July 20th - Day 3 of the Trek

The sun is shining today. Yea!!! We even get to eat breakfast Al Fresco. On the menu this morning is quinoa and an omelet.

The group having breakfast

We trek through the Amazon jungle/rain forest today

18 year old Nika questioning the plan for today

Hiking boots on the bridge

Crossing another bridge

Sitting on the waterfall

Carefully going downhill with an extremely painful knee

Kim really struggled with his legs and breathing today...very unusual for him

Scenes from the rain forest

Coffee beans

Close-up of coffee beans

Coffee beans drying. Just fyi - people, chickens and all manner of other critters walk across the drying beans.

Our campsite for tonight. It has stopped raining long enough to hang out all the wet clothes from yesterday and get them mostly dry.

Dry but still cold. A couple of hardy souls went down to the river to take a bath. I wasn't so brave since the water is glacier melt.

This is the second day we have hiked through lunch and headed straight to the campsite. It means having lunch around 3:00 pm, popcorn and cookies at 5:00, and dinner at 7:00. Way too much food. Every meal starts with soup followed by huge platters of rice, potatoes and/or pasta, a meat (mostly chicken but we did have trout one night), a salad (sliced cucumbers & tomatoes), finished off with digestive tea. It was okay the first day or two but after day 5, we were ready for some good old mexican food.

The guide breaks the news at dinner that he has decided to go over the mountain tomorrow instead of around it to the Hydroelectrica. He gives us a song and dance about how he knows we can all handle it. It will be a 3 1/2 hour climb with a very steep 1 1/2 hour downhill, all before lunch. After lunch we are supposed to take the train to Aguas Calientes where we will spend the 4th night in a hostel. However the guide has decided to walk instead of taking the train another 3+ hours.

When we get in the tent, Kim informs me that he isn't going to do the hike tomorrow. He had such a hard time today that he says his legs are done. I consider going anyway but the steep decline concerns me with my knee. It's a tough decision but I opt to take the day off and travel with Kim and the crew in the van.

Off to bed