We awoke at 530 to a lovely cup of coca tea and then some delicious breakfast. We definitely needed a good meal because we were about to climb 1000m in about 2 hours to Dead Woman's pass towering above us. We started off that morning walking very slowly upwards. After an hour of hiking we stopped at a campsite that had a good view of the mountain pass. You can see in the photo that the pass looks like a woman sort of lying on her back on the right side is the face (nose, mouth, and eye) and the left is her breast, the pass is the low point to the left of her. Well after snapping a few photos of our guide and some birds we started up again. At this point the entire trail was made of rocks instead of just being dirt which makes it more difficult to walk on because your feet are never on flat ground and your ankles definitely take a beating. Although it also means there are a ton of steps up to the pass. It was extremely difficult climbing up to the top but after another hour we made it! This is the highest point of the classic trail and sits at 4215m.
After a well deserved rest we climbed down into the next valley to the Pacaymayu campground and had some lunch. Right after lunch we had to climb very steeply to the next mountain pass. On the way up we passed some small ruins named Runkuraqay which means egg shape. This was used as a small outpost that overlooks the Pacaymayu valley. When we finally made it to the pass the clouds were starting to roll in. So everyone quickly got their rain jackets on and then we worked our way down the other side of the mountain in the rain. The views of the valley in the rain were actually quite spectacular which we could enjoy because we had to go slowly down the wet stairs. I had to wrap my camera up so I didn't get many pictures coming down but luckily the rain stopped just before the next ruins, Sayaqmarka.
These ruins have a narrow staircase along the cliffside that lead up to them. At this point of the day I was exhausted so I didn't really explore them that much. We took a rest while Paulito gave an explanation of the ruins and shortly after we left for the campsite. After hiking for about 9 hours I was just done with hiking. We had some dinner and listened to some great Inca trail ghost stories before heading off to a great nights sleep. The moon that night was so bright that the entire valley was illuminated, I tried to take some night photos but I never seem to have any luck with them.
However I did get some more bird photos, first we have a Rufous-collared sparrow and an unidentified bluebird.
Total distance: ~17 km
Total elevation: ~1700m
