Day Two:

Each morning our wake up call came as a Porter or Guide knocked on our tent and said "Buenos Dias Amigos, Cocoa Tea!!!" Then as we unzipped our tents we were greeted with a very hot cup of cocoa tea (very good for altitude sickness) As we drank our tea, we packed up our things and got ready for the day ahead. As mentioned before, much of Day One was spent telling us about the elevation and intensity that we had to look forward to for Day Two. The 12 of us gathered for breakfast (very yummy pancakes with caramel syrup and some porridge type stuff that kinda tasted like running grits, but it was hot and filling and we knew we needed as much energy as we could get) and discussed the journey we would take today.


The first pass was going to be at 4200m and then we would go down into the valley and pass through the rain forest.
Here we are in "Deepest, Darkest Peru."
After that we started the UP! It was kinda rough so I did not take many pictures. We all went at our own pace, which was good, and along the way we played leap-frog with other tour groups. At points I ended up hanging out with people from other groups more than my own. I met a great group of Brits who had been to many awesome places and had great stories to tell. I met some guys from Canada who had never done anything like this before. Then, I met a family from Florida. Along the way we started talking about where exactly in Florida we were from. As always, I started out telling them I was from Tampa. They said, "Oh so are we, where in Tampa?" I said "A little north of Tampa." "Oh so are we, what part of North Tampa?" I said, "Well its a little town called Land O Lakes." The woman almost dropped her walking stick "NO WAY, we live in Land O Lakes, our daughter is starting and the high school in the fall!" Insane! I instantly introduced them to Melissa, who went to high school with me and we started talking with the girl about teachers she should try to have and which teachers to avoid. It was a good distraction from the cardio ass-kicking we were receiving.

Thankfully, my sister-in-law helped me train prior to this trip. With Jen Ellefson's patented "16-weeks to get your butt ready for the Inca Trail" training program, I was in much better shape than I had expected. I will admit there were times when I had to pull over and I certainly spent some time giving Melissa instructions on what to do with my body if I die. But all in all, I MADE IT!

Once we got to the peak, we rested for a bit and waited for the rest of our group to catch up. We ate our snacks that the cook had packed for us that morning and we took some "Inca Family" photos at the top. Then it was time to hike DOWN! This was a time when walking sticks were needed. Much of the trail down was steps, which was great, except they were various sizes, shapes and heights. The wind at this point was brutal as well. Much of the trick of the trail was being able to quickly add or take off layers of your wardrobe. After a few more hours of hiking we made it to our campsite for Night Two. The area was called Chaquichocha and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! A cool little spot nestled between two mountains, with an amazing view of the clouds gathering and then clearing in the sky.

The lack of clouds that night made for a great Inca Astronomy lesson after dinner that night. Which is very cool because, unlike our astronomy based on Greek Mythology and the constellations made by connecting the dots of stars, the Inca Astronomy is based on their Milky Way with the Llama as the center point, the Southern Cross being important and the space between the stars make their constellations. It was really cool to learn about.

The minimal clouds also made it very very cold that night. Our water bottles froze inside our tents, but luckily the sleeping bags we had rented were great down NorthFace mummy sleeping bags that kept us quite warm (with many layers of clothes and two pairs of socks.) The ghost stories told at dinner made Melissa and I quickly agree that over night bathroom trips were NOT going to happen tonight. We we zipped up our tent, climbed into our sleeping bags and passed out after a long, hard day!