The DESCENT inca trail day three
Today was a rough day, but I finished!
The altitude made me so sick. I took my med, drank coca tea, chewed on some coca leaves, and sucked on coca candy.... I'm seriously going to leave Peru with a cocaine habit!!!!!
Cathy, Debbie, and I started early in the dark with Marco as our guide. We had to climb another pass, Runkuracay, today. We would climb a bit and rest. I was so nauseated that I was trying to eat my sandwich a bite at a time. Finally I threw up and felt a little better, but every time I ate or drank, it came right back up. It is hard to hike when you have no fuel. The trail was much more crowded today so we had to stop often to let porters and hikers pass. These porters were resting and let me take their picture :)
I tried to eat a passion fruit because I thought it was like an orange. I love passionfruit juice, but have never seen an actual passionfruit. It was bizzarre!!! To open it, you smash it on a rock and you see these tentacle things attaching the peel to the fruit. The fruit itself is gelatinous with seeds in it - it looked like an alien!!
We were supposed to stop at a campground tonight then get up early to hike the last few hours to Machu Picchu. Carol was really sick with some respiratory thing which was making it really hard on her lungs. They strapped her to a stretcher and had porters carry her with Myra running behind them. They were going to take her all the way to Macchu pichu so she could see a doctor and sleep in a bed. We saw her a few times. She had a different view than we did - all she saw were trees and sky! Those porters were moving! They got to MP by 1:30. By contrast I got to camp around 6 and hiked another 2.5 hours the next day. The porters haul our stuff but never get to see Machu Picchu. Myra pause and let the ones that were carrying Carol enjoy it for a few minutes. Someone in our group saw a woman slung half conscious over a porter's back and he was hauling her out. I'm wondering how many people have to be hauled out? A person in our group told me they looked up safety statistics on the Inca trail to find out how many people die on it etc. and found no information. We were not sure if that was good or bad!!!
We got to a site with ruins and Victor was waiting for most of the group to catch up so he could give a tour. I stayed down to watch the bags because I just didn't have it in me to climb unnecessary steps. We made it to the lunch site and all I could eat was some soup and a few bites of yam. I refilled my bladder and we started again. I was having trouble with it leaking and I asked Erik to look at it. Best we could tell the pressure of my gear was making it leak.
The trail was " inca flat" for awhile and we walked through a cloud forest that was amazing.
Considering I was so sick, I was still making good time and we caught up to a group of our people at a view area. We stopped to use the bano ( just a squat hole) and the group was gone by the time we got there.
We started down the steep decent - over 2500 stairs. We had been warned about this, but I don't know if it is possible to train for this part! They are very uneven and I was very thankful for my trekking poles! I fell once on my butt and so did Cathy because there was a lot of loose sand. It took us about 4 hours to get down. We had followed porters at several big stops, but we saw no one for a long time so we were a little worried we had gone the wrong direction. I don't speak Quechua, but my Spanish was helping us a lot. We got our head lamps on because it looked like another dark finish. I'm so thankful Cathy stayed with me. By the last hour I could barely move. Lupus made my joints hurt so much - my knees and ankles were killing me. I also started to get blisters on my feet which was the first time I had that problem. We finally spotted Joel waiting for us by a sign and he pointed us in the right direction and it was going to be another hour. I was in agony by then and for the last 200 steps or so I said " just one more step" every time I stepped down. We finally reached the campsite in the pitch black so Joel got confused and led us the wrong way so we were the last two to arrive.
I was so relieved to finish - I started sobbing. I had only kept one bowl of soup down all day and was in so much pain and hiked for 12 hours with very little fuel. This lovely lady, Sue, took my boots off and washed and rubbed my feet - she is an angel! Everyone was very encouraging and proud of us for finishing. There wasn't a question of finishing. I have finished every race I have ever started. Several times I have ended up in the medical tent (and the hospital once) at the end of the race, but I have finished every single race I have started. It is just a matter of how miserable I am :)
The porters made us a cake!! a cake!! on the trail. Not sure how they did it! I didn't get any pictures of it or the porter ceremony because I was so out of it from the hike. Our porters are amazing and Erik led a ceremony where each porter told us their name and what they carried for us. We collected tips and shared it with them. We saw other groups doing similar ceremonies - it is a really nice way to honor them and end the trip.
Debbie and my tent was with the porters so we didn't have to walk far, but I still needed Erik to help me walk. I went a few feet away from the tent and used my water bottle to brush my teeth for only the second time dueling the hike. Someone my wet wipes got tossed so Annie gave me hers and I used a wet wipe on my face - that was my "shower." I conked out and actually got some sleep - not a lot because we had to get up at 3:30 am. the next morning.
Today was a rough day, but I finished!
The altitude made me so sick. I took my med, drank coca tea, chewed on some coca leaves, and sucked on coca candy.... I'm seriously going to leave Peru with a cocaine habit!!!!!
 |
| beautiful views today |
Cathy, Debbie, and I started early in the dark with Marco as our guide. We had to climb another pass, Runkuracay, today. We would climb a bit and rest. I was so nauseated that I was trying to eat my sandwich a bite at a time. Finally I threw up and felt a little better, but every time I ate or drank, it came right back up. It is hard to hike when you have no fuel. The trail was much more crowded today so we had to stop often to let porters and hikers pass. These porters were resting and let me take their picture :)
I tried to eat a passion fruit because I thought it was like an orange. I love passionfruit juice, but have never seen an actual passionfruit. It was bizzarre!!! To open it, you smash it on a rock and you see these tentacle things attaching the peel to the fruit. The fruit itself is gelatinous with seeds in it - it looked like an alien!!
We were supposed to stop at a campground tonight then get up early to hike the last few hours to Machu Picchu. Carol was really sick with some respiratory thing which was making it really hard on her lungs. They strapped her to a stretcher and had porters carry her with Myra running behind them. They were going to take her all the way to Macchu pichu so she could see a doctor and sleep in a bed. We saw her a few times. She had a different view than we did - all she saw were trees and sky! Those porters were moving! They got to MP by 1:30. By contrast I got to camp around 6 and hiked another 2.5 hours the next day. The porters haul our stuff but never get to see Machu Picchu. Myra pause and let the ones that were carrying Carol enjoy it for a few minutes. Someone in our group saw a woman slung half conscious over a porter's back and he was hauling her out. I'm wondering how many people have to be hauled out? A person in our group told me they looked up safety statistics on the Inca trail to find out how many people die on it etc. and found no information. We were not sure if that was good or bad!!!
We got to a site with ruins and Victor was waiting for most of the group to catch up so he could give a tour. I stayed down to watch the bags because I just didn't have it in me to climb unnecessary steps. We made it to the lunch site and all I could eat was some soup and a few bites of yam. I refilled my bladder and we started again. I was having trouble with it leaking and I asked Erik to look at it. Best we could tell the pressure of my gear was making it leak.
The trail was " inca flat" for awhile and we walked through a cloud forest that was amazing.
Considering I was so sick, I was still making good time and we caught up to a group of our people at a view area. We stopped to use the bano ( just a squat hole) and the group was gone by the time we got there.
We started down the steep decent - over 2500 stairs. We had been warned about this, but I don't know if it is possible to train for this part! They are very uneven and I was very thankful for my trekking poles! I fell once on my butt and so did Cathy because there was a lot of loose sand. It took us about 4 hours to get down. We had followed porters at several big stops, but we saw no one for a long time so we were a little worried we had gone the wrong direction. I don't speak Quechua, but my Spanish was helping us a lot. We got our head lamps on because it looked like another dark finish. I'm so thankful Cathy stayed with me. By the last hour I could barely move. Lupus made my joints hurt so much - my knees and ankles were killing me. I also started to get blisters on my feet which was the first time I had that problem. We finally spotted Joel waiting for us by a sign and he pointed us in the right direction and it was going to be another hour. I was in agony by then and for the last 200 steps or so I said " just one more step" every time I stepped down. We finally reached the campsite in the pitch black so Joel got confused and led us the wrong way so we were the last two to arrive.
I was so relieved to finish - I started sobbing. I had only kept one bowl of soup down all day and was in so much pain and hiked for 12 hours with very little fuel. This lovely lady, Sue, took my boots off and washed and rubbed my feet - she is an angel! Everyone was very encouraging and proud of us for finishing. There wasn't a question of finishing. I have finished every race I have ever started. Several times I have ended up in the medical tent (and the hospital once) at the end of the race, but I have finished every single race I have started. It is just a matter of how miserable I am :)
The porters made us a cake!! a cake!! on the trail. Not sure how they did it! I didn't get any pictures of it or the porter ceremony because I was so out of it from the hike. Our porters are amazing and Erik led a ceremony where each porter told us their name and what they carried for us. We collected tips and shared it with them. We saw other groups doing similar ceremonies - it is a really nice way to honor them and end the trip.
Debbie and my tent was with the porters so we didn't have to walk far, but I still needed Erik to help me walk. I went a few feet away from the tent and used my water bottle to brush my teeth for only the second time dueling the hike. Someone my wet wipes got tossed so Annie gave me hers and I used a wet wipe on my face - that was my "shower." I conked out and actually got some sleep - not a lot because we had to get up at 3:30 am. the next morning.
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