The Inca Trail - day two (challenge)
Day two is
the day of the big climb.
It was
still raining when we woke. For a moment I saw the sun above the clouds,
shining beautifully on the mountainpeaks, and then the clouds engulfed our
valley like a big beast. The climb of today was scaling a mountain pass. The
Dead Woman’s Pass of 4215 meter altitude. It is called the Dead Woman’s Pass
because the pass looks like a resting woman, but you have to use some
imagination.
From the
campingsite we could see the pass before us. It doesn’t look so far away when
you can see your destination from the start, but it was a hard nut to crack. It
took me a full five hours to ascent. All the while it was raining.
On the way
I passed some beautiful cloud forests with little waterfalls. These are like
lowland jungle but they recieve their moisture only from the clouds. It is very
weird to see jungle so high in the mountains! I made only little photographs
because I was in a very good hiking rhythm that I didn’t want to give up.
The final
100 meters were expecially though. By then it had started to hail, so I was
very cold at the outside but warm and sweaty underneath my poncho. I was really
beginning to feel the altitude too. We had ascended for more than a kilometer.
The pass was so close that I could see lots of people on there and I really
wanted to be up there, but every 10 meters I had to stop and catch my breath
again.
On the top
it was very windy and cold, so I moved on before my body temperature cooled too
much. It was still an hour descending to our second camping site on slippery
Inca steps. Still, 4215! The highest point I have ever been!
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