Trekking the Inca Trail Day 3 - ALL THE PHOTOS!
Oh my god the morning was like taking my first wobbly steps on baby alpaca legs. WHY IS THE BATHROOM ALL THE WAY DOWN THE SLIPPERY STEPS?
So day 2 on the Inca Trail was pretty tough, but day 3 is a shorter and scenic day. Once I got my Gumby limbs working, it promised to be a good day.
We had a hearty breakfast and were all set to go when it started to rain again, so it was garbage-bag chic poncho time again for me. It seemed as though the race to the top competition had cooled down a bit and many of us paired off with our friends, family or significant others for a more social day of taking our time and taking in the sights. Erin and I trekked together the whole day and she even patiently put up with my dangerous arm pointing and declaration of "BIRD!" every 20 metres.
The first part of the day was a fairly steep incline up a set of stairs. I was promised once we made it over the mountain ridge it was (mostly) downhill or flat from there. The first sight were a couple of pretty ponds where we learned about how the Quechua weaved the local grasses - strong enough to make rope bridges!
Nearing the top of the mountain, I spotted a tree loaded with beautiful navy birds. Again, it was raining quite heavily and I was worried about further damage to my camera so I only got one blurry half-hearted photo of the bird's butt.
But as we turned a corner, so did the weather. Soon the rain stopped and the sun emerged.
The clouds cleared and we began to dry out just as we arrived at the ruins of Sayamarca. To reach the ruins, it was a sprint up about one hundred stone stairs. Leaving our bags and my new butterfly friend at the base of the stairs with the guides, we zipped up (or slowly ambled up) to check it out.
There appeared to be a large sun temple area, storage areas, and several rooms. Across the valley it looked like a storehouse and farming terraces.
More importantly, there were more butterflies and selfies!
Scrambling down the stairs, we were told we could finish the day at our own pace. Which was fantastic because the beautiful weather held so I could take all the photos!
The terrain changed fairly significantly as we trekked along from alpine trees and scraggy plants to a lush bamboo forest flush with orchids.
At an altitude of 3,670 metres we were nestled in the clouds atop the mountain. In a matter of less than a minute, we could watch the mist hide pour through the mountain pass and make the peak disappear.
So day 2 on the Inca Trail was pretty tough, but day 3 is a shorter and scenic day. Once I got my Gumby limbs working, it promised to be a good day.
We had a hearty breakfast and were all set to go when it started to rain again, so it was garbage-bag chic poncho time again for me. It seemed as though the race to the top competition had cooled down a bit and many of us paired off with our friends, family or significant others for a more social day of taking our time and taking in the sights. Erin and I trekked together the whole day and she even patiently put up with my dangerous arm pointing and declaration of "BIRD!" every 20 metres.
The first part of the day was a fairly steep incline up a set of stairs. I was promised once we made it over the mountain ridge it was (mostly) downhill or flat from there. The first sight were a couple of pretty ponds where we learned about how the Quechua weaved the local grasses - strong enough to make rope bridges!
Nearing the top of the mountain, I spotted a tree loaded with beautiful navy birds. Again, it was raining quite heavily and I was worried about further damage to my camera so I only got one blurry half-hearted photo of the bird's butt.
But as we turned a corner, so did the weather. Soon the rain stopped and the sun emerged.
The clouds cleared and we began to dry out just as we arrived at the ruins of Sayamarca. To reach the ruins, it was a sprint up about one hundred stone stairs. Leaving our bags and my new butterfly friend at the base of the stairs with the guides, we zipped up (or slowly ambled up) to check it out.
There appeared to be a large sun temple area, storage areas, and several rooms. Across the valley it looked like a storehouse and farming terraces.
More importantly, there were more butterflies and selfies!
And a photobomb. Keepin' it classy.
The walls were really well preserved and home to some cool mosses.
Scrambling down the stairs, we were told we could finish the day at our own pace. Which was fantastic because the beautiful weather held so I could take all the photos!
The terrain changed fairly significantly as we trekked along from alpine trees and scraggy plants to a lush bamboo forest flush with orchids.
Across the valley from our path we spotted a few gushing waterfalls.
And in the trees I found a few of my frequent companions - hummingbirds! One even agreed to sit still for me instead of being a Mach speed Jerky McJerkface!
In my opinion, it was the most interesting day of trekking because of the ruins, varied vegetation, bevvy of birds, and changing terrain. We even climbed through a couple of caves.
Sidebar: the teenage boy hiking ahead of us with his parents was hilariously scared of going through the caves... But the only scary things in those caves was me. HA!
Continuing on through the lush foliage, we kept finding beautiful and weird flowers, but lost our view of the valley to encroaching clouds.
At times the path edge on the cliff side disappeared - it felt like you'd tumble into the soft clouds instead of down a steep mountain side to your doom. We did not test out the cloud theory.
Rounding a few more corners, we arrived at our next campsite kind of abruptly! Day 3 was a shorter day for us as the further campground our tour company usually booked was full, so stayed at the camp site higher in altitude and further from our final destination. It makes for a longer last day and more hiking in the dark, but I think it was well worth it as the Phuyupatamarka site and ruins were the most interesting to me.
At an altitude of 3,670 metres we were nestled in the clouds atop the mountain. In a matter of less than a minute, we could watch the mist hide pour through the mountain pass and make the peak disappear.
We had a few hours to rest before exploring the ruins directly below our campsite. More on Phuyupatamarka in the next post!
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