Don't try to find Wayllabamba ;-) it is the name of our camping ground ;-)

Today big day . We are at 2900m, and are to pass the "death woman pass" at 4200m. It should take us 5 hours up. Then 2 hours down, lunch. Normally there we stopped for the day, but there were landslides because of heavy rains, so we are to change plans. after lunch another 2 hours up and 2 hours down. It will be a hard day. 16 km and an estimated 11 hours to walk.

Of course the young of the group did not need 5 hours to reach the death woman pass, but i did ;-) I took my time, breathing and listening to my heart beat. I call it walking meditation! one step, breath three times, one step, breath three times.... and still I enjoyed the views, so beautiful! I did not take many pictures though, too concentrated on the going up. I reached the death woman pass after 4:30hr, which was well within the times! On the road, I saw so many lovely views, we had a sunny dry day! I crossed some lamas, went through kind of a magic forest, and when up there, did not see a thing because we were in the clouds ;-) It was cold, so, I just took my breath, got one stick back that I had lent to one of the Argentinians who had some troubles with his heavy back pack, and hop, down again!

I hate going down . It was steep, you had these high steps carved in the rocks, thank you Incas for taking care of us, but bad for the knees! Fortunately I had the walking sticks! The porters, they just ran down these stairs! amazing...

When I arrived at the lunch camp, I saw my young group fellows sleeping in the sun (they all had a sun burn in the evening!), they had been so fast, that they were quite tired! We lunched, and then started back. A nice walk, up and down but not that much, some steep stairs down that I hated but it was ok. When reaching the sleep camp ground, I heard frogs, thousands of frogs!

The camp ground was close to some artificial Inca ponds, and after having eaten and talked a little, I went to bed. Once lying in the tent, warm sleeping bag, feeling good, I heard these frogs, what a concert! It started to rain, so I fell asleep hearing kwaak kwaak plic ploc kwaak kwaak plic ploc... I slept like a baby!