Viva el Peru 3

Hola! So, this is my third post. Oh my! Sorry for not finishing my story in the previous two posts! I guess I have a lot to say eh? Anyways, I've been slacking off this weekend all because I've been "working hard" for the past few weeks. Yes, I did some work when I was in Peru. So, now I am taking my time off from school work. Haha. Actually, more like I got stuck doing my Glacial and Earth Evolution lab ;)

Lets continue.

DAY 2: 

One word - CRAZY!

Why? Because we had to climb the highest point of the whole hike which is at 4215m above sea level. Believe me, it was tough. Even Mt Kinabalu, Sabah is 4400m a.s.l. But this time it's different cause my bag was lighter and the climb is less physical than Mt. Kinabalu.

 

Pancake and toast bread for breakfast :) Yummy!

 

 Foggy morning! It was like this everyday ;)

Stop 1. Some locals were selling drinks and snacks, but they are, of course, more pricey. Still very foggy.

The trail on day 2 had us walking into a forest, almost like a rainforest...and with all the fog and stuff, it felt a lil "wet". Day 1 was more like grassy plains all around us. 

I hate climbing up stairs...It took more effort. 

More trees on Day 2

The last stop before the major climb!

This photo makes me feel like I am above the clouds!

The major climb, can be steep at times. At this point, I was hiking by myself cause all of us were hiking at our own pace.

Porter and the valley. I was taking a break. Haha. And I ended up taking out my iPod cause I was bored walking alone. Plus I was singing along the way to take my mind of from the question "how far is it to the peak??!!" I once asked the porter, and he said "10 minutes". OK. 

At my pace, it was more like 20 minutes. Hehe

Hah! Yours truly taking her last few steps before reaching the peak

(credit: Mbn)

At the peak a.k.a The Dead Woman's Pass

The marker

Survivors of the brutal climb. At first it was quite warm since I was still sweating like crazy from the climb. After awhile, dangggg I had to wear a sweater and put on my glovessss!!

Ahh, kami! Yey, we all made it!

This is one of my favourite photos of us three. 

(Credit to MBN!)

The view of the valley from 4215m a.s.l

What goes up, must come down. I find going downhill is even crazier just because my knees are suffering from condition where they are worn out (I forgot the more "sophisticated" or the medical term for it); they will hurt if I try to put a lot of pressure on it (aka going downhill)...so, the boys left me :(

- see, already quick ahead of me 

mehh! I just took my time walking. No hurry right? I took some photos along the way too.

Purple flowers along the way. 

Approaching the campsite on Day 2 with a view of a cascading waterfall. The water was cold and refreshing! Not that I drink it, but I used it to wash my face and brush my teeth :)

DAY 3:

Ahhh. Day 3 was okay. Mostly downhill which, if you must know...KILLED my knees altogether! Darn. And it was raining too. Since I forgot to get a rain cover from Mbn, I used my raincoat to cover my bag and that left me soaking WET. Well, it's not like I care too much cause I'm used to it, especially back in the days when I used to cycle a lot. Luckily, my pants dried fast so I wasn't freezing or suffering from hypothermia for that matter (LOL, actually it wasn't anything close to that!). 

  The start of day 3. Excited much? You bet!

Juan Carlos and Me!! At Runkuraqay.

Of course, this is what Mbn do best!

the two of us and the cascading waterfall!!

Runkuraqay ruins, used as a resting point and for storage.

Hide and seek, no?

(credit: Mbn)

At Sayaqmarka. Altitude: 3625m

I kinda forgot what this ruin was back in Inca time. 

Well, it started to rain here!! I don't think you wanna be in the Mountains when it rains, cause it was cold. 

Hey, no peeking! Mata kuyu Mbn... ;)

Gamba band kami dekat Sayaqmarka. 

(credit: Mbn)

Going into the Inca tunnel! Err, you can see here I am protecting my bag more than myself. Haha. It's okay for me to be wet than my whole stuff. I can change to dry clothes later :) 

The view from Phuyupatamarka.

The steps got really slippery and all that. I was, again, walking alone. The boys were far ahead. Dangg. You know when you walked alone...you started to feel bored and for me, my head was thinking about weird things. humff. I could not listen to my iPod cause it was raining!! :( The trail was a lil spooky (to me!) cause of the fog. It's like you are walking into the unknown! I don't know what I was thinking at that time. All I know is, just keep walking. Slow down when possible cause if I slipped off the cliffs, nobody would hear or see me! Yea, that was intense. I didn't stop at all. Not even to drink water! Remember bout the Spanish dude I told you in the last post? So yeah, occasionally I would see him and we talked. It's not like I totally understand him, but again, common sense jerr. He had a video camera, and he would stop and took some vids of the trail or people, whichever. That's when I jumped in to be the "extras" ahaha. He was recording some porters running downhill with all the big bags etc, I walked close enough to the porters to just be in his video. Haha. I don't know if that is inappropriate or not, but hey he could use some girl in his vids ;)

 

All wet :( 

It dried quite fast. See, cheap pants pon bagus. 

I don't want you to guess the price! 

Didn't I tell you it was like stepping into the unknown? 

So yeah, day 3 hike was great. Since it was mainly going downhil for few hours, my knees hurt like hell later that day. I don't think anybody felt good after that.  Haha. 

Our last dinner together. Oh boy, that's a lot of food!!

(credit: Giesung Park)

Well, we had fun that night! Played cards and just chit chat. Later that night, we had a lil ceremony to thank our porters and cook. They were amazing! Good food and I was really amazed by the porters. They carried things that weighed almost 25kg! Well, the chit chat continued after that. Juan Carlos (tour guide) pretty much had a lot of "first time" with our group. Twins, first time pakai tudung laa etc... 

 

I think I will continue Day 4 a.k.a Machu Picchu in a separate post! Just cause it IS Machu Picchu.

We had to wake up at 3.30am! Even so, we slept late. Hehe. 

OK, I hope you will enjoy reading this post!  A lil long, but I think you pretty much can expect that from me right? And, please enjoy the photos as well!

ps: Sorry, I kinda forgot the history part of this trail. I just remember the big picture :(

Later gators. My weekend was a lazy weekend. 

Haha, just the way I like it

FZ