Day 40
My calves have never hurt this much in my entire life after running that downhill toe striking the whole way down. For fucks sake I was in some pain! We had the same typical night of cracking up before going to bed. This morning I was woken up with coca tea and it was still cold out this morning even though the elevation dropped quite a bit. We got up and had the typical bread and jam breakfast. I did a little workout on the grass while everyone was eating and we hit the trail.
Aurelio stopped maybe 10-15 minutes in and grabbed some berry looking things off a bush and we all knew exactly what was happening. Face painting time. He drew something on each of our faces and then at the end I got him with a face painting. He told us this is what the locals used to dye clothes for different colors. We marched on all looking like ancient Incas. I don’t even know how many miles we hiked today. Maybe between 5-12 who knows. We made our way down a valley with a river in the middle as always. I had a nice chat with Anya, Stefan and Demi along the way. We came into a small area with a house and a lot of fruits growing there where we all rested. They had a lot of fruit for sale that was grown there along with some light food. While we were devouring dragon fruit and some other goodies it started to rain pretty hard. We were all bummed with how cold it was because we had a chance to jump in a river up ahead in a bit. It was raining and cold at this point and it didn’t look like it would clear up. We were filthy and sweaty from the morning and I was dying to get my clothes wet so I could wash them. They were starting to smell.
When we made it to the river I said fuck it and decided to throw my speedo on and jump in. It was actually much warmer than the cold shower we all took the night before and god damn did it feel good. Once me and three of the guys jumped in, the girls decided to jump in. Anya and Demi loved it as well! We finished up the hike and made our way into a few vans. We went to a local village about 45 minutes away while blasting some good music with the chief in the van. Damn it was such a good time.
We got out of the vans and learned how to roast coffee. I was the one mixing the coffee with a stick on a fire and then I grinned it. in the process I popped a rib out on my right side. Aurelio told us he had another surprise for us while we were drinking the coffee we just roasted and this guy pulls out a huge red dick shaped thing full of alcohol. So of course we all start to take a bunch of shots. This guy is definitely a wild one. We got back in the vans and took a short ride to our campsite where we had about 2 hours to relax and eat lunch until we were going to take the vans down to a hot spring. We all picked our tents and chilled out. The sun finally came out along with all the bugs in Peru. Most people started to drink for happy hour which is what they called it. I think happy hour was all day everyday on this hike.
As we loaded up the vans the guys decided to buy a bottle of Pisco and ginger ale. So we got in the vans and for some reason were the only one blasting music with cups in everyone’s hands full of alcohol. I’m hanging out of the side of the van with two cups so I can give one to the chief since he definitely needs one. A minute later the van is blasting down a dirt road and everyone has a cup of alcohol in their hands. I’m pretty sure the van driver had one as well. We had a one hour ride and holy hell did it get loud and rowdy in the van.
We pull up to the hot springs and the other groups pull up behind us as well. We bought two more bottles of Pisco at the hot springs little shops outside. The doors are wide open blasting music, where all screaming makes a ton of noise and the other vans are pulling up all quiet looking at us all confused. We weren’t allowed in the springs with the booze so we mixed it in the ginger ale bottles and made our way in. We relaxed in the hot water and the god damn germans in our group were so fucking loud. Markus and Luca yeah i’m talking about you guys! We met some people from the other groups and all chatted about where we live and our lives while everyone else in the part of the hot springs we were in moved away with how loud some of us were. They were definitely pretty pissed and annoyed!
We made it out at 6pm and got a few tables for everyone at the little shops by the springs. This is where it all started to go bad. We got bottles and bottles of booze and everyone started drinking. After an hour the van pulled up and shit got real rowdy in the van. The 1 hour ride turned into a 10 minute ride and we pulled over and Aurelio made us follow him into a bar. Next thing we know we are taking 2 shots and some more shots from another big red dick thing. This guy is out of his mind but we sure do love him. He knows how to party. We get back to the campsite eventually and Markus is 90% unconscious. I tried carrying him in my arms barefoot up the hill to the campsite but he wasn’t helping at all so Aurelio helped me. We ended up laying him down on the ground with a pad to sleep for the night. Other people started rolling in getting carried as well and they were puking everywhere. Me and Mary were the mom and dads of our groups babysitting everyone that was very drunk. We had dinner. It was a shitshow and then danced for a few hours in a little hut made of mud. We all passed out drunk and wet from the humidity in the jungle. I had no idea how these people were going to make the next day’s hike.
