The sunrise over Mt. Pumaciello this morning is sublime…
The night was milder than I’d anticipated, although I did wear every item of clothing I brought with me, so that may have helped. The view from our tent this morning of the sun striking the glaciers of Mt. Pumaciello is simply sublime. I bounce out of bed to capture the moment for posterity.
Flavio says today will be easier – only 10 km – but he is an incorrigible optimist. The elevation gain to the top of the third and final pass we shall cross (Phuyupatamarka at 3680m / 12,000 feet) is only 80m and then it’s downhill all the way to Machu Picchu (at 2,400m / 7874 feet), baby. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves; the Lost City of the Incas is still 15 km away and we won’t reach it until early tomorrow morning. Between us and our goal are the spectacular Inca ruins of Phuyupatamarka, the terraces of Intipata, a beautiful cloud forest and a trail of endless stone steps, irregularly spaced and irregularly shaped. Quite how no one sprains an ankle or breaks a leg is beyond me. Still the cloud forest with its sphagnum moss, Spanish moss, lichens and epiphytes (bromeliads, ferns and orchids) conjures up fantastic images of an ancient, Jurassic park-like world. Who knows what’s watching us from the dense undergrowth or what lies around the next corner?
Well it ain’t T-Rex. It’s not even a dinosaur fossil. But it is another Inca ruin. And nothing makes Flavio happier than relating some fascinating tidbit of information about one of these ancient sites. My mind, which is so full of fluff anyway, can’t digest another Inca fact and I resort to looking for teeny tiny monsters in the undergrowth, instead. Our last stop of the day is at the partially rebuilt site of Winaywayna, which is beautifully located on a precipitous mountain slope. It’s so much easier to appreciate the Inca civilization when the ruins have some meat on the bones. I love it.
I don’t love the nearby campsite (also called Winaywayna), however. It seems as if every hiker on the trail is staying here tonight, waiting for the mad dash to Machu Picchu early tomorrow morning. And the repeated mad dashes to the ablution block throughout the evening means the toilets become rapidly…overwhelmed.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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