Day 11 Wayllabamba to Paqaymayo

    Today is supposed to be the most challenging day of hiking.  We start at 3000 m, hike over Warmiwanusca (Dead Woman Pass) 4215 m to Paqaymayo at 3600 m.  We were woken by Jaco at 5:30 a.m. with a cup of sweet coca tea.  After getting dressed, we had breakfast of pancakes with the Gap logo.  Then it was time to brush our teeth and make a last toilet break.  Our toilet was a good 200 m from our tent, which made for a long walk in the middle of the night.  Thankfully the toilets were squat toilets, which are probably the only design that can be reasonably hygienic under these conditions, see squat toilets on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet).  In Peru it is good practise to ensure that you carry toilet paper with you at all times.  Also they ask that it not be flushed but placed in the waste basket provided next to the toilet.  Apparently toilet paper tends to plug the sewage lines.  Then we set off at a steady pace and climbed on well preserved Inca steps for much of the way to the pass.  In this section of the hike, the guides allowed us to hike at our own pace, which is easier because you set your own rhythm with respect to breathing and cadence.   At a rest stop, there was a small herd of llamas that entertained us their rolling in the sand and jumping a small stream.  In general they simply ignored us, and let us take pictures. We all met at the Dead Woman summit for break and pictures.  The pass is named Dead Woman because in profile it looks like a woman lying on her back.  Although we were told that we would be there in 5 to 6 hours, the last of our group gained the summit in about 4.5 hours.  After the summit is was a steady decent to the campground, where we were greeted with a glass of juice.  The tents were all standing and contained the duffle bags with our personal belongings.  Talk about being spoiled.  After lunch most of us napped for a bit before snack time, which followed fairly closely by supper.  The chef surprised us with a fantastic cake for dessert.  It sort of tasted like a rum baba, and was really moist and uniform.  I don’t know how he did it but we all agreed that it would have been rated highly at restaurants that have all the conveniences.  The other nice touch that the porters provided was artful presentations of the cutlery and paper napkins.