Today we have a short, but beautiful walk to the camp site just before Machu Picchu. We have a pancake breakfast at 6:30 AM and head off shortly after 7 AM.
The walk on this original Inca Trail is wonderful. The walk is easy and it gives us a chance to admire they many things that we see. There are flowers all over the place and they come in all sorts of colors, from red to blue to yellow to purple to white to pink and all sorts of shades in between. We find a couple of orchids. There is a leaf that is a "normal" green on one side, but bright purple on the other. The spider webs look like they are full of diamonds - the water beads glistening in the sun. A strange bee with bright yellow legs zips by. There are lots of butterflies of many different colors - one even comes in three colors. Lars even find s a snake that is crossing the trail - just before stepping on it he spots it and steps back. The snake slithers back into the under growth.
We visit another set of ruins along the way and have some more story time (we think that these story times are in part to give the porters time to get ahead of us and set up camps). Along the way we also pass through a couple of tunnels that the Incas hacked through the rock when they built the trail.
We arrive at the camp site, which includes a hostel, before noon. We take it easy and set up camp before lunch. We have the afternoon to relax before we have a short walk to view the Winay Wayna Ruins. Our guide thinks that these ruins are in many respects more impressive tan Machu Picchu, so we are looking forward to it.
We are not disappointed. While the ruins are relatively small, they are very impressive. We spend about one hour wandering through the ruins, which includes such details as thirteen interconnected fountains, two story buildings, great terraces and impressive stone work.
Once back at the camp site we have tea followed by dinner. We continue to be impressed by what the cook puts together for such a large group in these conditions. After dinner we once again meet the porters and the cook and we thank them and give them their tip. Then it is off to bed as we have a very early start in the morning.