Choquequirao to Machu Picchu : Days 6 - 8

Day 6 Yanama to Totora

For the third consecutive day, I woke up with puffy eyes. Terribly puffy eyes, like I had been brawling my eyes out all night. I know I have small eyes but this really took it to another level as I could hardly see anything. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and saw only 2 fine lines, like this:

Do I look like Brock from Pokemon?

This was the max my eyes could open.
See - I said it was bad. Very bad. 

José thought it was due to the fact that I have been sleeping too much. I was worried that this was a symptom for acute mountain sickness or food/bite allergy that I was not aware of. [I decided to check online as I wrote this entry and found that "Swelling beneath the skin (oedema), typically around the eyes and in some cases swollen ankles and hands" is a serious symptom for altitude sickness and "medical attention must be sought immediately, and the patient brought down to the lowest possible height". I am not sure if online medical advices can be trusted but OOOOPS!]

We had an interesting start. Soon after we started out, we saw a villager running towards us, shouting for us to get out of the way. We jumped onto the slope. Then dogs ran passed. It turned out that the villagers were running with a bull from one end of the town to the school:

The bull would be slaughtered for the school's celebrations and the whole village would turn up in force. If only we start out 1 day later. We would then be able to join in the festivities.

An eagle soared in the sky as we continued an ascent along the path, along a river and passing by some waterfalls, glaciers and snow-capped mountains. My climbing theory was proven correct again. Yesterday's descent from Abra San Juan to Yanama meant that today we had to climb first to recover the altitude lost and then some more to Yanama pass (4850m), the highest point of our trek. The initial gentle ascent was followed by some scrambles (due to construction of a road to link Yanama to the next town) and switchbacks up to Yanama pass.

The weather was not great and the wind factor did not help. I did not have my jacket with me and had to battle the wind as we made our way up. I was slightly out of breath (not sure if it was the altitude or my lack of fitness) but I finally made it.

Yanama pass
Photo credit: José

We saw an Andean condor circling the sky as we descended from Yanama pass. We saw roads for the first time since Day 1 and at the moment, roads are being built to link the next village to Yanama. After a quick lunch, we descended some more via a scenic route through farms (including trout farms) and reached another village called Totora. 

We camped in the backyard of a villager. Johan and Gunda would be leaving us tomorrow. Astario cooked us cuys (guinea pig), which the Andeans serve on special occasions. 

Cuys

The boys indulged me and joined us at the dinner table.

Buddy, José, Johan (standing), Gunda in red, Astario

Day 7 Totora to Lucmabamba

Today was supposed to be "a whole day of descending" as we made our way to the village La Playa. At best, it was "Peruvian flat", which essentially meant that there were lots of ups and downs. We also joined the the Salkantay trek from this point and we suddenly saw more trekkers.

I had woken up with puffy eyes again and started to have pins and needles on my face. The pins and needles travelled down from the areas around my eyes to my cheeks and by the time I reached La Playa, my collar bones. If this were to travel to my chest, I would have freaked out but fortunately, the tingling feeling finally stopped before noon.

We powered pass the newbies from the Salkantay trek and had lunch at Lucmabamba. From there, we drove to the town Santa Theresa to camp. In the late afternoon, we took a local bus to the hot springs for a soak. There is no volcano in the area. I was told that the water from the glaciers were forced underground and came up hot (I am really not sure how that works). It seemed like everyone on the trek was there. So were the locals who came with their families or friends.  

Hot springs

Day 8 Santa Theresa to Aguas Calientes 

Today was a complete waste of time. Buddy and I did not take up an additional activity to try a zipline across canopy. Also, as our fee covered a train ticket to Aguas Calientes, we decided to take the train instead of trek. The train did not depart until 4pm and we just hung around the train station, waiting. 

Aguas Calientes is the nearest town to Machu Picchu, with many accommodation and dining options and a big market selling souvenirs. As expected, there were many tourists around the town.

The best thing about Aguas Calientes though was the hot shower at our hostel. I washed my hair twice. How good it was to be clean and smell fresh. 

One more sleep to Machu Picchu.