Day 2 of the Inca Trail Trek

We were all happy to have made it to the 2nd day! I'm so glad that we bought the hot warmers as they were so helpful at night when it gets cold. The sleeping bags were warm but I find them confining and decided to leave the zipper side open and it was good after that. I was felt so confined the first night I was imagining waking up and taking my scissors and just frigin slice the crap out of my sleeping bag silk liner on one side ... loco? Ci!!!

Anyways, today was and is the toughest of all climbs as in involves steep inclines and declines along the way. Again, we totally lucked out with the weather ... a drizzle here and a drizzle there but mostly sunny! As you will see, I didn't take many photos as I was so focused and doing my trekking but Steve and Helen were good to take pics ....

Today was really tough. Margaret joined us there at the end as she was still not feeling up to par ... and like what she says ... this trek really makes and proves the character you are as it was challenging mentally and physically. In a wierd sort of way, her not feeling well helped the 4 of us girls bond. We took turns leading and pacing the rest of the group and stopping here and there for rest or for when Helen had to go in the bushes. Migel (the assistant to Jorge) was so patient as he was at the end making sure we were all all right...and lol...telling where Helen should go ... even when we thought we had a good spot picked out! And Helen... boy oh boy ... I don't know how she did it ... but with the runs and doing the Dead Woman's Pass... that is something ... the whole group is admirable as most people had some problems and still kept pushing on. They were each amazing in their own ways ... no brown-nosing here as there is no need ... each of them are amazing people.

It was really a tough day and in the end.... the last few hundred steps incline to the Dead Woman's Pass (13769 FT above sea level) was really hard to resist the adrenaline to just run up ... we had to talk to ourselves to just keep the pace and not burn oursleves out and we did. It was such an achievement reaching there! Deep down inside we cheered on the of the dudes on as we took turns passing each other all day ... but we all made it around the same time ... and it was exhilerating! Cold but exhilerating! It was nice that Jorge stayed up there to high five us :)

The steep downhill on uneven rocks and bolders followed after reaching the top. My forte is definately not uphill :) Downhill went alot smoother but we had to be careful as it was pretty slippery from the rain and drizzle we had here and there that day. It was easy not to take any breather as all you can do is just keep going down down down ... and if you stop ... well ... your legs start shaking and it's just easier to keep going! The good thing is us girls made it down to the campsite before it started pouring for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, a couple of people (Shaun and Jane and most likely more) felt some affects of the altitude and perhaps from other things ... who knows ... but like I said... they were all troopers as they didn't complain much about what they had to deal with. Amazingly, without Diomox I felt fine (in comparison to when I went to Lhasa last year). So I was glad about that though not so glad for those suffering from it. Helen had a hard time breathing and needed Oxyishot (oxygen in a can pretty much). It helped her so that's good. She made it this far and it would be cruel to see her not make the next day or so. I don't know how many people went to supper after the break when we all got together, but Eva and I took Benedryl or Gravol so that we can have a good night's sleep and called it a night pretty early on. I slept like a baby until they called us for supper and then I was tossing and turning ... perhaps I should have taken more gravol!