Inca Trail – Day 2
-=[ DAY EIGHT- Sat 17th June ]=-
Second day of the Inca Trail, and for our group definitely the toughest. Right from the start we were climbing stone steps – always up, never flat, never down – from 3400m to Dead Woman’s Pass at 4200m. Toward the end I was resting every 10-15 steps, gasping in the thin air and looking back at 100 other walkers and porters doing the same. As soon as I stepped on the level ground at the pass, I was greeted with a wall of cloud, blocking from view the steep downhill that awaited.
Having regrouped, recovered, and taken the obligatory photos, it was all downhill to lunch at 3600m at the Paqaymayo campsite, where most others would be spending the night. But not us. Instead we trudged onwards and upwards past the Runkuraqay ruins and over the 4000m Runkuraqay High Pass and back down even more steps to the Sayacmarka ruins. As sunset approached, and our calves and knees were feeling the the eleven hours of walking today, we elected not to climb the steps up to the ruins, and instead descended down to our second camp at Chakiqocha.