October 26, 2005
Day 28
After getting a lot of sleep in a surprisingly comfortable tent with a thick air mattress, I woke up at dawn. Tom, Lisa, and I were all sick so we basically just lounged around for a few hours before the day's rafting excursion began.
At around 10:00, the van pulled up with three new passengers from England and Portugal. As we drove to the starting point, Tom and Lisa both declared that they wouldn't be able to raft because they were too sick. I decided that I could still go, mainly because I paid for it, but I guess I figured it would be a lot of fun too.
We just had one raft and a ducky today. Luckily, the raft didn't have any holes this time. The preparation routine was the same as yesterday. Henry started in the ducky this time, and the remaining four of us took off in the raft with our guide.
The rapids seemed a lot better today. Maybe it was just the fact that the raft had air in it, but it seemed like we were going faster over the rapids. The weather was pretty cold, but we made the most of it. All four guys other than me went in the ducky for awhile (I didn't go today because I was the only one to go yesterday). Every time someone rode in the ducky, he ended up getting thrown in either by the rapids or the guide.
For the last set of rapids, we decided to make it more interesting. We each stood up on the raft and held onto each other while we went over the rapids. Our first attempt failed miserably when we all fell in the raft. However, for our second attempt, the ducky guide decided to join us in our raft. He wouldn't have been satisfied if we made it without falling, so he started shaking the entire raft and I fell in.
So, we all took a swim, we all had fun, and we all were shivering at the end. I felt OK for a few hours afterwards. We had another amazing lunch and drove back to Cusco. On the bus ride back, I started to feel sick again. I was coughing pretty badly, had a plugged nose, and a sore throat. Not a good state to be in before going trekking for four days in the mountains.
After I got back to Cusco, I had a meeting with the other people I would be going on my Inca Trail trek with. They were mostly older than me, but still seemed like a fun crowd. The only problem was that I barely had enough energy to make it through the meeting. Luckily, the instructions seemed pretty basic: bring cold-weather clothes, be ready to go at 5:30 AM, and be prepared to do a lot of hiking. No problemo.
After I got back to the hostel, I wanted to catch up on my photos and blog, but I just didn't have the energy. I said goodbye to Tom and Henry, who will be going to Puno in the morning, and Lisa, who I should see again after I get back from the Inca Trail, and crashed, wondering how I would pull of the Inca Trail trek in my current condition.
The photo album for this entry is here.
