Day two began with a 4:30am wake up, ready for breakfast at 5am and the start of the trek at 5:30am. This was the day I had been dreading, I asked the guide about the trek, it would start with a slight uphill walk then a steep uphill part, then a strenuous uphill part and then a less steep uphill part and then another more strenuous uphill section and after that I stopped listening, the general jist was that it would be uphill almost all of the way, and my legs and bum were already aching from the previous day!
It was hard, really hard, but it was also doable. It was great to have an encouraging group of people to do it with, everyone took it at their own pace and I was surprised to find I wasn’t at the back, but actually in the first third of the group for most of it. Whenever you took a break people overtaking would offer a smile and encouragement and when they took a break I would pass and do the same, it was nice to know that during the hardest parts even though you were walking alone at your own pace you weren’t really alone. It was the first time on this trip I’ve enjoyed a group trek as much as I’ve enjoyed treks me and Grace have done alone, and it just proved to me how much of my struggling previously was down to my mentality much more than physical incapability.
It had been raining the whole way, but far from annoying I found it was actually quite refreshing and much better than having the sun beat down on us, however around 10am it started to really pour down. Luckily we weren’t far from our first big break stop where we got a sit down for half an hour and a talk about the surrounding flora and fauna such as potatoes and coffee and how it was used by the Incas (fun fact the word jerky is actually an Andian word for dried meat), we also got the opportunity to buy Coco leaves for anyone who was tired and the chance to try a local delicacy, a kind of tequila with a snake in. My favourite part however, was that we got to pet a tiny monkey and some less friendly parrots. We also all got Inca war face paint to perk us up and make us brave for the rest of the journey, how authentic this is I’m not to sure but it was a good laugh none the less. Although less fun once we started walking again and it mixed with the sweat and ran into our eyes!
The next few hours was spent walking through jungle, across rickety bridges, up steep stone steps and even at one point being pulled across a river in a metal car dangling high above! We also at one section were told to run in groups of three along a mountain path, apparently landslides were common at this section and this method ensued only a maximum of three of us would die! Luckily none of us died and we got to stop for a nice lunch of Spaghetti Bolognese, this time even if it had of smelt like cat food I think I still would have demolished it.
We continued onwards and of course upwards using the narrow stone paths built by the Incas until we reached the highest point of 4300m, it was absolutely breathtaking to look down on a gorgeous valley below and see how far we had climbed. We sat there for a while and the guide decided this was a good a place as any for a history break, he pointed out caves above us in the rock and told us how pre Inca communities buried sacraficed women and children in them (funny how it’s never the men!). About how there were several trails built by the Incas to Machu Picchu and this one was only rediscovered in the year 2000. He told us that recently there has been a compition to see how fast the Inca trail could be completed and locals as well as athletes from all over the world were invited to try and complete it in the shortest time, a fit hiker normally does it in 2-3 days, professional athletes completed it in 7 hours, but local Andeans completed it in 3.5 hours! Believed to be the same sort of time it took messengers, information from Machu Picchu was believed to reach all the way to Cusco in 5 hours using a relay of messengers, a journey which would take us 4 days using cars along parts!
With that in mind we decided it was best for us to get a spurt on and get moving again, we finally reached our hostel for the night about 5pm. I couldn’t of been happier, I had done the hardest day! Not only that but I had been in the fastest half for all of it! I had even helped some of the people people who were struggling, I had been where they were hundreds of times and it was nice to be able to give them advice that helped me in the past – your mind gives up long before your body does, repeat a mantra to yourself and match your breathing to it mine is ‘slow and steady wins the race’, the first half an hour is the worst, after that your body changes energy use (from sprint to marathon mode) if you can get through that it’s easier and lots of other little tips I’ve learned over the last 3 months. It was so rewarding to see how far I’ve come but even more rewarding to hear someone else say ‘what you said actually really helped’ I was on such a high during dinner as the whole group were, it ended up turning into a celebration and then into a party….woops!
But what a great evening it was, there was dancing, well attempted dancing but the Latinos in the group were less than impressed with most of us English and our lack of hip movement so stepped in to show us how it’s done, which evolved into salsa lessons (although I proudly received the compliment ‘for an English person your not actually that bad’ but I put that down to the alcohol more than anything else!) in return we treated everyone to a karaoke of classic English songs, not too sure that was a fair trade if I’m honest. It was such a fun evening, a bit to fun for me as I passed out around 3am! I’m not too sure how long it continued after that! But we regreted it in the morning…
Again this has turned into a long post so I’ll update you on day three in the next one.
Lots of love,
Alice x