Today started off with the potential for great disaster. Whatever I had was no mere cold: colds don’t wake me up at 1 am with an urgent need to sit on a toilet. Or, since I was in the middle of nowhere on a mountain, place a landmine before it exploded and made a mess. I’ll spare the details of what ended up in the (very hastily dug) cathole; the important thing was that disaster was averted. At least until 7 am, at which point, the scene replayed itself. (I blame the Mexican food I had two nights ago; Although I was told that it “is the shit”, clearly instead, it gives the shits.)
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When my 6 am alarm went off, I really did not want to get up. I didn’t sleep very well, and the slightly sore throat I had when I went to bed had not gone away. But, if I wanted to get back on the trail today, I had to get moving. There was a 7:30 bus to catch.
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As expected, today was a nice, low-key day of the three Rs: rest, resupply, and restaurants.
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It was cold and windy overnight. The winds peaked just before 1 am, when a singular gust hit my tent hard enough to pull out four of its stakes. Aside from having to restake my tent, though, I slept pretty well, thanks to the flat, soft sand. And, unlike the last cold and high wind night, it was low-humidity, so my tent didn’t develop condensation inside.
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Although the morning was not quite as warm as yesterday, I managed to make it out of camp before 7 am, a new record for this hike. This proved to be quite necessary, as it was warmer today than yesterday (or at least seemed so), and my hiking quickly grew to be quite sluggish once the sun made its way above the mountains. I got in a good 45 minutes of hiking before the first direct rays from the sun hit me.
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