10/18/14 trek day 2: Deet... Love you like a brother

Thank Baby Jesus for deet, otherwise, I'm sure I would have woken up in that hostel with loads more bugs bite than I had. Some people in the group definitely got it much worse than others. We started the morning with an uphill trek, but for some reason today doesn't seem as bad, however we started in the morning so it was much cooler and we were a bit more fresh for the hike. We get near the top of the mountain and rest on the cliff of sorts with the most breathtaking views of the river and surrounding mountains. It's a beautiful morning, warm, and relaxing. We stay here for a while and our guide gives us some education on the incas to lead up to the grand finale of Machu Picchu. Our guide told us of the three theories they have for the Inca people... since they were not literate, left no writing or pictures, it is difficult to say what is true and what isn't. Apparently only about 50% of what they know is actually true. We continued downhill to the river and then mostly on "flat" lands for the rest of the day. Once we were along the river, the land moved with the river, so we were walking on gigantic rocks mostly... almost rolled my ankle a couple times but overall was good. Kept thinking, this rock business better not lead to another incidence like my dads.... ;) We hiked from about 8-5ish but took many breaks and was a pretty easy day. We finally got to the Santa Theresa hot springs. A little more touristy that I anticipate, but they were very relaxing. We met some girls who were doing their own guided trek (holy bold), they had just gotten done working on the set of Survivor... they were the people who tested out the challenges before the actual contestants. Sounded like a pretty cool gig. We stayed until dark and then we were taken to our hostel for the night. No power made for an interesting night and an even more interesting morning, but at least the windows closed in this place!