Peru: Day 5 (aka Inca Trail: Day 3)

I woke up around 6am on Day 3 and was relieved to find that my headache was completely gone.

Plus, I hadn't noticed the previous day, but there was a nice view from the second campsite as well:


After another yummy breakfast (this time the porridge was made of beans instead of oats), and more of the omnipresent coca tea, we were on our way:


The terrain was gently sloped (uphill), but it felt like a cakewalk compared to Day 2. We stopped often to admire the flowers and the views:



After a few hours, we arrived at a site called Phuyupatamarca:


It was an easy climb, even though supposedly it was the third highest point on the trail (3680m / 12,073ft), and there was a nice view from the top:



From there, it was only a couple more hours to another Inca site called Intipata. The site itself was less impressive than some of the others, but the view was spectacular. In fact, I think it was my favorite view on the entire trail. It probably helped that we were relaxed and well-rested:


We hung out at Intipata for awhile, enjoying the scenery, and I re-repaired my left hiking boot, which had started to fall apart pretty badly during the Day 2 descent:


We also took a couple more jumping photos before heading to our third campsite at Winay Wayna (a relatively low 2680m / 8792ft). It was only about 1pm when we arrived at our camp; just in time for lunch. We had several dishes as usual, but I was most impressed by the appetizer:


After lunch, we had nearly two hours to hang out. The Winay Wayna campsite was very fancy and had a restaurant, a hotel (!), and even hot showers. Some of us decided to pay for the shower (5 soles ~= $1.67). Others napped or rested in their tents:


There was also one game of Dominion played, at the tables outside the restaurant:


Just before sunset, Raul took us to the Winay Wayna ruins themselves. They were an easy 10-minute walk away, and quite impressive:



Finally, we had our last camp happy hour and dinner. Jorge really outdid himself with the vegetable carvings that night!


We were soon off to bed, to prepare for our 3:30am Day 4 wakeup call. (Raul wanted to make sure we got to Machu Picchu in plenty of time...)