Camino Inca, Day 2

Thursday, June 18

Well, the nearby farm animals were not very kind to us, so I woke up on my own at 4 a.m. to roosters crowing. One of them was a juvenile that did not have its crow very well rehearsed, and it was quite painful to listen to. Scott was particularly peeved by the donkey braying. Our official wake up call was at 6 a.m., with Wilfredo and some porters offering us coca tea, with or without sugar, directly into the tent. It is a wonderful way to wake up in the morning :).

Because it was cold in the morning, the water for handwashing was warm, having been heated for us while we were snug in our sleeping bags. Breakfast was bread, fruit salad with sprinkles on top (it made for an interesting crunchy texture), pancakes decorated with caramel, and a porridge of corn and banana, among other things. And of course, there was coffee, tea, etc.

The beginning of day 2 was the steepest ascent, and I was about 5 minutes behind our perpetual leaders, Everett, Evan, and Laura, at about 1 hour and 45 minutes. At about 10 a.m., when everyone from our group had arrived, we had a break for "second breakfast," which were popcorn (yay!), biscuits, and ham and cheese sandwiches. We then took a scenic detour through some plains, where we encountered some llamas, and I tricked one into taking a picture with me.

Afterwards, was the dreaded final climb through the cloud forests up to Dead Woman's Pass (it is named so because from afar, the pass looks like a supine woman, although Freddy believes it is also because many people used to die in this pass), and we summited around 11:40 a.m. The view at the top was tremendous... we could see mountain peaks on both sides of the pass and glaciers from the direction from which we came.

Freddy had encouraged us to climb up to the "nipple," which is a relatively small peak directly to the right of Dead Woman's Pass. I was about a quarter up, when I realized that the wind was very strong and blowing the clouds from the valley straight over the pass, so I was climbing back down to get my fleece when I heard, "cheers, mate!" Confused, I kept walking only to realize that I was behind a group picture (of what, I have no idea, because the background was terrible), and I quickly jumped out of the way. Later, as I was climbing back up, a woman said to me in a thick British accent, "Oy, didja know you were in my pic-tcha?" I told her I was sorry, but honestly, in this era of digital cameras, you can just take another one. Also, when you go on a trip with 400 people, you can't expect to take photos without anyone else in them if you are standing in the middle of a path. In any case, the Aussies and Kiwis from my group enjoyed my rendition of these events at dinner time.

Climbing up the "nipple" was not very long, but it was very steep and slippery, and only later did Freddy tell us that he was kidding, and that he did not think we would actually climb up! On my way up with Erin, Scott yelled at us, "don't look down the other side!" which, of course we did; it was a sheer drop. The view from the top was worth it, though, and although Erin and I had barely got to the top when Freddy was yelling at us to come down for a group picture, we decided to stay up 15 minutes as the clouds parted to drink in the view. Earlier in day 1, Freddy had told us to bring a small rock up from the bottom for a ceremonial offering to Pacha Mama, Mother Earth, at Dead Woman's Peak, the highest point of the trail, at 4,200 meters. Erin and I, however, left our two little rocks perched at the very peak of the nipple. Climbing down was a little frightening, but we made it with a little help from the strong grass that was growing on the side of the mountain.

We took a group photo in Dead Woman's Pass with three of us carrying Freddy, and then Freddy performed the rock cermony, where we stacked the rocks with some coca leaves and a rum offering for Pacha Mama. Apparently the view can often be obscured by mist and clouds, but we were blessed with clear skies for the whole day.

We had already hiked 9 km that morning, and the remaining hike of the day was a 3 km descent down, which I took at a leisurely pace to preserve my knees for the following days, and I was passed by porters and a Danish couple, who are competitive runners. The campsite, Pacamayo, is at 3,600 m. I arrived at the campsitearound 1:30 p.m., where I was given some chicha morada by the porters, and then I joined Everett and Laura sunbathing as we waited for lunch. Some people from our group took cold showers in the waterfall. This campsite had cold showers and running water, but I elected to take a half body "bath" with my towel because the water was too cold.

Lunch was at 2:30 p.m., after everyone had arrived. While some groups had lunch at 10:30 a.m., Freddy thought it was best to have a light meal before the ascent to Dead Woman's Pass as from his experience, some people had difficulty holding down their food due to the altitude. The meal was, as always, worth waiting for. Chicken noodle soup was followed by lmo saltado, fried fish, a traditional potato dish (by the way, there are 3,000 types of potatoes in Peru), apple pie covered with caramel, and tea.

At around 3:30 p.m., Freddy decided to introduce us to the porters. Unfortunately, I cannot recall all of their names. Apu is the Head Chef, and he carries around 15 kg so that he can get to the campsite early. Tiburtio is the Assistant Chef, and is still in training. Martin is the Head Porter, and Freddy claimed it was because he was the strongest, although as we came to learn, a lot of Freddy's stories are simply stories, and must be approached with a grain of salt. Emilio was the oldest porter, at age 57, followed by Nicodemus, at age 47. Cesar was the youngest, at age 20. Juan, or Don Juan, was we liked to call him, is the fastest porter, and always sent ahead to bring essential equipment or to procure certain campsites. It was fun to introduce ourselves to the porters and tell them what part of the world we are from. We found out that at night, the porters empty out the cooking and dining tent, put down a waterproof layer, and sleep together in sleeping bags. We learned how to say "sherpaike," which is thank you, in Quechua, and "chulpachichi," which you can ask me about in person, as this is a family blog.

At 6 p.m., we had some hot chocolate and popcorn in the dining tent, and it was so much fun to learn about where everyone was from, and where they had been traveling. I think this was the largest collection of Aussies and Kiwis that I had ever encountered, and it was interesting to see how different aspects of British culture have percolated through Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian culture. At 7 p.m., we were served dinner, during which we were supposed to eat slightly less portions so that we would not get sick from the altitude. However, I think most of the people in our group were astonished with how much I ate the entire trip, given my size, and the fact that some of them were so sick that they did not want to eat at all. Garth was sick for the majority of days 2 and 3, and K.K. had a fever on day 2. But given the menu and Apu's cooking, I can't be blamed - we had potato chowder, rice, and chicken stew with potatoes. Evan opened up a bottle of Inka Cola to share that he had carried from Cusco, which promptly exploded due to the altitude. Inka Cola is a yellow soda that tastes kind of like carbonated bubble gum. As a surprise for having survived the toughest climb of the trek, we were also served hot spiced rum, which had some apple and orange juice, and cinnamon. And, of course, we had tea. After dinner, Freddy told us a ghost story that he claims the porters believe in, where the ghosts wander the night and grab the ankles of sleeping people; however, I think he told the story mainly so that he could put on a spooky mask.

We spent some time star-gazing and staring at the Milky Way - the sky was incredibly clear, although it was the coldest night of the trek. We went to sleep around 8:30 p.m. to the sound of the waterfall, which, no doubt, contributed to my needing to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.