Day 3 of the Inca trail: Santa tries to numb the pain...

Again up before 6 am, and again we immediately start to trek upwards. Line up for the bathroom this morning, because, as legend has it, a woman died at this campsite in the 80s and now haunts the grounds at midnight... making the trek to the gross bathroom even more perilous! All of the porters believe this legend and will NOT leave their tents at night until sunrise the next morning!

The second day of the trail is deemed the hardest because your body is adjusting to altitude and the pace, but no one tells you that day 3 is nearly as bad. Seeing the massive steep pass that we need to climb today from our campsite, I donned the Feliz Navidad Santa hat that I bought in the market a few days earlier for 2 soles (about 30 cents)! Feelings were mixed as to whether I was bringing good Xmas cheer, or was just insane and weird. I told my friends on the trail that when I post this pic of me in the hat, not a single person who knows me from back home will be surprised!

We trekked up and down the `Inca Flat` terrain... passing some great ruins along the way (again, I will spare you the guidebook details here, but very nerdy and interesting). The site in the pic is Winay Wayna (forever young). I did some yoga on the terrace here for a while... very cool and really easy to focus for your poses while you stare at the mountains! The other pic is of me at the top of the last big pass. If I had a parachute, I would have jumped for sure

Also, no one tells you that while climbing up all of the hills is a ridiculous proposition, climbing down is nearly as bad. Your legs feel like Jello and they shake! It was at about this point that I wished I hadn`t had most of the meniscus taken out of my knee..... ouch!! For the first time in what felt like ages, we were able to `buy`a shower at the campsite on this night for 5 soles and wash of the stink of the last few days.... so nice! Most of the crew went to bed early as we have an inhumane wake up call tomorrow, but a few of us stayed up for a while and had some beers with our tour guides as they regaled us with fun stories of the trail. At night, there was a MASSIVE thunderstorm with the loudest thunder sounds I have ever heard. It was really amazing to be in the middle of it while camping on the Inca Trail, however it made us all paranoid that we would have clouds and rain tomorrow and would not be able to see Machu Picchu! (note: must be pronounced Macchu Pict-chew, which means Old Mountain in Quecheua.... when pronounced Macchu Pee-chew, it means Old Penis!)