The second day was the "tough day" and to prepare we fuelled up by Western (pancakes) and Andean means (Coca leaves jammed into the side of our cheeks) and so we were ready to climb some more stairs. Three hours later we had a ten minute sit down, the aptly named "Dead Woman´s Pass" looming above us. My mouth was too dry to release any Coca leaf juice so I resorted to Milky Ways for an added burst of something. How tçcan I describe climbing/crawling up Dead Woman´s Pass? An ascent of 600m up to 4,200m took about 2 and a half hours. Walking at this altitude was frustratingly slow as after about 15 steps the lack of oxygen hits you like a truck;you can´t walk through it but have to stop, steady the breathing and heart rate and slowly set off again on the next 15 steps. The whole morning was like walking through treacle. The views however were simply breathtaking (literally and figuratively!) and I never got tired of leaning on my walking stick, getting my breath back, gazing out on the majesty of the Andes, stacked up like lines of wizard hats. I hope the photos do them some justice. We eventually reached 4,200, celebrated and all we had to do now was go downhill for 2 hrs for lunch. After about 10 mins of descending rickety, wobbly stonbe steps designed for narrow Incan feet, my calves began to burn, my legs wobble and I hated going down more that going up. And so the pattern was set for the rest of the day. We even hit 4000m again, our guide pulling us through, running back and forth like the mountain goat that he was, extolling us to go "slowly, slowly". I was never quite sure if he was being a little sarcastic as our group was always the last to get anywhere despite having at least an hours head start. By the end of the day I had indigestion and stomach cramps and practically crawled into camp. A porter had come out to escort us home and when i inquired in my broken Spanish how far we had to go he replied cheerfully "Ten minutes". Ten minutes and about 200 meters later his smile dropped and he revised it quickly to "I´m not sure" when he saw how "despacio" I was walking. Finally into second camp and the basins of water and soap laid out at our tent doors exceeded any view I had seen that day. After another amazing spread ( barely eaten) we had a jug of sangria to celebrate surviving Day 2 but we could only manage a token sip before flopping into our sleeping bags. Fortuantly the third day was easier due to the mammoth distances we had covered the previous two. We woke to find our campsite was surrounded by glittering glaciers (less than years ago due to global warming) and glorious sunshine. We had a relatively lesiurely 5 hr hike in the sun exploring Inca sites before reaching Base Camp, where all the groups converged to camp about 2 hrs away from Machu Picchu. Something must have happened us over night. Maybe the ceremony on top of the Second Pass to leave our tiredness behind worked, because we were a group with a mission on our last morning. We awoke at 3.30am, packed up camp and were ready , waiting for the last checkpoint to open and let the flood of 200 hikers on the final part of the trail. At 4.30 am we were waved through and we marched silently, concentrating in the dark, torchlight dimly lighting the way. We didn´t pause, hesitate, stop for water or to take off our warm clothes. There was an urgency and new energy about us. We passed out most people ahead and almost ran up the last lot of steep steps to the Sungate and finally we had arrived, one of the first that morning to see the first fingers of light creep across Machu Picchu. Tears were shed, texts were sent. We had made it!
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