South America 2016 - The Inca Trail Day 3

Distance Covered: 13.4 km / 8.33 miles

Start: 3,590 m / 11,788 ft

End: 2,700 m / 8,858 ft

Climb: -890 m / -2,930 ft

Sun rising on day 3.

Once again at 5am, we hear the same gentle knock on our tent door from Rudy saying, “Buenos diaz, coca tea”. Having had a sleepless night the night before, followed by a challenging day’s hike, the whole team slept quite soundly through the night. In stark difference from yesterday, everyone is chattier and more cheerful this morning, having had a good sleep. I am fortunately feeling significantly better but take some anti-nausea medication to keep breakfast down as I essentially haven’t eaten since 3pm the day before. Once again, our team of cooks have pulled out all the stops, serving up toast and omelette.

It is our second-last day of hiking and we will walk approximately 9 hours, covering 13.4km and descending 1,090 m / 2,930 ft to our final campsite of the hike at 2,700m / 8,858 ft. Today’s walk was much easier as we mostly headed downhill, stopping at a couple of archeological sites on route, and of course at a lunch stop where we were served up yet another delicious meal. The team spends most of Day 3 chipper and chatty, spending more opportunity to take in the sights as we enter the “Cloud Forest” area, gaping in awe of how the porters move quickly downhill on the uneven terrain and appreciating just how far we’ve come.

Looking back on our camp; I thought they said no more up hills!

The views along the way

Ruins along the Inca Trail

The Kath Family Girls taking in the panoramic views

Taking in the views before we head to the final campsite

More views

Final ruins before the campsite

Couple of videos showing our porters tearing down the path. They don't look like they are fast but it's hard to convey exactly how uneven the steps are in the video and even carrying significantly less than 25kg, we don't move that fast. Wait till the end of the first video to see Vince run down the stairs "porter style".

Our last night on the trail is a busy one. Our campsite is in an area with a number of campsites and there are probably about 200 hikers (and another 300 porters and cooks) all gathered in the area. After dinner, we make our formal thanks to our support crew, who we all know we could not have done this trek without. It is a mix of tiredness and wanting to sleep, and an air of excitement knowing that by early tomorrow morning, we will find ourselves at Machu Picchu. We try to get as much sleep as possible, with our wakeup up call tomorrow scheduled for 3:30am.

[End of Day 3 -> Click for Day 4]

Team Sexy Llamas!

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