Day 3

We woke up at about 5am and ate breakfast at the hotel. Juan was a little late picking us up, but we got in the van about 6:10am. The van had about 10 people on it, including two girls from our white water rafting trip. We made one more stop to pick up the last people from our trip, and then once again to pick up our porters. I can tell you the smell was one I have never experienced. It was spicy, pungent, and with a slight hint of wet manure. We were on the bus until 10:30, so we really got to enjoy the full subtleties of the smell.

At one point, we stopped to get gas. I went to the bathroom in the "restroom." I had no idea that my experience at the gas station was a preview of what was to come. Of course, I forgot to bring toilet paper with me, so I was forced to use a business card to wipe. It worked about as well as you could imagine.

We arrived at a small town just outside the beginning of the trail. The ladies immediately tried to get us to buy all sorts of things. We settled on buying walking sticks and ponchos. We had a quick cup of coca tea and then were wisked away on the bus again.

The rest of the trip was very interesting because it was a one lane road but two way traffic. So, everytime another car/van came, both vehicles would honk and the one with the loudest or most persistant honk got to go forward, the weaker vehicle would have to go backwards until there was enough space for the weakling to pull over enough for the loud one to get by.

We finally arrived at the start of the trail where we were bombarded again by the local ladies who peddled more wares. We started walking by crossing the Urubamba river. The hike was pretty easy, not much up or down. We stopped at about 1pm for lunch. The porters set up a large tent and cooked food for us.

While we waited (the only day we actually had to wait for lunch) we played with a small booke, where two of the guys with us made a dam. A local little girl came and talked to us and sat while we played with the dam. Our lunch started with quinoa soup (delicious) and chicken. We finished with tea.

We got walking again and stopped after a few hours. The porters had run ahead of us and set up for tea time. They made hot water for tea or hot chocolate and brought out cookies and freshly popped popcorn! We couldn't belive it. After a nice long tea and getting to know our fellow travelers, Juan called us out to look at the sunset.

The "sunset" was really watching the setting sun's rays hit the snow-capped mountains. Which, of course we hated. Just kidding, we took like a million pictures. After the sun went down, it was almost time for dinner, so we went into the tents to get our stuff all ready for bed. Dinner was incredible. We started with soup again, then we had about 5 dishes of vegetables, rice, potatoes, pasta, and chicken. It was sooooooo good.

After dinner, we went outside to enjoy the stars. They were so vibrant and bright. We hit the sack early since we would be getting up at 5:45am to get started on the hardest day of hiking.

Peru - Day 4