And it was the Morning of the Second Day

One question anyone who has ever camped has asked themselves, aside from "Why the hell am I doing this", is "How cold was it last night?". In preparation for this trek, and hopefully others, I bought a recording thermometer watch. Not only does it provide time and current temp, it notes the high and low, and (once the other members of your group find out) provides hours of entertaining sarcastic remarks. Never the less, I am happy to report that the coldest it got on the trip was this first night out at 42F. If you want C YOU do the math. This was another point of humorous diversion between the two Americans and, well, everyone else. C or F, Feet or Meters. It was High and it was Cold. End of line.

Morning #2 was beautiful, and peek-a-boo clear, with the clouds literally bumping into us as we roused at 0600 for breakfast at 0630. We were greeted by a troupe of llamas wandering their pastures, and everyone got the obligatory photos.





Again, I was thrilled that the temperatures were manageable, as my protection was limited to the fleece jacket, thin long-sleeved shirt, two cotton t-shirts, and blue-jeans. As someone more experienced than I noted, however, having calories to expend (plenty of food) and expending them (the effort of hiking under load) is what really keeps you warm! It isn't called 'burning' calories for nothing!

We had another 1000 feet or so to the top of Dead Woman's Pass, and then, as they say, it's all down hill. Except for the up-hill.
Dead Woman's Pass is so named because during the re-discovery of the Inca Trail backwards from Machupicchu the explorers came upon a small grave/tomb at the top of the pass. It was a female obviously offered as a sacrifice to the sun-god. This day all our women (both) were on good behavior.

It was then, and is now, permissible to leave a rock or coca leaf offering in place of human sacrifice. An interesting series of cairns is being built up along the ridge line and, as a testament to human spirit, up the sides of the pass towards the peaks defining it. Looking carefully in the above photo you can see the trail winding down towards the starting point, back some 8 miles and around the bend.

Now we face what is actually the more hazardous section and physically wearing - the downhill. While traveling uphill one must fight gravity, it is also providing some assistance by slowing your pace and ensuring firm footing. Not so down hill. Like a pebble dislodged and bouncing down a hillside over a cliff, a mis-step could lead to a twist, a fall, or a disaster. We were carrying next to nothing (except the Germans, Franz and Daniel who, whether for fiscal reasons or machismo, decided to carry their own gear. NOTE: in good natured fashion they did nothing but bicker over who carried longer, higher, farther, faster the entire way!), but the porters carried incredible loads up to this point and then down. Here is a porter from a different tour group with around 50lbs of gear. While most wore old running shoes some were in sandals, including the one porter I saw carrying TWO full propane tanks - at 13,000feet! Remember that cheering and applause I mentioned? Each time a porter passed a group of hikers we would give way and give a cheer - for that was our dinner tent and dinner going by!

This is Fran, 1/2 the Australian contingent, coming down some of the treacherous steps at a reasonable rate. Her companion, Hein, had his hair on fire that day and went off like a shot downhill and out of sight. Though he didn't fall he was to pay a price........