Before we even started the trail, our guide, Edwin reminded us that the trial is very difficult. We could have opted to take a train to visit Machu Picchu. We could have done a 2 day hike to get to Machu Picchu. At any rate, we didn't HAVE to hike 4 days to get to Machu Picchu, we chose to. He told us when it gets hard, to remember it's journey, not the destination. He is SO right. Machu Picchu is amazing and it would have still been enjoyable even if we had taken the train, but I'm really glad we didn't! Day 3 was absolutely beautiful! We saw several remains and walked through jungle. We got an amazing view of the Sacred Valley. It is SO different from the dessert looking areas we walked through on day 1 and the crazy ascent we had on day 2. Unfortunately, we don't have as many pictures from day 3 as I would like. It rained on us for quite a bit and it even haled a little. Luckily, we bought good rain jackets before the trip and we each had a rain fly for our backpack, so nothing got wet.
We woke up early, got packed up and had breakfast. Josh was still feeling pretty awful. Bad headache, nauseous and no appetite. One of our friends we made on our trip wasn't feeling well either, and he mentioned hiring a porter on this day to take some of his things. Josh and I decided to split it with him. Even though we brought our own, lightweight sleeping bags and pads, the weight and bulk still adds up, so this definitely helped us with day 3!
Day 3 is the longest day. We did about 9 hours of hiking and there were a LOT of stairs, but it was up and down, not ALL up then ALL down. Either way, I was concerned with how my knee would do since it was still sore from the day before, so I borrowed a knee brace from Dave. Between the brace and an Ibuprofen, I was fine. There was a big of Inca Flat as well, so it wasn't nearly as hard as day 2!
We were pretty much in the clouds. Crazy!
The first remains we saw for the day
Cloud forest!
The climb here was much more gradual than what we had on day 2, but those stones were SO uneven. They make the bricks on NC State's campus look completely level, for sure!
Remains at a distance
Different remains
Exploring
Entering the jungle!
These are our friends from Texas - Mariam and Adnan.
Hubby and I, just before walking through our second tunnel of the day! So cool!
Glad I'm not scared of heights!
Sacred Valley - this picture will never do this view justice. I was ready to stop here. :-)
Step steps - but SO close to camp!
Those are the steps we just came down!
Dave is scared of heights - this wasn't his favorite part of the trail, but he did great!
I wish I could have this view every day. Even though my legs are much more comfortable right now and I enjoy breathing lots of oxygen - I miss this.
These are the remains with the steep steps once we got closer to our camp site.
We mosied around and took lots of pictures, so we got to camp a little late. Our sleeping bags were waiting for us when we got there, so we set up for bedtime and got everything packed that we possibly could. Then we got ready for dinner. This was our last night, so all of our porters came in after dinner. We thanked them, our cook and our waiter and we presented them with our tip and our thanks. Our chef made us a cake along with dinner this night! Yay!
We also had a dog friend join us for dinner. We thought he was just hanging around for food (we had a cat hang around for food a few nights before, but if you know me, you know I wasn't nearly as excited as I was for the dog). The dog ended up sticking around. He wanted to come sleep in our tents, but we didn't let him. He spent a portion of the night sleeping between our tent and Dave and Theresa's tent. I decided if he was going to hang out past dinner and sleep by us, we should name him. :-) I chose Machu. I didn't realize how fitting the name would be!
We had to get up at 3:30 the next morning, so I needed to fall asleep ASAP. Even though I was anxious, it didn't take too long once things got quiet. This was actually the best night of sleep I got on the trail. Once I fell asleep, I didn't wake up again until I started hearing people move around, probably a little before 3:00. Woohoo!
We woke up early, got packed up and had breakfast. Josh was still feeling pretty awful. Bad headache, nauseous and no appetite. One of our friends we made on our trip wasn't feeling well either, and he mentioned hiring a porter on this day to take some of his things. Josh and I decided to split it with him. Even though we brought our own, lightweight sleeping bags and pads, the weight and bulk still adds up, so this definitely helped us with day 3!
Day 3 is the longest day. We did about 9 hours of hiking and there were a LOT of stairs, but it was up and down, not ALL up then ALL down. Either way, I was concerned with how my knee would do since it was still sore from the day before, so I borrowed a knee brace from Dave. Between the brace and an Ibuprofen, I was fine. There was a big of Inca Flat as well, so it wasn't nearly as hard as day 2!
We mosied around and took lots of pictures, so we got to camp a little late. Our sleeping bags were waiting for us when we got there, so we set up for bedtime and got everything packed that we possibly could. Then we got ready for dinner. This was our last night, so all of our porters came in after dinner. We thanked them, our cook and our waiter and we presented them with our tip and our thanks. Our chef made us a cake along with dinner this night! Yay!
We also had a dog friend join us for dinner. We thought he was just hanging around for food (we had a cat hang around for food a few nights before, but if you know me, you know I wasn't nearly as excited as I was for the dog). The dog ended up sticking around. He wanted to come sleep in our tents, but we didn't let him. He spent a portion of the night sleeping between our tent and Dave and Theresa's tent. I decided if he was going to hang out past dinner and sleep by us, we should name him. :-) I chose Machu. I didn't realize how fitting the name would be!
We had to get up at 3:30 the next morning, so I needed to fall asleep ASAP. Even though I was anxious, it didn't take too long once things got quiet. This was actually the best night of sleep I got on the trail. Once I fell asleep, I didn't wake up again until I started hearing people move around, probably a little before 3:00. Woohoo!
Some of these pictures are scary! I would be terrified to be that close to an edge that could potential lead to my death! But you deserve a pat on the back for doing this, I'm so sure I could have made it!
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, that actually didn't bother me at all. I'm only scared of free-falling types of heights. Since I was in control here, I had not problem.
ReplyDeleteNice job on the post! Those pictures aren't half bad either :)
ReplyDelete