We went to Peru back in May, so seeing as we are now in December my mind is beginning to slip and the events are beginning to fade somewhat. I can remember while we were in Peru someone mentioned day 2 of our trip, which also happened to be the first day of our trek, and even then I had the hardest time remembering exactly what happened that day. I think it's because day 3 of our trip was so excruciatingly hard and the events of that day trumped anything and everything that may have happened on day 2.
What I do remember of day 2 is the "bus" picking us up at our hostel at 4:30AM and driving us up as far as the road would take us. I can remember the driver being a little scary on the road. He was driving a stick shift, and from what we could all tell it had to have been one of his first times doing so. It was still dark out and my eyes were still so tired, probably from lack of sleep since the trip began, but I remember my brother-in-law, who happens to speak spanish, leaning towards the front and telling the driver something. "More gas, more gas," he said. In spanish, not english, of course. At one point during the drive the sliding door flung open and one of the natives in the car with us jumped out to place a rock behind the back tire. We were stalled out on a steep hill at the time and there were cars trailing behind us, honking at us over and over again. The driver's rock trick worked and we were able to "safely" make it to the start of our trek.
The bus took us as far as it could go and then we got out and had breakfast at a little shop. After breakfast they crammed all of us (there were several other tour groups with our same tour company) into the bed of a truck and started up the dirt road. We hung onto a flimsy wooden pole that hung from the top of the truck as the vehicle climbed up a bumpy terrain for about 30 minutes.
This is the part that is a little hazy for me for some reason. We hiked. That's all I really remember. I don't remember what the landscape looked like during that time. I mean, I know it was beautiful, but all I remember are what the photos have to show for it. We reached our camp around 3 in the afternoon. Our tents had all been set up and our cooks were finishing making our lunch. Yes, we had cooks to make all of our meals. And yes, we had people to put up and take down our camping gear. It was my kind of camping. But honestly, I don't think any of us would have had the energy to do all of that on top of all of the hiking we were doing. After eating we were told we had to climb up a super steep mountain just behind our campsite. It wasn't technically part of our "hike" to Machu Picchu, but we were told by our hiking guide it was more of a test to see how we would fair the next day, because the next day would be hard. That was a scary thought because that "little" hike was really, really hard. At the very top of our mini hike that afternoon was a little lake. We took a few photos there before returning back to camp where our cooks were making dinner for us. After dinner we were all so tired. I can't remember what time it was when we all went to bed, but I know it was early.
The man in the middle in black was our tour guide. His name is Nilton and we all loved him. I think he was telling us about mint here and how it helps with altitude sickness.
Not the best capture of Scott, but this shows there were stray dogs everywhere, even up on the trail! This photo also clearly shows how hard this hike was by the sweat-stained back of my sister's shirt.
All of us at the top of our "mini" hike by the lake. It was beautiful. We heard and saw a little avalanche in the mountains seen just above us in this picture.
The middle of that night is when the fun began. However, since it was technically morning I'll include those events in day 3.
