Peru July 23

Day 2 of our hike, and it was an emotional roller coaster. Our spirits were high as kites at times and then would dip to the depths of hell in a heartbeat. We woke up, had oatmeal and left for Choco, which was supposed to be about 3 hours away. Our muscles were sore and feet hurting and the climb to Choco was almost all uphill. We had decided that morning that we would get a mule in Choco for safety reasons, not because we were hurting and sadly out of shape after the easiest day of the hike. We ended up making it to Choco in about 3 hours 15 minutes, which was good. We got there at about 12:15 and bought some treats from the tiny, crappy, overpriced shop in the plaza. We talked to a guy about getting a mule and he said he’d be back in a couple minutes. The guy came back. No mules. Shit. We were tiered, hurting ex-high school athletes who just simply wanted an animal to carry our heavy packs for us up the mountains. And that, my friends, is what is known as The Beginning of the Emotional Roller Coaster that was Day 2, Colca Trek. We were bummed but decided to go on. We asked where the trail continued on to Chacas and the guy we were talking to pointed us in a direction. We found a small trail that took us up terraces and then disappeared. Low spirits. Vaughn had to run back down to Choco and ask where the trailhead was again. He came back to me and said he asked 4 ppl and none of them knew. There was even a lady who, when Vaughn asked, turned to her 5 year old daughter and asked her. Luckily, on our way back down Vaughn spotted another trail that we decided to take. It was the steepest trail ever and looked like it wasn’t going where we wanted it to. We pondered hiking back to Cabanaconde a couple times because we though we were lost, but we kept going. Lower spirits. We hiked up this path through an old abandoned little town, an abandoned post office and a couple big crosses. We kept looking across the canyon at trails thinking we took the wrong one. Even lower spirits. We took a break (not very uncommon that day) and I decided to go a little further on the trail w/o my pack to see if the trail we were on connected with a trail we saw that went in the direction we wanted. And it did!! High spirits!! I came back and told Vaughn and we were ready to go. Unfortunately, the connection had a split, one that went down and one that went up, both in the direction we wanted. Low spirits. If anybody is wondering, this is where Jesus came into play. We were right next to a cross and Vaughn said if the rock he throws at the base of the cross bounces left, we go down; and if it bounces right, we go up. It bounced right, some may even say it struck emphatically to the right like a bolt of lightning. So we took that path and it was correct! I guess all that praying I’ve been doing the past 20 years finally helped me. Unfortunately, Jesus sent us on the second steepest hike I’ve ever done; second only behind the one we did to get to his cross. Spirits rose and fell along the way as cramps and doubts came and left. We are now camping at a wide, flat part of the path. We had rice with curry and carrots for dinner and I’m now going to sleep so I can wake up as sore as I’ve ever been. By the way, my two big toenails are about to pop off because they keep hitting the front of my shoes. Buenos night!