It rained pretty hard during the night and only finished at about 4am, we had been lucky with the rain so far and our luck was holding. The clouds and the mist rolled over the mountains so we didn't have the best of views, but it looked rather spectacular anyway. It was to be a short day, where we were stopping for lunch was also our nights camp, before the assault on the sun gate early the next morning. There was also the promise of a hot shower, for only 5 bone ( bone is the currency of the day when you can't remember the actual currency. Thanks Andy R and friends for that. Soles is the actual currency of Peru. )
Descending through the cloud forest.We got into camp around 1.30pm, after descending through some more Inca sites. The further we went along the better they were getting, and strangely enough it was inversely proportional to our care factor. We were absolutely jiggered. Casiano announced that we had free time, siesta time, until 4pm. So I retired to the tent, to sort out all the gear..... ok someone woke me at 4, and I could smell the popcorn that the staff was preparing. It had become a regular thing before dinner and signalled the end of the days march, I can't describe that it is like to walk into camp to the smell of popcorn. Those who worked at Wiluna during a certain popcorn era will understand.
The last Inca site before Macchu Picchu, complete with stone terraces for crops.
We had a short 15min walk to our last Inca site before Machhu Picchu, by now I was starting to think we had taken a wrong turn somewhere and the guides were going to come up and say ' er we have to tell you guys something..... ' The site itself was the most impressive one we had visited and we couldn't wait for the next day.
But first, we had to stop off at a bar and have a beer. Yep one day out of Macchu Picchu is a place where you can have a drink, nice to see that the priorities are in order, even up here. A round of drinks was bought, downed, and then some roadies for the night ahead. I didn't buy any, and I still can't believe it, but at the time I didn't want to be hungover for the final push.
It was dark by the time we made it back to camp, we were able to find our way simply because the porters had come down the path looking for us. You see we were late for dinner and Casiano had said we wouldn't need torches, we would be back while it was still light. Either his grasp of English wasn't what I thought it was..... oh I know Irish, Pub. Yep that was it. Dinner was accompanied by cheap cask wine, supplied by the tour group and dragged up the trail with the rest of the gear.
Roy's day was much better, he wasn't sick any more and had a relatively incident free day. I say relatively because he lost his walking stick, rented from Llama Path, ( it cost him 40us to replace), we think he left it at the pub. Its funny because it was the first time he had used it, it had been strapped to his bag the rest of the trek.
Jo having a bit too much fun I think.
After dinner drinks were flowing. But it was also time to make speeches to thank the porters, they would be leaving us in the morning and heading back to Cusco, jogging probably. So there was lots of hand shaking and some dancing, for the girls anyway. None of the porters wanted to dance with me.
After all that James ( one of the Americans ) got sloshed. We were all singing ( I think the high altitude had something to do with this ) songs form god knows where, but were left absolutely awestruck when James sang both parts of a duet from Les Miserables. It was one of the most impressive things I have seen or heard.
I left the party a 11.20pm, we had an early start the next day 3.45am, we needed to line up at a checkpoint which opened at 5.30 and we wanted to be first to the sun gate. I wouldn't know what time the rest went to bed.
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