We were awakened at 5:40am by a braying donkey, followed shortly by a crowing rooster. Ah, nature. We had hot drinks at 6:30 and breakfast at 7. Breakfast was an omelet with queso Andino, tomatoes, bread and jam. Local dogs waited outside the kitchen tent for the chicken that was being cooked for lunch.
We were packed up and hit the trail by 8:30am. We were given snack packs for the trail – crackers, banana, candy bar. Everyone was in shorts and short sleeves. It rapidly warmed up due to the sun and steep trail – it was hard work. The conditions on the trail were alipine at first, then forest, then more tropical.
I had problems on the trial for the first two hours of hiking – heat plus altitude plus a steep trail were not a good combination for me. We had to check in at the ranger station part of the way up. I had an altitude headache at this point, so Alvaro gave me a cotton ball soaked with alcohol – a trail trick that seemed to work a little.
We stopped for lunch at four miles, at 10,900 feet. We stretched and had Coca tea and tried to dry out our shirts (wet with sweat!). Lunch was egg drop soup, avocado,, bread, hard boiled eggs, pasta, chicken and Tang to drink.
We continued to hike for another hour, two more miles to 12,400 feet for the next camp. Our porters amazed us, the trail was a lot of steep stone steps, and even though they stopped to take breaks, they still beat us to camp.
We arrived at our campsite at 2:15pm, a gorgeous spot with breathtaking views, situated next to a stream sourced from a natural spring. We washed our hair and shirts and soaked our feet in the frigid water and hung out in our tents for the rest of the afternoon. We were camped somewhat close to another group – the first time we’ve seen anyone else on the trail. They were far enough away that the only time we saw them was on the way to the bathrooms (hole in the ground yet again).
Our snack for the afternoon was coca tea, crackers and popcorn. We reviewed the map and the plan for the next day with Alvaro, and while we were in the food tent we got our first real rain. Dinner was aparagus soup (yuck), and beef and rice for Larry, Edith and Jay. I got a special meal of chicken and french fries (allergic to rice, but don’t ask why they gave me chicken instead of beef). Dessert was strawberry Jell-o that had been cooled in the freezing stream water.
We finished dinner fairly quickly and bant back to our tents. Noises for the night were lots of croaking frogs (one even made it into Alvaro’s tent). We had lots of storms overnight and slept a bit fitfully.
