Day of the Dead

Tuesday, November 26, 2019
TOUR IN PERU - Machu Picchu Tours Peru, Cuzco, Peru
Huaylia Bamba Village (9735 ft) to Pacay Mayo Camp (11828 ft)
Our wake-up call was suppose to be at 5:30, but we had roosters at 3:30, dogs barking immediately after that and porters and Valeria rustling about so we were up before 5:00. We were rewarded with an amazing view of the snow-capped mountains and glacier as we opened our tent flap. Can’t say we were raring to go since none of us had slept well. If you were unlucky enough to have to make the trek to the toilet in the middle of the night, you were rewarded with a spectacular view of the Milky Way. Brennan was a little sad that he slept so well. 
We packed up our gear and headed to the breakfast tent. We had yummy porridge and an egg “tortilla” (basically an open-faced omelet). Today’s snack bag included a sandwich since our itinerary had us peaking Dead Woman Pass and then descending to our overnight campground for lunch. Oswaldo wanted us to get to the pass by around 11:30am. 
From Huayllabamba we climbed approximately 4000 feet to the pass and enough steps to make a Fitbit spin.  The views were always gorgeous back to the snow-capped mountains and we also had some stream crossings and cascading water sections. It was a warm and sunny day and we played leap frog with lots of hikers all trying to summit the pass before the wind picked up in the afternoon.
We had our snack at Llullucha Pampa, Sue & Dave’s overnight campground from five years ago. It is a spectacular spot with amazing views of glacial mountains. As we approached the summit, we really felt the altitude and we climbed those thousands of steps in slow motion. Brennan and Grandpa reached it first. We celebrated at the “top top” (Oswaldo's words) with perfect views and lots of victory photos.   The descent started immediately and again involved all steps. There was an area of boulders where Oswaldo thought we might be able to see some chinchillas, but if they were there, they were well hidden. We made our way through the canyon surrounded by waterfalls to the Pacaymayo River (down about 2,000 feet), where we made our second camp.
Our campsite was next to a fast running stream below a waterfall. We were greeted with juice, washed up and had lunch of beef and quinoa.
We were all exhausted and took a nap. Two annoying sparrows outside Brennan and Bligh’s tent made sleeping for Bligh impossible. Sue and Brennan slept the longest and, in the meantime, Dave & Bligh found the “clean” bathroom. This was important since the squatter near our site was truly disgusting. 
Since our lunch was so late, we told Oswaldo we did not need a “happy hour” snack. After our nap we had some time to kill so we talked about and did blog bullets, and then played Huckleybuck until dinner.  Dinner was good, but Bligh mentioned she had smelled popcorn at other campsites as she explored the area in the afternoon. So, taking the hint, Oswaldo had popcorn for us for dessert. We would not ask for no HH again!
Dead Woman Pass had been conquered but now we were all dead tired and went to bed shortly after dinner. The babbling brook right next to our tents was calling!

Comments

2025-02-15

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank