Day 16: I´m sick…
We earned ourselves very little sleep in exchange for our 7.30 soles we each paid for our room. The night was filled of blood curdling snarls, gargles and whines from dogs growling at people and fighting each other. At one point I had to pee, I brought my knife. Luckily at that point the dogs had circled to the other side of the hostel. 5:30am finally rolled around with the sun we headed across the street for breakfast. Aaron locked me out of the room. By the time I got an extra key he and Adam had left to begin the climb without me as I rushed to get my stuff ready and clean up our collective mess in the room we had rented. I was perturbed. It took me a while to figure out where they were and when I did I began to skate in a fury. I pushed past them tossing some of Aarons forgotten gear to the side of the road as I sprinted up the huge hill. I gasped for what little oxygen the thin air carried. I´ve never breathed so hard in my life. My lungs would fill to full capacity effortlessly 2 times per second and I was still running a oxygen deficit. I smelt blood on the exhale. (I have experienced this before when training really hard. I think it means my lungs were working at full capacity. When saturated to this point you can smell it.) I pulled over to hack and cough and remove my bandage on my hip. My leg seems to be infected too. Equipped with only surgical sponge I wasn´t to excited about throwing a new bandage on my hip so I after cleaning it thoroughly I left the wound to dry and scab in the open air. Not wanting the wound to adhere to my pantaloons I skated the rest of the day without pants. To make the day more desirable It seemed as though I was fairly ill. My nose ran I had my first real battle with “the shits” and my energy levels were really low (when not fuming angry). By 10:00am I had calmed down, and we had reached the top of the pass. Then began 6 hours of dowhill broken by short stretches of flat ground. It was gorgeous, we skated down into lush fields and thicker air. We raced in our tucks, we carved for hours, I honed my speed checks on backpack, it was great! One section was incredible long steep and frighteningly fast, considering our extra weight and lack of protective gear suitable for the blinding speeds we were achieving. By the bottom of the steep section our wheels had become noticeably worn. It was great although exhausting. We continued down a fair slope until we found ourselves at a small fish farm and restaurant nestled in a canyon. I actually ate fish for dinner today. I feel as if I have lost something, but after spending nearly a full month eating nothing but cookies, stale white bread, and the odd plate of French fries I was willing to try to see if it would help me feel better. I may be sick as a result of malnutrition. In the evening we set up camp on the property of the restaurant and we enjoyed the sunset in the canyon floor.
For pictures and more information, please check out http://www.longtreksonskatedecks.com
