Salkantay Trek: Day 3

9/23/09 – 5:00 am. Campsite 2. Wake up slowly, eat breakfast, fill water bottles with mountain water and pray the purification drops actually work. Surprisingly, they do. Just a few steps down the trail and it´s apparent the trek is taking a toll on our bodies; our feet are blistering, legs are sore and hips are hurting. Physically and mentally spent from yesterday´s hike, Mike and I spend a good part of the morning walking in silence; possibly the whole morning.

Isn´t walking down supposed to be easier than going up? After an entire day of walking downhill, I learn it´s not. The views are spectacular, but it´s hard to fully appreciate them with the sun beating down on us. We descend further and the landscape turns into thick, lush green jungle and I look forward to sections of canopy and the glorious shade they provide.

Even though yesterday was technically ¨harder¨ I found it much more enjoyable. It´s good to push yourself every once and a while. It´s the feeling of accomplishing something. Going downhill and conquering nothing while pushing your body´s limits pretty much sucks.

Halfway through the day we pass a waterfall and a few brave souls climb under for a quick cool down. It looks like heaven but Mike and I don´t want to hike in wet clothes for the remainder of the day so instead we settle for splashing our faces and watching the others in amusement.

Little shacks selling food and supplies sporadically appear along the trail, literally, in the middle of no where. We are miles from civilization. I can barely make it here. How did an out of shape elderly woman with a baby get here? There are no cars in sight.

The huts don´t have electricity but they do have lollipops.

At lunch Mike chooses not to heed the advice of washing his face after eating an orange – a choice he pays for dearly. Apparently combining citrus, hours of sun and his pale skin is not a good idea. His lips blister and bubble and crack. He looks like a herpes model. We finally make it to the end of the trail where a bus is waiting to take us to our third campsite. We start to grow worried when the diabetic member of our group is nowhere to be found. The last time we saw him was four hours ago and now he is only member from our group missing. After much reassurance from our guide that he ¨probably isn´t dead,¨ and we still are going go to the hot springs we felt much more secure. He eventually arrives, desperately needing sugar.

We pull up to the third campsite – heaven. There is an actual bathroom (1st of the trip), a monkey and a shack selling liquor. We drop off our gear, buy as many beers as we can afford and take a van down to the thermal hot springs. They are gorgeous – a sprawling facility of clean pools and hot natural showers. Upon diving in we discover the floor is gravel and rock, which create a therapeutic massaging effect as we wade in the warm water. We relax for hours, star gazing into the pitch black sky, occasionally jumping under a nearby freezing waterfall only to accentuate the pools warmth.

When our fingers are pruny and wrinkled we return to the campsite for dinner, a bonfire and booze. Our fire is quickly interrupted by rain so we grab the rum and continue to party under a makeshift awning. I can´t believe how little it cost for a bottle of alcohol. Considering we are in the middle of nowhere, they could have charged anything and we would have paid it. Instead,  they charge more for the Coca Cola, assuming gringos need their soda fix. Little did they know are raging alcoholics – just kidding. Sort of…

PITA – please stop reading now.

Mike gets the monkey drunk. It promtly falls in love with him. So goes Mike´s life.

Note Mikes forehead…sunscreen is necessary in Peru.

Look at the love. With those little beady eyes staring up at you, how could you say no? We give the monkey a small cap full of rum. After which it sleeps for 20 minutes, wakes up, freaks out in a drunken confused state and, like my uncle at Thanksgiving, stumbles under the tablecloth and passes out.

It starts to rain harder but what the hell do we care? We throw on parkas and keep partying!

The day can only be described in one word – surreal. Trekking through jungle during the day. Thermal hot springs at night. Drinking with a monkey. The night is great but we wake up with a painful surprise…

Up Next: Aguas Calientes