Journey to Machu Picchu (Day 2)

All of us barely slept last night. It was about -5 to -10 Celcius. At 5:30am, Hassan and I got woken up by one of the cooks banging on the tent and shouting: "Coca!" It was our morning coca tea. As we struggled to get up, wrapping ourselves with the blankets and savouring the hot warmth of the tea, I thought to myself that at least the worst night was over and now we have a 10 hour trekahead of us.

I walked ahead with Wes and Danny, all the way up to a small lake. We rested there and took pictures. Wes wasn't feeling too well so we waited a little more. Then, we got ready for an hour hike up an extremely steap hill. We were going to Salkantaym pass, the highest point of our trek, at 4600m. We took many breaks, but finally got there with a sense of accomplishment. Hassan and I had our coca brownie, a delicious specialty at a coca shop back in Cuzco. We also got everyone to contribute one stone to our wishing stone sculpture, a tradition for the Incas. After that point, it was nothing but downhill. I saw Emma a few times during the day, but she was hiking with her group.

On the way down, we were going to enter the jungle. I walked with Hassan and we talked about med school for a bit. He also told me that he really is enjoying his trip and all of the great friends that he met along the way. He considered me not only as a friend, but as a great friend. The feeling for me was definitely mutual! We finally arrived to our lunch destination after 6 hours of hiking to a cute place near a small river. After lunch, we were going to hike for 4 hours more. By this time, I was feeling dirty and in desperate need for a shower.

During the afternoon trek, I found a waterfall and felt that it was best to at least wash my hair. Some girls came by and started laughing at me. They seemed like really fun girls. Their names were Natalia, Priscilla, Moppy (her nickname), and Stephanie, and they were from Sao Paolo, Bresil. Since I was going there in a month, what better thing to do, but to get to know them better. Natalia seemed to be the more talkative so we ended up talking all the way to our next overnight campsite. Natalia is an English teacher and opera singer. She was really interested in learning different languages, but not latin languages. Her and her sister, Priscilla were half japanese and half polish (what a mix!).

At our overnight campsite, we separated to go to our designated tents. The scenery was beautiful. There was an alpaca chained near our tent, and a bunch of us were wondering what was it doing there. As a joke, I told everyone that it was dinner and I went to go pet it saying that it was the last human, loving touch. Everyone laughed, but suddenly, 5 minutes later, a bunch of locals came and dragged the alpaca to the floor and slit his throat. I was in shock! What started as a joke ended being reality! We were then told that the alpaca wasn't for us.

Dinner was great again and this night was still cold, but less colder than the night before. We talked about religion at the dinner table, and I was glad to know that everyone in the group felt the same way I did. I went to bed after supper while some of the guys went to an outdoor bar just beside. Hopefully, tonight was going to be a bit better than last night!