Livin' la vida coca!

Tuesday July 13th
We woke up very early to start our day off with some white water rafting. I shared a boat with Orla, Mark, and Ally. The river we rafted down flowed south to north through the basin of the lowland forest. The river eventually meets up with the Amazon river in Brazil. The rapids measured around a 2-3 class rapids (nothing too tough). The dramatic setting for the white water was brillant! We conquered the white water for the next two hours. Luckily, noone fell out of the boats. After we were done with out aquatic adrenaline fix, we set off to start our 8 hour hike. You could say it would be an exhausting day... fo sho! I could not tell you how far or how high we hiked because as soon as I heard how long we had to hike for I just thought..."well let's get 'er done!!" The hike was in no way easy. We started off the hike ascending a mountain up ridicuosly steep switchbacks. Hiking up switchbacks is already tough enough but the "true" killer is the altitude. It dries out your throat and makes it hard to breath almost to the point where you are panting like a dog in heat. To remedy this problema, I shoved a handfull of coca leaves in my mouth and chewed like it was my J.O.B. I tell ya what, the coca really helps! I'm not saying that I was able to run up the mountain after the coca kicked in, I'm just saying it made the climb more bareable and breatheable. We hiked up and down various Andean mountains along the Inka trail. We passed through coffee farms, fruit plantations, crossed rivers, and the Peruvian jungle. At the end of the day, the group had bonded and we felt truly satisified about our accomplishment!