Jared was pretty sick all night at camp from day 1 - blowing his nose, coughing, etc. so both of us didn't get much sleep. Day two is the worst (most difficult) day of the trail, as anyone will tell you. Today the goal is to climb Dead Woman's Pass and all morning long it was stair after stair, stair after stair. Hardly anything was flat so you could catch your breath...
Endless stairs on Day 2.
Anika hadn’t been feeling well since Arequipa so Jared and I passed her and Jon and we said we’d meet them for lunch. Miguel stayed behind with them. Jared and I arrived at lunch, in a lot of pain of course from stair-climbing all morning, just after 11:30am. Anika and Jon didn’t show up until 1pm. Anika looked terrible. She was completely sick and just collapsed. Everyone was worried, Jon especially. Anika didn’t want to eat, the thought of food made her nauseous and she already had been vomiting. Lunch was at about 12,500 feet, only two hours from the first pass and was the point of no return. If they wanted to turn back, now was the time. Once you pass that peak, you have to go all the way to Machu Picchu. Miguel was pretty sure she had altitude sickness.
Miguel/Anika/Jon decided it was best to turn around. I was crying - I felt guilty and horrible that they spent so much money on the trail itself, had hiked half-way there and Anika was so sick and had to turn back. Miguel's assistant walked with them back to the campsite from Day 1, which meant they now had to climb down all the stairs they had just climbed up. A porter ran ahead to the campsite at Day 2 and then ran all the way back and had their bags at the first camp before they arrived (those porters are incredible!). Miguel stayed with us.
Saying good-bye. The peak can be seen over Jon and Anika's head.
At 2:30pm, we said goodbye and Jared and I headed for the peak and Jon/Anika went back to the first campsite. At almost 14,000 feet, Dead Woman's Pass was horrendous. The altitude was hurting Jared hard. His sinus pressure was exploading in his head... We made it to the pass in just over two hours, which I was very proud of, but then we had another obstacle before camp that night - a steep staircase going down, descending all the way to 11,500 feet.
Warning: very girly/emo moment is ahead. On the way up, I really wanted to quit - my friends had left, Jared was sick, I was tired, and then I saw the cutest little yellow flower poking up in the middle of some rocks and, well, I don’t know how to explain it really, but it encouraged me to go on. I saw it and instantly thought of my mother. Miguel said the flower is the Andean Daisy. Later on I saw the flower everywere, out of all the beautiful and exotic flowers we saw, it for sure is my favorite.
I’m terrible with stairs, I trip walking on flat land as it is, and so it took me a long time to complete the descent (it usually takes 1.5 hours). Jared wanted to get down so badly due to the altitude but I kept slipping. Porters were literally running down the granite steps with their giant loads on their back. Some of the steps were so skinny that my foot wouldn’t even fit on it sideways. Jared held my hand and we made it and it good time too.
A little after 6pm (remember, we left late because of Anika’s sickness) we hobbled into camp, just as it was getting dark. My knees were throbbing, I was worried about Anika and Jon, they too had a steep descent back to camp. Jared was so sick he didn’t even eat dinner - he just went straight to bed. Camp that night was at 11,500 feet.
Beat up after a long second day.
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