Dead woman's pass - Inca trail day 2
Since Debra and I were slow and came in last, they had us start early. Wake up was at 5 am and we were to leave at 5:30 which is when breakfast started for the others. We got a ham and cheese sandwich and a banana instead of the hot breakfast the others got. Joel went with us and I would hike ahead then sit on a silla de Piedra - Rock chair until Debbie caught up. We took a break about 45 minutes in to eat, take our jackets off and put our headlamps away since it was light now.
I was feeling less nauseated today so I got pretty far ahead which means I was hiking alone for hours. Since we stayed at a little used campground there wasn't anyone else on our section of the trail. 4 hours in I climbed into the woods to pee and saw the first of our group pass. This woman Susanne was always first she was in her sixties and a mountain goat! When I'm in the back I never get to interact with anyone, but today was cool because I got to say hi to everyone as they passed me. I made it to lunch in 6 hours and it wasn't quite ready so I hung out and we cheered as others came in. The guides were impressed with how fast I was moving compared to yesterday. It got cloudy, chilly, and windy while we were eating. The food is pretty good and the soup is always the best part. There were women selling candy and Gatorade - this would be the last we would see for a couple days so obviously I got some chocolate :) Then I made a mistake.
I should have just left after lunch and stayed doing what I was doing. But there was a group of about 8 people who were hiking together and came in an hour after me and since I left an hour early we figured we were going the same pace. So I waited for them so I'd have company. Big mistake. Their idea of resting a lot was walk a few steps then pause for 30 seconds. My idea was to walk a little further and sit on a rock chair for 2 min to catch my breath. I was having a hard time keeping up. We were headed to dead woman's pass (warmihuausca) which is the highest elevation on the trail - 4,200 m. (about 14,000 feet) We climbed straight up for hours. It was hard to breathe for everyone, but my lupus lungs made it more difficult. I let them go and trudged on by myself. It was rediculously hard - my legs and lungs were burning. When I got to the top, the group that I had been walking with was taking pictures and I though great! Finally I will get some pictures with other people! But when I got to the top I couldn't see. My vision was all blurry and I couldn't breath. Victor put this stuff on his hands - a mixture of lemon and rubbing alcohol and made me sniff it a few times. My vision started to clear, but the other group had left. So no pictures :(
Carol had a cold and was really struggling at lunch so they sent her with a guide. I saw her coming up and Cathy not far behind her. Cathy had been puking all day and not doing well so I waited at the top for them. Carol and I rested and took one picture with her camera - I will post it when I get it :) The guides pulled oxygen tanks out of their bags and had to use it on Cathy. The three of us started down towards camp. Cathy got far ahead and I stayed with Carol since she was so sick. The farther we went down the better I felt. We were camping at Pacaymayo - 3550m - A guide had Carol's pack so I gave her the last of my Gatorade that I had bought at lunch. At one resting point I put my head lamp on and made sure she had hers so we would be ready when it got dark. We finished in the dark and were greeted by several people ( Sue and Dawn were the main welcome wagon I think!) and had people lead us to our campsite.
My experience of the trek was different in some ways than the others in the group. When you are last, you leave and arrive in the dark so I never really saw what the campgrounds looked like. We didn't get to eat breakfast with the group. I don't have a lot of pictures, because I had to just keep moving to get to camp before dinner. I have very few pictures of anyone besides myself because I was alone so much. I got to know the guides better than some of the others though :)
This was a huge site with lots of groups so we had to keep all our stuff inside the tent to keep it from getting stolen. There were flush squat toilets ( way nicer than Indian squat toilets!!!) but they were far from our tents. I used them before bed, but when I got up in the night I just peed by the tent. Since we were last, Debbie and I got a small tent so I had to sleep in the fetal position. There was also a huge tree root under my part of the tent so it was very uncomfortable. Cathy and carol were fortunate that their roommates were fast and could pick out good tents for them. Cathy and carol went straight to bed, I ate and felt ok. I woke up nauseated in the night and sucked on coca candy to combat altitude sickness. Little did I know that I was going to have a very rough day the next day.
Since Debra and I were slow and came in last, they had us start early. Wake up was at 5 am and we were to leave at 5:30 which is when breakfast started for the others. We got a ham and cheese sandwich and a banana instead of the hot breakfast the others got. Joel went with us and I would hike ahead then sit on a silla de Piedra - Rock chair until Debbie caught up. We took a break about 45 minutes in to eat, take our jackets off and put our headlamps away since it was light now.
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| The ear flap had was a great purchase! |
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| llamas! |
I was feeling less nauseated today so I got pretty far ahead which means I was hiking alone for hours. Since we stayed at a little used campground there wasn't anyone else on our section of the trail. 4 hours in I climbed into the woods to pee and saw the first of our group pass. This woman Susanne was always first she was in her sixties and a mountain goat! When I'm in the back I never get to interact with anyone, but today was cool because I got to say hi to everyone as they passed me. I made it to lunch in 6 hours and it wasn't quite ready so I hung out and we cheered as others came in. The guides were impressed with how fast I was moving compared to yesterday. It got cloudy, chilly, and windy while we were eating. The food is pretty good and the soup is always the best part. There were women selling candy and Gatorade - this would be the last we would see for a couple days so obviously I got some chocolate :) Then I made a mistake.
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| I made it to lunch! |
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| cold and windy |
I should have just left after lunch and stayed doing what I was doing. But there was a group of about 8 people who were hiking together and came in an hour after me and since I left an hour early we figured we were going the same pace. So I waited for them so I'd have company. Big mistake. Their idea of resting a lot was walk a few steps then pause for 30 seconds. My idea was to walk a little further and sit on a rock chair for 2 min to catch my breath. I was having a hard time keeping up. We were headed to dead woman's pass (warmihuausca) which is the highest elevation on the trail - 4,200 m. (about 14,000 feet) We climbed straight up for hours. It was hard to breathe for everyone, but my lupus lungs made it more difficult. I let them go and trudged on by myself. It was rediculously hard - my legs and lungs were burning. When I got to the top, the group that I had been walking with was taking pictures and I though great! Finally I will get some pictures with other people! But when I got to the top I couldn't see. My vision was all blurry and I couldn't breath. Victor put this stuff on his hands - a mixture of lemon and rubbing alcohol and made me sniff it a few times. My vision started to clear, but the other group had left. So no pictures :(
Carol had a cold and was really struggling at lunch so they sent her with a guide. I saw her coming up and Cathy not far behind her. Cathy had been puking all day and not doing well so I waited at the top for them. Carol and I rested and took one picture with her camera - I will post it when I get it :) The guides pulled oxygen tanks out of their bags and had to use it on Cathy. The three of us started down towards camp. Cathy got far ahead and I stayed with Carol since she was so sick. The farther we went down the better I felt. We were camping at Pacaymayo - 3550m - A guide had Carol's pack so I gave her the last of my Gatorade that I had bought at lunch. At one resting point I put my head lamp on and made sure she had hers so we would be ready when it got dark. We finished in the dark and were greeted by several people ( Sue and Dawn were the main welcome wagon I think!) and had people lead us to our campsite.
My experience of the trek was different in some ways than the others in the group. When you are last, you leave and arrive in the dark so I never really saw what the campgrounds looked like. We didn't get to eat breakfast with the group. I don't have a lot of pictures, because I had to just keep moving to get to camp before dinner. I have very few pictures of anyone besides myself because I was alone so much. I got to know the guides better than some of the others though :)
This was a huge site with lots of groups so we had to keep all our stuff inside the tent to keep it from getting stolen. There were flush squat toilets ( way nicer than Indian squat toilets!!!) but they were far from our tents. I used them before bed, but when I got up in the night I just peed by the tent. Since we were last, Debbie and I got a small tent so I had to sleep in the fetal position. There was also a huge tree root under my part of the tent so it was very uncomfortable. Cathy and carol were fortunate that their roommates were fast and could pick out good tents for them. Cathy and carol went straight to bed, I ate and felt ok. I woke up nauseated in the night and sucked on coca candy to combat altitude sickness. Little did I know that I was going to have a very rough day the next day.
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