The longest day of the trek, at 16km. We had a wakeup call at 5:30am, breakfast, and then off by 7am (to avoid the midges).
The first part was another steep ascent to the second pass of the trail. Luckily, the weather was on our side today, and the sun was out. We had a chance to stop at a few Inca ruins on our way up.
Over the top of the second pass, we had another steep descent. The terrain almost immediately changed. Richard and Susan (from NZ) remarked that it reminded them of home - definitely the greenest we had seen so far.
On the descent, we stopped at another Inca ruin, and 300 explained the geographical distribution of the Inca empire. Essentially, Cusco was the centre of the empire, and roads radiated out from it. Towns were placed approximately every 30km along a road, with lookout points every 10kms. This included the trail that we were on, and the ruins we were looking at were part of these lookout stations. Other ruins on the path were religious or ceremonial structures.
The next part of the walk was over rolling paths, through the cloud forest - very different from the rainforest yesterday. The trees are not particularly high, but they are all covered with vegetation.
The path started to climb again, with 300 pointing out various flowers along the way. Although we were walking through the clouds again, it didn't rain, and we made good time. We made it over the top of the 3rd pass just in time for lunch (around 1pm). From the pass, we could actually see the back of Machu Picchu mountain, although we couldn't see the site itself.
Someone asked Danielle today where we were going, and she was so tired that she couldn't talk properly and ended up calling Machu Picchu "Michi Picchi". This caused no end of laughter from Eliasar - apparently Michi Picchi means cat pee in Quechuan. That hasn't stopped the group from calling it that for the rest of the day though. :-D
Lunch was, as usual, delicious (soup, chicken drumsticks and sausages with salad). The remainder of the walk for the afternoon was downhill. We had moved out of cloud forest territory, and back into the rainforest.
This section was particularly gruelling - everyone was tired from the morning hike, and the steps down were large and uneven, meaning everyone needed to concentrate. Even so, it was still hell on the knees.
At about 5pm, we emerged on top of a large terraced hill, with breath taking views. Even more enticing was the sight of the campsite at the bottom of the terrace. Of course, this involved the negotiation of another 300-odd steps.
We eventually made it into camp at about 6pm. Dinner tonight was very quiet, with everyone physically and mentally drained from the days hike.
After dinner, we thanked all of the porters and gave them their tip for the journey.
Tomorrow morning, we are getting up at 3:45am and will be gone bu 4:30am on our way to Machu Picchu. The porters will head straight down to the town, and catch the 6am train back to Cusco (to avoid paying tourist prices for tickets).
Everyone is starting to get a little bit grumpy - I suspect the early starts, long days, cold nights, smelly toilets and lack of showers are the main cause :-P
Hopefully people can hold it together tomorrow morning until we reach the site - I suspect it will all be worth it.