After mistakenly waking myself up at 5am GMT I finally went back to sleep and awoke at Peru 5am along with most of the rest of the camp by the sounds of it! The camp was settled high above the clouds this morning and the mist was rolling in in dramatic fashion as we opened our tent doors.
The usual morning sorting was undertaken before heading to the mess tent for breakfast. The chef excelled himself this morning rustling us up an eggs benedict! Breakfast done we finished morning preparations by loading our snack bags and water bottles, we donned our backpacks and were ready for the off….Ramos…
We left the camp at Llulluchapampa and continued to climb upwards in the same direction we’d been heading yesterday. Today we had two high passes to cross and then apparently a 16km trek into our next camp at Phuyupatamarca. We quickly settled into the same groups as yesterday and we headed upwards in a steady but sure fashion. Edvar was leading the pace and seemed to break on every 50m of altitude gained – not sure if this was coincidence or skill as he certainly didn’t have a GPS like the rest of us.
After about an hour and a half we reached the highest point on the whole Inca Trail known as Dead Womens Pass or officially Warmiwanuska. I expected there to be some good historical reason why the pass has this name but turns out it is because from the distance the opposite side looks like a women laying down! The pass is officially at 4212m or 13819ft and I registered a close 4200m on my GPS watch. Unfortunately the clouds were hanging round the top of the mountain so there were no amazing views to see. We took a few snaps and then rather than waiting in the cold began the descent.
Edvar left us behind at this point to return to the other groups to ensure everyone was okay so we appointed Bernt as our leader (on the basis he was always at the front!) and began to descend into the misty Pacasmayo valley where we would stop at the Runkuracay camp for lunch. We progressed down well – amazingly no knee pain whatsoever – and before we knew it had arrived at the camp. We were greeted by one of our porters looking out for us and settled into the uncomfortable seats to wait for the arrival of the other groups and lunch.
We had completed the ascent and descent in about 2 and 1/2 hours compared to the 4 Edvar had suggested it normally takes so we had quite a wait. The sun wouldn’t decided whether to come out or not so we spent the next 2 hours putting our jumpers on and then taking them off and eating Milky Ways (Mars bars). It was also quite interesting watching the porter team in action – after they’d had their snack they were each allocated jobs and all constantly beavered away! They also served us up a lovely fresh passion fruit drink which was very refreshing – much better than the purple corn we’d had the previous day.
The rest of the group all rolled into camp together looking a bit of a sorry sight – they’d all found the terrain and altitude combined with joint pains a struggle. We welcomed them warmly and all sat around the table to enjoy lunch. We even managed Happy Birthday napkins today – not sure whose birthday it was!
The olives went down well (especially with Bernt) followed by asparagus soup (which I would swear was vegetable) and then a traditional perivuian beef casserole dish served with rice and chips! After a short rest to let the dinner go down we refilled water bottles and set off for pass number 2 of the day.
The track up to this one looked a little more ominous climbing steeply up the opposite side of the mountain. There were some amazing views back to the lunch campsite and across to distance peaks for those prepared to open their eyes!
Here we also got ourselves involved in some porter racing as our team chased down the red team and the purple team. This was the first time on the trek we’d encountered ‘outsiders’. Naturally we clapped our team along. Someone did question whether we should boo the other teams but we decided that wasn’t in the spirit of the Inca Trail! Our first marker point, Edvar told us, was half way up the climb, an Inca tamba point where we had a brief rest. The tamba actually looked better from above as we climbed higher.
And higher we climbed weaving our way up the mountain side eventually reaching a small tarn or lagoon as Edvar called it. We stopped briefly for photos and to enjoy the flat land under our feet before completing the final climb to the Inca control post at Runkuracay on the pass at 12960ft. There was nothing to see of the post but we enjoyed the wildlife, flowers and humming birds for a few moments before beginning the descent.
Edvar warned us the steps would be very steep and not to use our poles which sets all sorts of images going in your head! Actually it was fine, a couple of steepish sections but nothing too dramatic. As we started to drop the weather turned into rain and then hail so we had a brief stop to don waterproofs or for most people to try their funky new ponchos. Ian and John definitely won the battle of the ponchos with the luxury £3 version far out doing the £1 version Alison and Tim had acquired much to Alisons disgust!
Unfortunately the weather blocked most of the views at this point so we carefully trekked down to a junction in the path concentrating hard on the footing. Straight ahead up a very tricky little staircase with a big drop to the right was the way to Sayacmarca or ‘town in a steep place’ to the right the path to our campsite which we could see perched on the mountainside to our right. Feeling fit and knowing we’d only be here once we decided to risk the scary staircase and have an explore of the ruins.
The site had been discovered by Bingham after his discovery of Machu Picchu as he had followed the inca trail in the opposite direction to us. After learning a little about the site and more about Inca building techniques including seeing their mini aquaduct we dropped slowly down the staircase and began the journey to camp. This took us about 30 minutes just as the rain started to get very heavy. We quickly dived in a tent and settle down to wait the shower out. This also coincided with the mosquito ‘witching’ hour as apparently they only come out at this campsite between 430 and 530pm!
The link to our shorter than planned day is here. I was slightly baffled by this as our itinerary had said 16km but it turns out we were in a different place to where we were supposed to be! We were camping at the Sayacmarca campsite instead of the Phuyupatamarca or ‘place above the clouds’ site. The team made the (very sensible) decision to stay at the more sheltered camp due to the weather forecast.
The remainder of the group arrived just as dark was falling, soaking wet and with a few tales or woe, soon resolved by some hot drinks and lemon biscuits! We all huddled in the mess tent as the rain continued to hammer the camp. The poor porters stood sheltering around the nearby trees, dressed mainly in plastic bags! We enjoyed a spag bol dinner washed down with mulled wine before we retired to our tents to allow the porters to get in the dry much to their relief.
The rain absolutely hammered and pounded through the night but the tents held up great. Glad this was our last night under canvas though.
Teesside Wanderings 