We had our customary wake-up call with coca tea (it is a wonderful motivation to wake up in the morning when someone hand delivers tea) at 5:50 a.m. Breakfast was pan, toast, hot quinoa juice, scrambled eggs with onion and sausage (quite artfully done), and coffee/tea. We were on the road by around 7 a.m. It was not quite a steep as the previous day, and more of a general slope than tall boulder staircases. We passed by the ruins of Runkuraqay, where Freddy gave us a lecture about the lookout.
We reached the 2nd peak (3,800 m) between 9 and 10 a.m., from where we could see Dead Woman's Pass, where we had been the day before. From afar, Dead Woman's Pass looks vaguely like the profile of a woman laying against a rock pillow, although Freddy thinks that the pass was also named because people historically died in the pass. Nowadays, an average of 2 people die per year die on the trail for cardiac arrest. We climbed up a nearby peak to overlook the 2nd peak, and Everett even ran all the way up to the top of the ridge to see over the mountains on the other side of our valley. Then, another deep descent, and we passed by the ruins of Sayaqmarca, which is only accessible by a steep and narrow staircase (hence its name, "inaccessible town"). We spent some time in this impressive ruin, with some more stories from Freddy. We passed through an Inca tunnel, which is really more a big space carved out of rock for the path to continue through, with stairs.
After a less steep downhill to lunch, where we were met with chicha morada. Lunch began with an appetizer of pizza, which was the first pizza we had eaten in Peru, despite the plethora of pizzarias and Italian restaurants that dotted the cities we had visited. Coincidentally, it was also the first time that Apu had ever cooked pizza on the Inca trail, and he wanted us to tell him how it was - it was delicious. I have no idea how he made it without an oven. We also ate quinoa soup, rice, a chicken casserole with fries in it, lamb stew, and some kind of egg pancake, followed by tea.
After lunch, it was more hiking through cloud forest, and we hit the campsite third peak (3,600 m). Most of us climbed a small lookout hill to better see the mountain of Machu Picchu from afar, and Scott and I took an extra 30 minutes to climb a nearby peak used for religious ceremonies. After descending from the third peak, we passed by the ruins of Phuyupatamarka. After this were approximately 1,500 steps carved from granite (I have no idea how anyone counted this... there were many places that were graded, and not steps). We moved from cloud forest into proper rain forest, and large clusters of flowers and orchids started cropping up along the trail.
Near the campgrounds, there was a split in the path: to the right, a direct route to the campgrounds (30 min), and to the left, a 50 min route that went through Intipata, a more recently discovered series of agricultural terraces overlooking the valley. Intipata was pretty incredible, and Scott and I sat for several minutes enjoying the view before a bunch of the rest of the group caught up.
Apparently Don Juan had run ahead early that day and snagged us a choice campsite, which was further down the mountain, but also the most quiet, and near the beginning of the trail for the fourth day. As usual, all the tents were set up already, and I took the opportunity to enjoy the only hot shower on the Inca trail. Dinner was at 7, and we had soup with fried potatoes and vegetables, mashed potatoes with beef, fried rice, stuffed chicken, and stuffed potatoes. As a treat, we were given some sangria as well.
The big surprise was when Apu brought in a birthday cake for Everett. In the morning, Evan had mentioned to Freddy that the next day was Everett's birthday, and somehow with just a fire, ingredients, and 1.5 hours of sweat, Apu was able to fashion and decorate a very decent tasting cake. We didn't have candles, just matches, and Everett blew the matches out a little too hard, getting frosting all over Erin and Rachel. Freddy then told Everett that it was a Peruvian tradition that the person of honor had to take a bite out of the cake before it was cut, but this was really an excuse to shove Everett's face into the cake.
After dinner, we were left to work out the tips for the porters, and afterwards, we presented the tip to Apu, Tiburtio, and Martin; Erin gave a little speech displaying our gratitude for all of the hard work that the porters had put in carrying the equipment and food, bags for the sick, and for being so kind to us. We went to sleep around 9, which was rather late for us.
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