
Today was going to be a tough day, we were told. Lots of UPs...and a few downs. Jose said pain has no memory. We were to remember that if we felt a struggle.
The first couple of hours, after we commenced at 6.30am included a venture up the Ridge of Joy where we could see fortresses and ruins from pre inca. There were lots of terraces. Jose said this could have been an agricultural area where the Inca´s got their food from. But really, no one really knows..
Then it was pretty much on the up and up..it was hard work. The altidude was over 4000 m and i was feeling nauseaus. My stomach felt heavy with every breathy step. I wondered if i was going to make it.
By morning tea i told Jose i felt nauseaus and wasn´t sure whether it was the struggle of altitude or whether it was the unfamiliarity of walking up so many hundreds and hundreds of steps..or whether i was feeling nervous because this was doom or die. We were told if we did not make it up the steps now, we would have to be carried down. There was no going back.
The morning tea stop was interesting. Carly had developed diarrhoea. David was also continuing to struggle and i was definitely feeling the affect of the trek as well. Greg was walking behind me and i could hear him labouring as well.
We were all feeling it. Not one of us could say it was a breeze. This morning was hard work.
Jose gave me a quell to settle my stomach and this seemed to work. By lunch time i was ok. I was also drinking a LOT of water. We all drank about 2 litres by lunch time..and refilled our bottles to repeat the intake in the afternoon.
After lunch we decented about 500m. Downhill was so much easier than uphill. But that wasn´t to last!
Jose said..there will be a little bit of up, and a little bit of down! I kept thinking that as i walked..i also kept thinking..the tortoise gets there in the end.
Greg and i became the ´tale end charley´s¨! At one stage i thought..well, if it takes me a week, it takes me a week! It was so hard climbing uphill!
When we stopped for afternoon tea, Jim came and took my pack from me so i could make it up. It must have looked obvious. But he did say happily, that we were only five minutes behind!
We continued climbing along the Cusichaca River and looked at the Wayllabamba ruins then trekked up to Llullucha River against the forest and trees.
Donkeys, horses and people on the trail...
At the final destination Greg and i would have been about 10 minutes behind...
Was the rest of the trek going to be us at the end..struggling?
Where was the person at the end...the real tale end charley..it was then i realised because we were a small group, we only had one guide, not the usual two, one for the front and one for the back!
For the last bit of the trek Jose did stay back a bit..i think he was trying to determine how everyone was going..and whether we´d even make it for the next two days!
Soon...we could see our tents standing to attention at us....we´d arrived..and survived the second of really hot days....
Oh, why wasn´t it COOL weather for us?
We camped at the Llulluchapampa campsite for the night. The altitude was 3700m.
Jose gave out altitude tablets to everyone except Barb and I. Sulphur is the component of the altitude tablets..and it is also the alleric substance on my Allergy Bracelet..and so i couldn´t take it. I got worried.
Did Jose think we wouldn´t make it without the tablets?
Carly was getting sicker..we wondered who would be next.
Tomorrow was going to be equally gruelling...and an early 5am start...and the weather was starting to look dicey....
Wasn´t this supposed to be a relatively mild trekking walk..for fit and active people..but also suitable for those with determination and grit?
(Whatever that means!)
We´ll see.
What an exhausting day!!!!!!
