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Published: January 26th 2009
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Thanks to Jimmy's advice of putting newspaper into our shoes, my sneakers are dry. Woo Hoo! No more wet feet. We get dressed and bring all our stuff with us to the restaurant. We have breakfast which is bread with butter and jam (surprise surprise), coca tea (that's what I have), and a banana crepe with chocolate (or honey). Coincidentally, they call the crepe a pancake. I'm ready to go but to my dismay it's starting to rain again. I don't have a poncho to cover my backpack and need to buy one. Good thing the restaurant sells ponchos. It costs me 3 soles for one. Well worth it to keep my backpack and the rest of my stuff dry.
We begin our long arduous trek in the rain. It's hot under the poncho and the rain isn't letting up much. Early on, I need to go to the "Inca bathroom" as Jimmy calls it and end up falling behind everyone else, but I catch up quickly. We make it to a small village where Jimmy gives us more history and tells us a bit about the culture. We continue on our journey, unfortunately for me, I shouldn't have drank
1 bottle of water and 6 cups of coca tea. I need to visit the "Inca bathroom" again. I catch up to Oh & Lee and we talk as we go. Jimmy is waiting for us as the rest of the group has moved on. Jimmy tells Oh & Lee to continue on and he asks me to help him collect some fruit for the rest of the group. We pick mandarin oranges. Mmmmm, the oranges are good. It's been a while since I had fresh fruit off the tree.
After catching up to the group, we take a short break and then continue on through the jungle. We go up, up, up. I'm physically fit but it's tough even for me. A few of the girls are having a difficult time and need to stop before we hit the summit. At the summit, we take a short break. The rain has stopped but it's bloody hot. Good thing I took Scott's advice and took off my pant legs before starting.
When all the group members finally show up, we continue on till we hit a field of coca plants. Jimmy gives us a history lesson about the
plants and he also paints our faces with the berries from the plant. Jimmy tells us that it takes 400 kg of coca plant to make 1 ounce of cocaine. That's nuts! Also, dried coca leaves can be used for tea and you can chew on them, however, you can't do this with the wet leaves.
We continue on and hit a portion of the trail that looks to be very muddy. Jimmy checks out the trail ahead and tells us we need to go another route. He gets me to lead the way as he needs to help the others up to the new trail. I go a few feet and run into a problem. There is mud every where and I'm not sure where to step. Jimmy says to keep going so I take one step and...almost fall over. My leg goes into a big pool of mud. It's up to the top of my calf muscle. With my other leg, I barely avoid falling into the mud pond and only get mud on my shoe. So much for being a good leader.
Jimmy comes running up and shows me the way. Now we are getting
somewhere. We go for a few hours then stop for lunch. After lunch, I try to wash the mud off my shoes. It's dried and difficult to come off. I end up soaking my shoes with water. The water seeps into my socks. So much for dry feet. I try drying my shoes and inserts in the sun but it starts raining again, so I just put on my wet soggy shoes.
Note to self: test ground before committing full weight. I spend the remainder of the trek walking in wet, muddy shoes. I couldn't even get some of the rocks out of my shoes. This maybe the day that never ends for me. The only thing that keeps me going is the hot springs.
Jimmy tells us we have Inca flats left and shows us what he means by moving his hand up and down. We continue our trekking and run into another problem with the trial. A mud slide washed part of the trail away. I see Jimmy throwing rocks into the mud. he's making stepping stones for everyone. This really looks like fun because if you make a mistake, it's down the side of the
mountain you go. I'm not sure anyone will survive the fall.
We eventually reach a cable car for crossing the river. I head over with Antonio first. The next people to come over are three girls. They are almost across when they run out of momentum. This is a problem for Antonio and me as we don't have the strength to pull them all the way across. It's too difficult and I'm standing at the edge of a cliff, holding on to a rope, watching my feet slip closer to the edge, thinking if I go over I'm dead! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Antonio tells me to let go which I do. We let the car go back three quarters of the way back before we try again. We change our technique and are able to get the girls all the way across. As a side note, the three girls were not the heaviest load that we pulled across the river. We ferry over the remaining people without any further problems.
We finally make it to the hot springs and everyone is elated to jump into the hot pools. After everyone is in the
water, Jimmy asks us if we want to walk to the hostel or take the bus. Everyone says take the bus. We get to stay in the hot springs till 7 pm. It's the best news we get all day.
We find out there is a hotter pool than the one we are in and head over to it. After soaking for a bit in the pool, some of the girls head back to the first pool. Only Sofi, Vicky, Jane, Cole, Scott, and myself stay in the hot pool. When it's time to leave, Scott, Jane, Cole and I have a beer while we wait for all the others. We start getting confused as to where we are to meet Jimmy. I'm not sure if the beer had something to do with it, but we go looking for Jimmy. We end up at the bus/taxi stand and wait there. After waiting for a while, Jane heads back in to the hot springs to look for Jimmy. A few minutes later Jimmy comes out and tells us we were supposed to meet him at the first table, the place we just happen to be drinking beers. Oh well. Jimmy
tells us to get into the back of the bus and we do, but Scott's and Cole's legs are too long. They end up moving to the seats behind the driver. The rest of the group finally arrives and we get going. Jimmy and Antonio are on top of the bus (van) with our luggage. I guess safety is not the number 1 priority on this trip.
We have dinner and then a few of us (Jane, Cole, Scott, Jimmy, Antonio, and me) head to the discothèque. The rest of the group heads off to bed. To my surprise there are only 2 girls at the discothèque. WTF? I ask Jimmy, where are all the girls? He says he doesn't know. Shit! So much for dancing the night away. More people show up a few minutes later. They are all from the other tour groups. I end up drinking the night away with Jane, Scott, and Cole.
At 1:00 am, I decide to head off to bed. At 5 am, I hear Jimmy and Antonio come back from the club. Those guys must be nuts. I find out later that Scott, Jane, and Cole went to bed at
2:30 am.
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