Piece of Pisco Sour

And so the big day has finally arrived. First important thing to do was wake up before the rest of the hotel to steal the hot water that I have missed out on the last two days. The fact that my new wakeup time is 435 made this quite easy. I am clean again. 

Next important job was buying something frivolous from the just opening town square in order to break a couple of 100 notes. Thankyou peanut butter cups. The big ones not the minis.

Then breakfast. Our last proper food for 4 days? Eggs and ham on freshly made rolls hit the spot a couple of times. After yesterdays rabbit food experiment i have some catching up to do.

Into the bus and on the bumpy roads and over railway tracks (tax deduction). The official group photo out of the way, our passports checked and it was on to the, what turned out to be about 11.5 km though the mountains. Mostly gentle slopes but some big ups and not so big downs. Plenty of time for photos and water breaks. Not sure if the rest of the group are taking pictures as we walk. We have 2 guides, Luis and Sandro. Luis at the back was Annette's personal escort for the day. We stopped and saw an old Inca village in one of the valleys. Pretty amazing stuff. 

Finally about half way it was lunch time. I was looking forward to my sandwich.

Now to the porters. They are carrying 25kg. Tents, food, our clothes, gas, water, chairs. Everything. They run in order to get to the destinations in time. Not jogging all the time but a sprint. They do slow down uphill

So back to lunch. Tent, table, chairs and no sandwich. A bowl of soup, followed by crumbed trout. Wow.

We were ahead of time so we got a bit of rest time. Once more we walked up and down stopping briefly to attempt to photograph humming birds. In total actually walked for 4 hours ( thanks Garmin). Just prior to arriving at our campsite we passed a tv and saw the teams walking off for half time. Up the hill our tents were ready for us. Bit of relaxation before the walkers and porters had a get together. There are more of them than us. Then a quick game of cards before another great meal.

Forgot to mention the toilet. Nothing like a good squat after a long day. Now its time to walk up the hill to go to the loo.