Day #87 - Camping

Campsite - night before marathon

Looking out the tent

Gifts to porters

Gifts to local school kids

Religious Inca site - Ollanta

Wednesday, June 9th

On Tuesday night in Yucay, we had to coordinate our luggage to arrive in 3 locations. We packed a camp bag (needed Wednesday at camp), a Machu Picchu bag (needed Thurs & Frid), and a Cusco bag (items not needed until Sat). This was a little stressful as we needed to make sure our gear was locked and loaded for the run, while also thinking about the after-run activities.

After about 2 hours of packing, we called it a night.

Wednesday started early. We ate breakfast and boarded the bus around 8am. We took a 45 minutes bus ride to the Village of Ollanta - the best surviving example of an Inca town. There was a huge stair-cased set of ruins that we climbed to the top. This was a religious site - the Temple of the Sun. On the adjacent mountain, there was a face that had been carved out. The winter and summer solstice were marked by the nose of the face and a peak on the montain. Almost all the Inca Ruins we've visited have special locations for the sunrise. After about 1-hour of touring this site, we boarded the bus for a 45 minute ride to the area we'd start our run today

We pulled into this big open field. A number of porters were there. They would carry our heavy camp bags while we could just carry our camelbacks with water/food for our run. After bathroom breaks in the field and gear setup, we headed out for a 5-6 mile run/walk which would lead us to our campsite for the night.

I took my time on the run. I didn't push it at all - walking most of the way. This was the case for almost everyone. Tomorrow would be one of the toughest tests of our lives, no use burning ourselves out the day before. We arrived in this small temple at the end of the run. We took a seat on the ground and waited for everyone to finish. Next, we walked another 1/2 mile to our campsite - arrival time 12:30pm.

The porters were putting the camp together, setting up sleeping tents, dinner tents, bathroom tents - very impressive, speedy assembly. The campsite was unbelievable. I'm including some photos from inside my tent. Wow. Mountains, clouds - beautiful. We ate a quick lunch and then spent most of the afternoon lounging in our tents. I read some, rested some, and spent the rest of the time just staring up at the clouds. Our guide had a couple ceremonies in the late afternoon. One was for some local school kids where we had given them books, pens/pencils, markers, balloons, candy, etc. The other ceremony was for the porters. All those participating in the marathon had brought some old clothes/shoes to give away. Our guide spent a ton of time separating our gear into piles and placing a number in the shoes. Each porter picked a number out of a hat and got that gear. This was awesome to see. These guys in Peru are very poor - giving back to them makes you feel really good inside.

We ate dinner, went over a final briefing, and were in our tents by 8pm. This would be a long night for me - the nerves were relentless. Tomorrow I would be put to the test - was I ready for it.