Day 2: Winding down

Towards the end of the second day, we found ourselves in the valley of the river Urubamba. We had to cross the river in a two person cart connected by a cable. Of all the things we did on our trip, this is the one that made me the most nervous. I have been in Peru long enough to witness many contraptions such as that one fail. And there are no lawsuits or insurance these companies have to deal with, which is in no way reassuring. Plus, the guide told us some had died on it just 6 months ago. After all had crossed safely, I realized it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. And that 400 meters down the river there was a regular suspension bridge we could have crossed. In the end I’m glad I crossed on the zip line.

The day concluded with our arrival at a hot spring. The hot spring was so much better than what I had imagined. It was obviously created for and maintained by the money of tourists. It was one of the nicest looking spa’s I’ve seen in my life, let alone Peru. It was clear spring water in natural rock pools. You could bury your feel in the pebbles that made up the floor. The pools backed up into rock cliffs jetting strait up and the view looking out from the other side of pools was breathtaking. Lush green jungle mountains, high and mighty, mysterious yet inviting. We were in the hot springs as the sun went down and misty clouds settled on the mountain tops.

This fantasy land wasn’t without flaw. Since it was in jungle part of the mountains, there were massive amounts of mosquitoes. I have a personal vendetta against mosquitoes to the point where I actually make myself paranoid. It’s true, there were mosquitoes everywhere and if you stood outside of the pool, they attacked your bikini exposed skin within seconds.

I had this image of arriving at the hot springs on the second day, exhausted and cold. I pictured soaking my aching bones in the warm waters with a cold beer I hand. Not only was not tired or sore from the trek so far, it wasn’t even cold. At home when I’m too hot in my Jacuzzi, I do an in and out routine to keep myself from over heating. But because of all the mosquitoes, I kept every part of my body underwater, no matter how hot I felt. And they wouldn’t let us bring the beer bottles by the pool. So every 10 minutes or so, I would jump out of the hot springs, sprint over to my stuff and dance around while pounding my beer because if I stayed stationary the mosquitoes would bite me.

The hot springs weren’t perfect, but I still loved them.

From the hot springs, we were bused into a small village a few miles away. At the hot springs I had drank two 22 ounce beers. At dinner in the town I had a Brazilian cocktail which was pretty strong . That combined with the altitude and the heat from the hot springs, I was really feeling the alcohol. Right as I realized how much the alcohol was hitting me, I also realized my camera was gone. I had definitely left it in the locket at the hot springs. Luis wasted no time in finding a taxi to take us back. He didn’t seem annoyed in the least that I interrupted his dinner. I was really grateful at how he didn’t make me feel guilty. Since we were the last to leave the place they had padlocked the gate at the lockers. I told the security guard I could jump it and he said if I could I was more than welcome to try. I got in no problem, retrieved my camera and impressed the hell out of the security guard.

Back at the restaurant my food was waiting for me. All the hiking, drinking and camera excitement had left me famished. I was so consumed with consuming my food that as I finished I was surprised by a restaurant workers coming towards our table with a birthday cake with candles and singing. I wondered who’s birthday it was without my knowing and before I could ask, they set down the cake in front of me and I realized everyone was singing and looking at me. Very confused, I looked at my friends and told them it wasn’t my birthday, but they just kept singing as if they knew what they were doing. I thought maybe they told the restaurant it was my birthday to get a free cake, so I didn’t say anything more about it not being my birthday.

Turns out, since my friends weren’t here for my birthday back in September, they wanted to celebrate with me 2 months after the fact. It sounds a like a silly thing to do, and it was. But it touched me so much that the thought even occurred to them to try such an elaborate scheme while doing a 4 day trek. When I went to find a camera, they went to find me a cake.

That night the boys went out only until midnight and Steph and I went strait to bed. That was the only night we had to share with a room with Dave and Dan who made us feel good because they went to bed even earlier than we did every night. That night it was hot. We didn’t want to open the windows cause there were no screens and we didn’t want to get eaten by moquitoes. I had killed seven in the room before I got into bed and knew I didn’t kill them all and the paranoia of being bit in the middle of the night didn’t help when I was trying to fall asleep.

Steph and I shared a bedroom one summer in Rhode Island. It was similar in the nights where it was hot and humid and uncomfortable to sleep. We remedied that by sleeping as naked as necessary. The hottest night of the trip was also the only night we shared a room with the Bullon brothers and so therefore had to keep our clothes on. Even though it was the worst of the night sleeps, it was definitely one of the best days, maybe second only to the Machu Picchu day.