Inca Trail Day 3: Views on views on views

4:30am is starting to be the norm and not "early". But time works differently when you're camping. We got our usual morning coca tea. 

I slept super well for the first time in what felt like forever. I used earplugs to combat the snoring and they worked wonders. Lacey, however, did not sleep well at all. Poor Lace girl.

We won't go into details of course but... Lacey and I both tested out the squat toilets. It was an interesting experience and felt like an accomplishment when we were done. 

Breakfast was an omelette and other delicious stuff. Yummy! 

The start of the hike was almost all uphill again. It was slightly chilly to start which we enjoyed. It also was pretty foggy within the valleys. The green slopes with the foggy valleys and the light morning sun was beautiful. We hiked uphill to a second pass that was not as high as the one yesterday. 

As far as we know, all of the tour groups had to sleep in the same campground as us. This led to a little bit of a traffic situation on the trail that we had not experienced before. Porters were going by us the entire time up to the second pass. Before the covid times, Sergio said this is what the trail was like every morning. We are so lucky and happy to have experienced the trail with so few people. 

On the way up to the pass, we stopped at some archaeological buildings. They were so pretty on the cliffside. There was a lake on the way up too. 

At the top of the pass, we took more pics for Salkantay. Again, some of the hikers were definitely staring at us haha. The same guy called us famous again which was funny. Sergio gave us official Salkantay Trekking shirts but mine was a little too small. Romer called me "muscle man." We spoke to New York couple some more which was fun. 

Then we began our hike down. The hike down led to a dry lagoon that is basically a swamp in the wet season. This is where we would have hiked to if we had kept going the day before. We are SO GLAD we didn't hike here. First of all, it was nice to have a shorter day yesterday. Second, the mosquitos were really bad here and there was no shade and woof it was warm. The mosquitos especially liked Lacey for some reason (a rare occurrence).

Throughout the hike today, the media team had us do little videos where we had to "walk causally." 

After that, we had a slight up and down path along ridge lines of deep valleys. Normally, the views here would be expansive but we were lucky to experience the true cloud forest. We hiked in a cloud! Literally! It was amazing!!!

The moss had a million different colors, the plants were great, there were trees hanging over the path. The clouds were spectacular. All of the hike has been really great but the cloud forest was definitely a stretch we will always remember. It's really hard to describe it. We took about 1,000 pics lol and then reached our lunch spot. 

Our lunch spot was at puyupaca and holy crap the views. Views on views on views. Our lunch tent was perched on a cliff and it was just amazing. Kind of sad but this was our last lunch together as a group on the trail. The chef made lomo saltado which is the national Peruvian dish. It's stir fried beef with veggies and a mix of Asian and South American spices. So good. 

There was a tour group that had some German people in it. One of the German people was a buff guy who kind of rubbed us the wrong way. He was just always being extra. 

After lunch, we hiked down for about 4 hours. Down, down, down. For huge stretches of this time, we were completely by ourselves on the trail (Sergio and media guys were behind us). It was a very special time and we were very lucky to have that time with no one around. There were some cool tunnels and lots of stairs. Thank goodness for our hiking poles!

On the way down, we passed by some remains that had llamas! They were the first llamas of the trip for us. There was a baby llama too. 

We made it to some archaeological remains (Sergio wouldn't less us call them ruins). There were at least 40 plus terraces carved into the side of the mountain. The views.... were spectacular. One of the absolute best views in the entire world. Too bad the mosquitos were so annoying at this point. There was a tour group at the spot too so we didn't stay all that long. 

We made it to our last camp. It was quite humid for the first time on the hike. Our tent was right above the bathrooms so there was a little bit of noise and some smell that wafted up when we walked by. 

The media guys asked about charging their phones. Luckily I had extra power banks and a solar panel!!!! I was so excited to share the stuff we had brought with us. I wish the guys would have asked earlier...

Dinner was great, per usual. The last dinner of the trip! We had popcorn but ran out of hot chocolate for our snack. We love the popcorn and could have just had that for dinner haha. But there was chicken, pizza, and other delicious dishes. Lacey didn't eat that much this time. Throughout the hike, I told everyone that it was Lacey's birthday soon. So they made her an apple cake!! It was really, really good. I don't understand how they made it but whatevs. 

Our tent was a little stinky and kind of hot/humid which wasn't great. There were squat toilets again which was not great. But we survived! And we are so excited about tomorrow. MACHU PICCHU finally! 

We'll get to Machu Picchu but man, this was such a fantastic day. Today was the reason why people do the hike. The views, the memories together, the food, etc. Machu Picchu is the overall prize but the journey is what we'll remember most.