This was the long day. 21km, or about 14 miles. The first 3 hours took us from camp to the pass under Salkantey's peak (the peak itself is not climbable). Over 4600m (14000ft.) ! It was an uphill 3 hours that's for sure. Oxygen was pretty low for the final stretch, but we all made it. 3 members of our group were sick so they took horses. At the top we spent some time taking in the scene, admiring the snow capped mountains, then form a pray circle where Roy educated us some more on incan beliefs and we then made offerings of coca leaves to mother earth before spending a few minutes in prayerful/grateful/peaceful silence.
Then we started our long descent; for 4 hours until lunch in a beautiful pasture-valley. That first descent was all rock. The second stretch after lunch was thick soil/mud (fun with the trekking poles!). The second stretch also dropped us out of the highlands and into the cloud forest. It started heating up really fast.
We finally made camp after 10 hours of hiking. Our tents were set up on the second floor of a house/barn on a small family farm. Here we could buy beer and water. And there was a small creak to clean muddy pants. We had dinner, chatted for a bit and played card games, then went to bed. Long day!
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