Ayul and Candice walking the Inka TrailWe woke to a cold start, temps around 40 degrees. The porters brought warm water to wash up with and hot coffee to each of our tent doors. I quickly cleaned up and got ready for breakfast looking at the day ahead. We sat our daypacks and duffels back on the tarp laid out by the porters. Breakfast consisted of a first course of tea, coffee, and fruit, followed by hot cereal course, and finally eggs, with meat, cheese, and veggies. It was a lot of food. I ate all of it! After breakfast we picked up our day packs and poles to set off. Some of the porters had already left to get far ahead of us and set up lunch. Today is the dead woman’s pass, or the highest point in our four-day trek. Ayul was encouraging to us all, he advised hiking at our own pace and not trying to keep up of slow down for our group until we all reached the top. It was a challenging day for all. There was even a group of young hockey players and they looked tired/accomplished when we all got to the top. Altitude is an equalizer of sorts. Once through the pass it was all downhill to our campsite. Steep downhill with lovely flowing grasslands on each side. I commented that I could not imagine climbing to the pass from this side. Almost as soon as I said this, I hear pan flute music, an elderly Quechan man is gracefully gliding up the trail playing his flute. It is lovely and we are all taken by it. Each of us empties our pockets of any extra soles into the flute player’s hand. Lisa, Austin, and Candance were smart enough to take a picture with our afternoon Inca Trail musician. We continued to another lovely campsite and amazing porters. Dinner was again a multiple course affair completed with banana’s flambe with chocolate and rum.
