Well, Day 1 the Atacama Desert yelled “Hey you! Whatever you thought you trained for forget it. We are playing by my rules or else you go home!”. Rough day that stretched everyone in their own way. 

It was icey cold this morning and then some. Everyone complaining of a difficult night between the cold and snoring tent mates. I did just fine with the cold but was up hourly and finally gave up and joined the crew at 430 to enjoy the fire some coffee and some awesome humour.  Quite a crowd here this round.  I ended up with a gaggle of Swiss round the fire last night and enjoyed so many stories and jokes, bad and good.  We are predicting that by the end of the week the language will become more crass and the stories more intense. Great fun.

The start line was full of many just wanting to get started as our toes were frozen solid.  It was a beautiful beginning with canyons and morning sun.  I found myself enjoying all of the beautiful rocks throughout and picked up at least a hundred with my mind…. But no go with the weight!  I learned so much at the meteorite museum in San Pedro before we left that I found myself looking for asteroids and meteorites. We can only hope to see one hitting the earth during this week…. And I swear I found superman kryptonite!

For me the climbing up and down paired with rocks that just love to turn just as you step on them were quite challenging. My pack came in at 11k without water so the literal monkey on my back added not just humour but challenge. One face plant later a cloud of impressive red brown dust enveloped me like pig pen from Charlie Brown.  As it settled I leapt to my feet and kept on running.  No worries as I now had my one fall out of the way. My tactic on the mountain climbing can be attributed to “Mr. A Wiggins” from the Carol Burnett Show.  Those who know get it….. needless to say I embraced caution as there is not much room if you make a mistake.  That included my graceful butt slide down a hill of rocks.  Not exactly a Grace Kelly move but I made it and woo hooed at the bottom with glee. 

 Well, I’m pooped and many days to go.  In honour of Patagonia last year we have nightly dinner reservations (thank you Lynne) so its time for some freeze dried mac and cheese.

Lots of love to everyone at home. Miss you guys.  How was track Ella?  Did you run like the wind?  And yes, I crawled through 2 tunnels today!  Lu. Hs