La palabra del día es chape. I rolled over in my sleeping bag and felt something slimey under my cheek and eyelid. Slug? I wondered while sitting straight up and reaching for my headlamp. Yes, a slug. I guess it is one of the hazzards of sleeping outside here. Gross! It was 3:00 a.m. and I tossed and turned after washing the slime from my face and making yet another pilgrimmage to the bathroom. Thankfully, they had clean baños with flush toilets. I was wondering if I made a mistake by passing up a ride home. My intestinal distress had not subsided like I had hoped and was starting to wonder if I had a parasite. Crap!
I eventually fell back to sleep and woke up to my alarms (yes, I always set 2) at 6:00 a.m. I decided to forgo a morning soak in favor of hitting the trail extra early. We started hiking at 7:00. I was thankful for morning fog as it obscured the steep trail ahead. I felt like utter crap and was sweating profusely. I sent Alexis on ahead because I usually prefer to feel like crap alone. If there is someone there, I will be bitchy to them and then feel badly about it and it only worsens my mood. Solo is better. As I topped out on the first of 2 uphill climbs after about 350-400m (guidebook says 540m, but its wrong), I started to cool off a little literally and physically. When I arrived at the midway campground, my cramping and bloating started to improve. And an hour later, we were passed the second uphill climb and back in the lush wilderness this park is noted for.
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| Araucaria trees dot the ridgeline |
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| Morning fog |
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| Araucaria |
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| My mom´s favorite, fuscias |
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| Something in the Lily family, I think |
Feeling better, I opted to take the scenic route back passed Lago Verde and also hiked out to a mirador of Cascada Trufulco.
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| Lago Verde |
We arrived at the park entrance in 5:55 and had an hour to wait for the bus. I hung all mys tuff out to dry. Interestingly, Pucon was rainy and foggy today. I guess we were lucky to not have had rain with the open bivouac.
Now I am packing, updating blog, and will take a redeye bus to Santiago.
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