Inca Trail, Day 3
The third day of the trek was the longest day of hiking, but definitely the most interesting day. Mickey woke us up again at 5 a.m. with coca tea, and we had breakfast at 5:30 once again. The goal was to start hiking by 6 a.m. in order to beat the other groups to the first Inca site, but unfortunately, we were a bit slower than we expected and didn’t get going until 6:20. The trail started out cold, but within a few minutes of hiking, I was getting rid of my fleece jacket. The morning was quite foggy, but I liked it! Even though we couldn’t see as clearly, I thought the fog gave everything a magical, mysterious look.
We came to our first Inca site of the day pretty soon. I will be honest: it was difficult to keep the names of all the Inca sites straight. According to the information I brought home, though, I think this one was called Runkurakay. Unlike the first day of the trek when all the sites were off in the distance, today we could get up close to all the old structures. This is where Daniel explained to us about how Inca men were selected to carry messages. The whole system sounded a lot like the Pony Express, except without horses.
We continued hiking through the foggy mountains, past a lake, and up another pass. Once we reached the top, Daniel lead us in making an offering to Pacha Mama (Mother Earth). We created a pyramid of small stones, and then topped it with coca leaves. The Inca frequently made similar offerings, but when the Spanish came, they tried to wipe out all remnants of the Incas’ belief system. For example, they put crosses in the stone pyramids. However, the Spanish did not take the Inca Trail, so everything was left pretty much untouched.
We continued on and reached another Incan site, Sayaqmarka. We had the option of climbing up a narrow staircase to get a closer look at this structure, and most of us took that option. After Mickey explained more about this Inca town and some of the innovative building practices used by the Incas, we had a chance to walk around on our own.Then we continued onward, knowing lunch was still about two hours away.
The hike to lunch was fantastic! We started heading through the upper Amazon, so the trail became very dense with trees and flowers. We passed through some tunnels, created by the Incas because they could not build their trail around the mountain at those points, so they had to dig through! It started to rain by the time I reached the lunch site, and I got there just in time! As soon as I was under the tent, the gentle rain turned into a downpour
Lunch was quite the feast, and Marco and Rolando really outdid themselves! We started with soup, as usual, but then they started bringing out plates and plates full of salads, some sort of yellow curry chicken, a chicken pinwheel, some sort of fried sausage, quinoa bowls, and so much more I can’t even begin to list it all! And just when we thought we were so full, we couldn’t eat anymore, that’s when they brought out the cake! What a feast! After all that eating, a cup of tea was in order, which we sipped while checking out the amazing view. We could see the back side of Machu Picchu–the end was in site!
Oh, we had an interesting toilet at that lunch stop. Instead of sharing the squat toilets with the other groups, we had some sort of toilet in a tent. It was really shallow, which was kind of a weird feeling, and it also only zipped up, so there were several close calls of someone almost walking in on someone else. I think I prefer the squat toilets!
After a great lunch, we started our hike again, just as it started to downpour again! In the midst of the downpour, Daniel had us stop by some Inca site, but I couldn’t tell you what it was, and I have no photo evidence of it! It was too wet at that time to listen!
So we continued, mostly downhill now, and still through the jungle. The trail continued to be really interesting, with lots of twists and turns, a couple of caves, and even a very early spiral staircase! At this point, we were all walking at our own paces, and due to the dense vegetation, we really couldn’t see anyone else around us. It was really peaceful. I knew I wasn’t too far behind some of my group members, and I knew that some of them weren’t too far behind me, but it sometimes felt like I was all alone on the trail! Amazing to think that there were actually about 499 other people on the trail with me!
The rain cleared up, and we were rewarded with an amazing rainbow! What was cool about this to me was that rainbows are an Incan symbol (when you see a rainbow flag in Cusco, it is not a gay pride flag–it is the official flag of Cusco). So it felt like it was only right that we should see a rainbow on this trek.
Not long after the rainbow, we reached Wiñaywayna, which is an Incan agricultural site. The interesting thing about the way the Incan people farmed is that they planted their crops in a terrace, and each level is a sort of microclimate where they would plant a different type of crop. Apparently this is only a small portion of the original agricultural site. I believe Daniel said 75%(?!?) of it still has yet to be excavated from the jungle.
Just around the bend was our final campsite! We settled in, then enjoyed popcorn and tea time, followed by dinner. After dinner, we had a ceremony of sorts to wish our porters “see you later!” In Peru, people do not say goodbye, they say “see you later.” I think that is nice. Even though the porters would still be with us that night and in the morning, things would be a bit crazy in the morning with a 3 a.m. wake up call…
But I have written too much for today! I guess I will need to make one more post to in order to truly do justice to the last day! Hope you found the third day of the trek to be as interesting as I did!
Tracy Travels & Teaches 
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