on day three i awoke from the tent feeling a sinking feeling of dread when contemplating putting my backpack on my back for a 16 km day of hiking. even though our fearless guide assured us that day 3 was significantly easier than day 2, i was feeling the burn. my knees were not happy after all those steps.
¡ay mis rodillas! ¡no mas gradas!
so while the bolshevik was busy packing up his things, i snuck out of the tent all stealth-like, found our fearless guide, and asked him if it was possible for one of our fabulous porters to carry my crap for a day. there are actually very strict rules about how much the porters are legally allowed to carry. porters have rights too, you know. but thankfully our fearless guide assured me that they would be able to carry my bag for the day. i know, dear blog readers, i know. i totally pussied out. but you know what? day three, sans backpack .... fuckin' awesome.
let me tell you a little something about the inca trail ... legally, there are only 500 per day allowed on the trail. and even though these people are from all different tour groups and countries etc, you wind up passing and being passed by the same people every day. like this man, for instance. now, i don't know if you can quite tell from the picture, but this man's shorts were miniscule.
and, there were slits on the sides of the shorts, making them even shorter. it was hard to get a good shot, but often when i would see him coming i would avert my eyes for fear that i might accidentally sneak a peek at his balls. seriously people, how is this useful hiking attire? i'm new to the hiking world and all, but i'm thinking long shorts or pants.
moving on!
in addition to the aforementioned sights, we also saw some inca sights. phew. at this particular sight our fearless guide explained that the incans would find the most beautiful girls in the empire and bring them to live in this place. i started imagining a harem of beautiful women in togas (i don't know why, since the incans didn't wear togas). they probably would lounge around and discuss art and politics while eating grapes and being adored from afar by the empire's men. sadly our fearless guide explained that only the most beautiful women would be collected here and then sacrificed to the gods. not cool, incans. not cool. but they certainly know how to build them some archeological sights.
after the inca sights, we got to hike through the cloud forest, which was quite lovely. it was all tropical trees, flowering vines and fluttering butterflies.
and then came more steps.
the last couple hours of hiking was all steps again. and even without my backpack it was killer on my knees after a while. and that pesky bolshevik, he was flying ahead of me, backpack and all. no fair.
towards the end of the day we were racing to get to our campsite before sundown. and on the way we caught this glimpse of machu picchu mountain. of course the inca site is on the other side and you can't see anything, but it was exciting none-the-less.
end of day three.
the last couple hours of hiking was all steps again. and even without my backpack it was killer on my knees after a while. and that pesky bolshevik, he was flying ahead of me, backpack and all. no fair. 
W.O.W., would we have been terrible Incan women. "No, no, you don't want me. Here, this girl's MUUUUCH prettier. Quick, Intrepid Adventurer Miss Dewey Decimal, pour some acid on my face! AAAAGGGHH, it burns! It burns!"
ReplyDeleteAs for your knees on the mountain, it reminds me of a certain NY Century bike ride last year & a certain pathetic rider who needed a certain awesome librarian's company to keep her going to the finish line. Proud of you, grill. Now get back out there & conquer Titicaca!! tee hee hee
had we been alive in inca times, i doubt we would have had the *ahem* moral fiber necessary to be accepted into a harem of beautiful virgins ;) their loss!
ReplyDeletei do believe that we were both crying about our knees by the end of that bike ride. and yes, i did think of it every time i went down yet another step cringing "ah, my knees!"