On Wednesday, Mike was feeling about as good as the night before, thus didn’t get much sleep. We got woken up at 5:30 for breakfast at 6:00 to leave at 6:30. Breakfast again was fabulous, having omelets, toast, and quinoa porridge. We got things sorted out with Mike that he was going to go slow, but actually go and continue with the hike (he wasn’t too sure if he would have been able to continue). We left Pacaymayo campsite (3,600m) 40 minutes late, but were on the road. Our first stop was at the archeological site of Runkurakay at 3,800m. It was essentially an old watch tower overlooking the Inca Trail coming down from Dead Woman’s Pass. The Inca could call (by blowing in conch shells) to pass the message along to Machu Picchu (with 3 relays in between) to note enemies, friends, etc.
The site was found 4 years after Machu Picchu after following one of the trails there. As we were coming down to Pacaymayo we were only on the original Inca Trail for 1km before the new branch down to the campsite was there. Runkurakay was found by backtracking along one of the trails. The original name isn’t known, but when it was found was named half-circle in Qechuan.
Mike even made it up there, slowly, but he made it. Our next stop was the second pass at 3,950m where there were two small lakes up on the way.
While waiting for more of the group, Nathan, Tyson, Dave, and I dropped our bags at the pass and worked our way up one slope to where we figure we were above 4km elevation (possibly for the last time).
From there we tried throwing rocks into the nearest lake below us (there were no people there). I came about the closest only being about 5m short. We started our way down into the other valley and it was like going into another world. We were above the clouds, and wisps of them were being funneled up over the pass.
Once we worked our way through the mist and could see the valley floor, we realized we were in the Inca jungle and it was such a change.
We kept working our way through the valley, and there were some amazingly large butterflies along the way. There wasn’t much of a size gap between the largest butterflies and the smallest hummingbirds.
Our first view was of the site of Concha Marca. We didn’t get an explanation of what it was, but it looked quite cool from elevation.
We got down to the archeological site of Sayaqmarka at 3,600m. It was essentially a hotel/rooming house along the road to Machu Picchu that was where the Inca Trail forked. Carlos gave us a really good explanation there.
From there we headed out into the valley. At that point, Mike was only about an hour behind us, and was still trucking. We headed across the valley past Concha Marca and the jungle was definitely different than before, but it offered a great view of Sayaqmarka.
The trail isn’t just a trail, it’s “paved” with rock, and there are some huge steps and “stairs” to go up and over.
The trail and and views were absolutely amazing.
Once we reached our first view into the Urubamba River valley again it really was a “wow” moment; again so hard to capture.
At many points we found our good friend Cliff (taken from the old Saturday Night Live skit Two Wild and Crazy Guys) was on the side of the trail. There were many points this day that were 50m or more of cliff right along the edge of the trail. No guard rails or anything needed to spoil the view, just stay away from the edge.
We finally made it up to Phuyupatamarka at the third pass (3,670m) where we had lunch. It started with pizza, then great soup, then beef, and stuffed roasted peppers. After lunch was the hard part of the day, 970m downhill (our knees didn’t like us in the slightest) and the stairs were quite intense and steep.
And we got through the real Inca Tunnel on the way.
Dave, Nathan, Tyson, and I took the long way to camp to go and see Wiñay Wayna which is a bunch of terraces along the side of the mountain overlooking the valley. We dropped our bags and raced up to the top for the spectacular view.
Then we went all the way to the bottom.
We got down into camp at 2,700m, and it was time for a good sit. Mike even made it taking the short cut, not too far behind us. We had dinner where there was some fried chicken, rice, vegetable/potato salad with lots of beets, and for dessert we had a cake.
Then we thanked all of our porters and headed off to bed by 9:00pm for our really early start. The “Unforgettable Day” of 14km gaining 550m and losing 1,370m was complete.
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