- Day 2 began with introductions to the porters and cooks who would support us on our journey. There were 16 people to support 15 trekkers and while this might seem like a lot, they carried everything on their backs including tents, tables, chairs, food, stove, propane gas and our excess gear. Each of us introduced ourselves and Christian translated as most of the porters spoke Quechwa. Christian asked everyone where they were from, age, family, etc. I said I wasn’t going to tell them my age. Tom introduced himself in Spanish and of course told everyone that I’m 58.
We then started the hardest trek most of us had ever experienced. We were ascending from 9,870 feet to 13818 feet. The combination of the altitude and steep climb made it difficult to breathe but fortunately we stopped frequently.
We stopped for lunch about halfway up the mountain for another delicious meal but the conversation was the most memorable. Our guide Christian was asking questions to improve his English and we somehow got into a discussion about the difference between crispy and crunchy. This led to us trying to give examples with people shouting out foods; potato chips, apples, roasted chicken, etc. The problem was we had trouble explaining the difference so I think we just confused him more. We sounded like a Seinfeld episode.
Christian liked learning what he called bigger words and “unbelievable” became his favorite. He did work it into the conversation whenever he could.
The afternoon walk to the summit was challenging. Our guide suggested breathing techniques to our lung capture more oxygen but the only thing that helped was walking very slowly and breaking often. When we were only about 100 yards from the top I (Beth) became nauseous and lightheaded. Eventually we made it to the top!
The rest of the day was an equally steep decent. It was also foggy, cold and wet so we weren’t the only ones taking it slowly. We walked with Tatiana, Tim and Iffy. Iffy had a minor fall because of the wet rocks but wasn’t hurt. Fortunately we all made it down safely to the valley and our camp.