Our second day was a very tough trek that I have done in a long time, nothing in El Canino compares to this. We started at the sky Domes camp located at 12,795 ft and climb to the Salkantay pass 5 miles with almost 3,000 ft elevation gain. The air gets very thin. Based on the elevation impact the day before climbing to the Humantay lake at near 14,000 ft, they recommend to take the mule to the Salkantay pass, which I did. Now, let me tell you, while it was a relief going up on the mule, it is not an experience for everyone, specially people with vertigo challenges. The mule goes through very narrow path with deep cliffs. Also, the amount of strength to stay on the mule is significant and by the time that I got to the pass my legs were clamp and my upper body stress. The Beaty of the pass took away my breath.
As we enjoying our Coca Leaves tee, we took in the magnificent of the Salkantay peak at more than 21,000 ft elevation. The next portion of the day was 10 miles downhill with an elevation change of about 5,000 ft, yes, you read this right, 5,000 ft in 10 miles. Again, this is also another experience that I never had. The downhill wasn’t just steep, but we were walking on loose gravel, the walking poles helped but it was very difficult. My large muscles above my knees were really tight and as start using the tip of my boots to release the pressure from my front muscles. I got blood under my big toe nails which added additional pain in the downhill. Here is we’re my experience from El Camino, helped me again, I blocked the pain and kept telling myself, one more step!!!. The guide (Amoroso) stayed with me and we arrived to the camp about 40 minutes after the rest of the group, in the dark. Being in the jungle in the dark is another experience.
After dinner, I did released the pressure on my big toe nails by releasing the blood under the nails. Two ibuprofens and rest took care of the sharp pain. The night was another experience. The roosters in Peru are really confused, they start crow at 1:00 in the morning. What happen with the crow at sunlight? Definitely they didn’t get the memo.
Ennodio’s Adventures 