OK so I was pretty beat up after Stage 4 and was too lazy to get out of my sleeping bag and blog so I am going to try and catch up now...

First off, Stage 4 was FANTASTIC!! It is the reason I love these races so much. I started out the day feeling pretty sore...nothing out of the ordinary...but decided to take it easy since we had been warned about how grueling the entirety of the day was going to be. We began by climbing up, up, up to a spot called Heaven's Gate. The climb was real steep and the altitude made it hard to breathe. At times I felt really light headed and very short of breathe....it sort of reminded me how I felt in Atacama on those first few days at a higher altitude. Anyways so the trip up to Heaven's Gate was very rocky and then there were also about 12 ladder-like steps that went straight up and wooden ladders that laid horizontally over gaps that you definitely would not want to fall down. A lot of people took some spills but that's because they were booking it up and down. In fact I was just starting the major climb when the two top competitors were on their way back down. And then finally when you got past all the rocky climbing there was another 200 or 300 meters of a very steep grassy hill. I was basically hunched over crawling up haha asssss Jimmy went flying down past me. (BTW Jimmy absolutely dominated the past two days....so freaking cool.) But finally once I got to the top the view was pretty amazing. As you were climbing, the competitors on their way down kept saying things in passing like "totally worth it guys," "keep it up, the view is extraordinary," etc etc...at the time it totally did not feel like anything could be worth the trip up, but actually the view was pretty amazing. It dropped straight down the other side and you could see on forever. Really awesome. Anyways so then I trudged on down nice and slow so as not to slip and go barreling head first down the rest and finally got to the next section. This next part was by far my favorite part of the race. Most people found it really tough and incredibly unforgiving on the legs and feet but I thought it was amazing. We were basically ascending and descending mountains, which was obviously extremely tiring and difficult, but it was by far also the most fun. It was very technical and you had to be super careful as to where you placed your feet going up, and there were plenty of times where you were caught  in a stand still with the rocks..where if you moved you knew the rocks were going to give  and you were going to start sliding back down. I found the little bushes and shrubs useful at this point because I'd grab onto the roots and pull myself up...it was pretty adventury (not a word haha) and you sort of felt like you were rock climbing rather than running a race. But then again I am sure the top guys didn't quite feel that way so much. Anyways and then climbing down was sometimes even harder than going up because the rocks were so loose and the mountains were so steep. You had to be very careful and I had plenty of moments where I thought I was going to slip up and go crashing all the way to the bottom. So glad I had my walking poles. So then other than the ups and downs you might also be running sideways along the mountain side, scaling it almost, on a path that was just big enough for one foot in front of the other. Again just so a unique and incredible experience. But the best parts of this section were actually when you had finally reached the very tops and then you would be running across or down the very tops of the mountains. The views were beautiful and it felt surreal. I mean when do you ever run on the tops of mountains. SO FREAKING AWESOME. I felt like I should be on some Nike commercial...and probably be Nigeran or something...and going a lot faster haha...but it was that kind of idea. Anyways, so those were the highlights of the day...oh, besides one of our tent mates, Geoff, accidentally putting on our other tent mate, Sara's spandex in the morning when he was changing. HAHAHAHA sooo gross. I would never wish anyone to have to put on my spandex after 3 days of running in them...nor would I ever want to wear them again after man sweaty crotch touched my spandex...haha but she didn't really have much of a choice. hahah we were dying of laughter at the time though. I guess as far as the rest of Stage 4 goes....I did something to my shin about half way through the day and couldn't really move my foot anymore. Luckily I caught up with Geoff and he stayed with me for the rest of the day. It was great to have him as company, and I really would have struggled finishing it on my own. He was good at distracting me and we had some great conversation. By the end I was only able to grunt back or mumble out a "yes" through choked back tears...but he kept on talking and it was great because I had just about had it. So we got back to the campsite and I went to the doctors and was told that my tendon was inflamed (like shin splints, i hear) and there is nothing to do but take time off...which is impossible...especially with the long stage lingering. So it was lots of ibuprofen and an ice pack with my foot in the air for the rest of the night, just hoping it would get a little more tolerable for Stage 5 aka 76k.

Welp...it didn't get any better. By the morning I couldn't actually extend my foot at all. So you know how when you sit on the ground with your feet straight out in front of you and you can point your toes forward....well my foot stayed pointing straight up in the air. Not good when you have 76k of rock to get through that day. Unfortunately until I got to Checkpoint 4 (about 18miles or so out) I was limping and crying the whole way. I felt like such a baby but I really can't explain how horribly painful it was. And every time I stumbled over a rock and extended my foot it was like opening up a whole new jar of pain...which incidentally occured often since the course was all rock and I couldn't hike my foot up high enough as I limped haha. I know I must have looked so stupid. Anyways so at Checkpoint 4...just after getting caught in a mix of cold rain and wind (what is up with me and rain in these deserts?????)...I pretty much broke down. I really didn't know how  I was going to get on. And that's when I was offered a very special little pill by one of the doctors. I will give you a hint....it rhymes with Mikoden. So I took one of those, wiped away the tears, and marched on. And get this.....I felt like I was flying...couldn't feel a thing....started to run even...and was running so hard that I ended up finishing the day without stopping...it was insane.  Haha nope, actually that didn't happen. The Vikoden definitely helped..more so by numbing my mind as opposed to my foot...but either way it helped me get through the next two stages without crying...and then I got another at the second to last checkpoint and that brought me home to the finish. Once it got dark I enjoyed the company of Jacob, who is another 22 year old competitor (a lot more youger competitors here than in Atacama) but from England...he was so nice and funny and had some great stories about the Jungle marathon he did. Anyways, he really helped me keep up a strong pace until the end. There was no moon out which was a bummer so we really needed our lights in order to not trip all over the rocks BUT the stars were gorgeous!!! I have never seen a sky like that before. Plus it was like you could reach up and swirl your hands into the starry mix. Seriously the night sky was brilliant and seemed so so close to you....just something I have never experienced before and found breathtaking. And then we made it and for the first time in my life I had a few happy tears in my eyes because I can't even explain how excited and relieved I was to have survived the day. HOO RAH!

This morning I was able see our campsite in the daylight and it is really great. We are in this great little niche with trees that look like the Keebler Elfs should be lliving in them..which would be totally great because I could really go for some Keebler cookies right now. Apparently we do have a surprise coming tonight though which we are all hoping is some kind of food. Anyways that's about it for now. Just another 9 miles to hobble through tomorrow and then Gobi March is all over.  And in answer to anyones questions about Gobi (Eric)....YES DO IT....I enjoyed it a lot more than Atacama...not that I didn't love Atacama, but Gobi is amazing...and I am even saying this after experiencing the 12 worst hours of my life haha. It really is incredible and I actually would love to do it again some time in the future and injury free. Also, in answer to the questions about Sahara...yes I will be there as long as I can get time off from med school...eh

Mom and Dad- Jimmy is insane. He got 20th yesterday!! He is getting stronger and stronger...pretty awesome.I knew he would never let me live down beating him that one day....he really had to stick it to me haha.

Casey/Stefan- you ass. I got so excited reading those hahahahaha like sort of started to think it was true....must be all the pain killers talking. your emails are hilarious. but seriously tell Stefan I miss him and Damon I say hello. I need some vamp blood asap to heal this bod up. also i dont know what is real and made up in your emails but i totally am going to go with real. cant wait for the stories.laters babys.

Ryan-ohhhhhh I know that guy. yea i can see that haha it is only because now you have some hair you silly sally...he's not very nice though so i dont know how i feel about that...meeehhhhhhh. Ok well cant wait to see you soon (airport or not haha i promise i wont freak this time). but if you do come, can we please go to dinner...like every night....and order three meals between the two of us...plus desert....whaaaaaat?? gosh your so fat. XXXXOOOO. (insert photo of bulldog puppy here)

Jess/Molly-you guys are great. everyone else is getting no lovin from tara when she comes home. haha kidding. but I will see you guys soon and we will catch up then. my tan lines are hideous and my hair...i can't even talk about it. even better than after the last race....haha...but dont think I will get sick this time. at least I will do my best. tell shannon to get some pedialite ready!

Day 3 —today I got in a fight with the Gobi Desert…and the Gobi knocked me out in one punch. And then continued to punch me in the face over and over again for about 7 hours straight. Surprisingly after a good two hours of legs up, stretching, and a pepsi that they gave to us as a nice surprise, I am feeling pretty good. Hopefully because I took it slow today..although not so much on purpose….i will be ready to go tomorrow. So today was a short day mileage wise but ended up being long since the entire day was uphill. The beginning wasn’t too bad, but my hip hurt too much to run and I was pretty sore and tight…so I went into it as a rest day. It started fine and then we had the worst two checkpoint sections EVER…in fact I would say that today was the hardest day I have experienced, including the salt flats in Atacama. There was so much of that shit rock where all you did was stub your toe, trip over the rocks, and slide around in your shoes causing blisters. And to make it even better, there were a never ending stretch of rolling rock hills. Some of them were small, similar to the little slopes that a field of crops have, while others were about 20-50m high and very very steep. I fell on my butt about a hundred times and then just when I thought the Gobi had had its last laugh I tripped big time and landed right in a pricker bush on my way down one of these crazy hills. Then to end the day we had 9k or about 5 miles of a steady, incline. And I am not exaggerating here….it literally was one road that just went up and up and up. All I am saying is,today was not as easy as they made it seem. And tomorrow is apparently going to be the worst of them all. We will see. Hmmm I am feeling less tight right now but my shins hurt pretty bad, I think from all the uneven rocks. Oh and I have some major chaffing going on because for some reason my skins spandex shorts split right at the inner thigh hahaha so literally my thighs are exposed right where the chub rub would rub…and it does…except instead of chub lets call it solid muscle…duh. Our camp tonight is really chilly. I was huddling in my  sleeping bag for most of the day once I finished. It will probably be a real cold night. there are also a herd of goats around us which is pretty funny. Well,MOM, I guess I will keep it short this time. I always have a lot of good things to say during the day since it is nice to think about things other than the pain but now I can’t remember what I wanted to share. Oh all the competitors are really great. I walked with a very nice aussie man at the last stretch and he kept me pushing on. Its nice to have someone to walk with…too bad jimmy has an amazing walking stride, so there is no chance keeping up with him. Alright well we haven’t received any of the messages from the past day so hopefully by tomorrow I can respond to any comments.

oh now I remember the most important part of the day…so I am participating in the study where they prick your finger at the end of the day and check your sodium levels and after I got mine checked the medic asked me if I was feeling alright, because according to my sodium levels of 176 I should be dead. He said it was probably an error and so we did it again and sure enough…176 again. Soo that scared me quite a bit and I have been drinking non stop…and of course the bathrooms at this camp are the farthest away…but I guess this means I will be taking it slow tomorrow too probably so I don’t pass out haha. Awesome.

Hey pretty lady. Miss you.

Day 2 wam bam thank you ma’am, done, done, done. Before I begin, I would like to send out a few thank yous.   Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Wiz Kalifah, Nirvana, Skrillex….couldn’t have done it without your lyrical genius and incredible beats blasting deafening loud music into my ears. Ibuprofen, Extra Strength Tylenol, and Walking Poles….you have made the impossible, possible. I owe today to you.

Now that that’s out of the way, once again I will begin with the highlights of the day, although to be honest today was a really good day. But of course, I am saying that after being done for like 5 hours so my perspective has been fogged with the taste of chicken and noodles and a soft sleeping bag to crash onto. Anywho, so this morning was rough since I didn’t end up sleeping as well as I would have thought since we were on floors and not rocky ground, but the huts were pretty hot so I just never seemed to get comfortable.  Also I kept rolling off my sleeping pad face first onto the rug that we all think the village people send the donkeys in to clean, so that was making it a rather restless sleep, too. So got ready and decided to make my front pack lighter because I think that was causing a majority of the hip pain since that thing alone probably weighed close to 6lbs…which may not seem like a lot but it is after a while…trust me. So I moved my gels and bars into my pack and my clothes into the front pack and it worked wonders!!! SO much better.  We begin the race on a paved road leading out of the village and I was still a bit stiff so I ran for about 15minutes and then walked until we got onto the trail section of the course. This part was called Mars, because it was a bright red mountainous landscape with cool, rippled looking red toned rocks. For anyone who was at Atacama this past March it was a lot like the Moon/Lunar section in Stage 5, except here it was all different shades of red…pretty cool. It was definitely my favorite part of the day and I thought the path had a slight downward slope, although very slight, so I felt good to run and let loose. I also think this is about when my pre-race Ibuprofen kicked in (oops, don’t tell the Medics), but either way I was able to get some distance ahead by running. Plus, it was still very cool because the sun had not really come out strong, and there was a nice breeze, so if there was a time to run today, this was the time. After a awhile it started to become a lot of 5-10meter climbs, with pretty rough terrain so it was difficult to get good footing. I didn’t mind it as much as other competitors though and actually broke ahead of a lot of the competitors I was trailing. Ibuprofen is like a magical pill, I am telling you. Oh I forgot to mention I had a lot of pack troubles today, so that kind of slowed me  up a bit. My sleeping bag fell off about halfway to Checkpoint 1, so I actually had to do most of Mars with it banging against the back of my leg because I didn’t want to stop and re-maneuver it on. It’s questionable whether that was a smart idea or not because the damn thing slapping against the back of my knee for 4 miles was a real pain in the ars. But I was able to fix it at Checkpoint 1 and then continue running towards Checkpoint 2. Right before Checkpoint 2 and all the way to Checkpoint 3 the terrain turned into pure shit. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Your feet jumbled around in your shoes, which is why I got a few nice oozing toe blisters, but not anything too bad luckily. I slowed down a ton and was pretty miserable. It was also about when I assumed that magical drug started to wear off and I was too afraid to take any more because I didn’t want my kidney to fail…especially because we were in an area that couldn’t be reached by vehicle…..because it was just on and on and on of shit rocks. Jimmy passed me during this section (yes, that’s right, I was ahead of him until then)…his crazy long legs just powered through it was insane.  Plus we had to go up and down these super steep cliffs with loose rocks that slipped out from under your feet. Seriously like straight down. I went down on my butt a few times because I kept slipping so much  I thought I was going to take it to the face and eat that dirt and rock hard. Sooo this whole time there was actually this very pleasant scent of herbs and greenery….Newtown shout out: it was like being in Lexington Gardens…all earthy and fresh.  Very enjoyable. So finally at the last checkpoint we had 9km of blacktop and then 2km of trail to the campsite. As we begin the blacktop it was like a steady, long, climb uphill. Newtown again: think going up Main Street from the police station but more steep. SUCKED. However, just when you thought it was going to do this forever we reached the top and then the rest was downhill. Quite painful on the quads and knees but I got a rhythm and decided to run it. Oh I also took some Extra Strength Tylenol, plus hills don’t hurt the hip so much, so I figured I could run the final 4 miles pretty strong. It got pretty tedious just going downhill on blacktop…but better than up right. And I passed Jimmy (who said, “don’t think I am going to let you beat me.” Which I knew was true and that as soon as the downhill ended he would take me on the straight away to camp…I looked forward to the battle though.) Welllllll guess what….DIDN’T HAPPEN. So today, I am going to take it all in and bask in the fact that this will probably be the only day in all my running and RTP history I will beat Jimmy. But whatever, I BEAT JIMMY WOOOOOOO!!!!!! I thought he was going to come in all pissed off, but he actually complemented me to another competitor….surprising, right?? Haha I am sure he is going to make a point to CRUSH me tomorrow, but that’s OK. I’ll take what I can get. Getting kicked off now because I have been on for too long but I hope this makes up for the bitterness yesterday. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but I am hanging in there. Its hot as balls right now at camp though and our tent is starting to smell so I have really been taking advantage of the Cybertent. But really must be leaving now…getting angry stares….whoooppppsss….

Mom and Dad: Sahara...ha...ha?

Casey: Freaking amazing post. Fifty is amazing I know. I tried to tell you but you just weren’t jumping on. Me freaking OW. Keep the emails coming…makes me laugh…which is a nice change from how the majority of the day is.

Ryan: SHOUT OUTTTT!!!!! Thanks for the emails. Love them, as always. Who is Scott whoever…what has he been in. It’s tough to top R Gos….love you and can’t wait for a long back rub…and hug. Hope WV  is treatin ya right. WOO TANG!

Belinda: Hello hello from me and Jimmy!!!! Thank you for the emails!! Love them! You’re a rock star. Jimmy has been rocking his Crocs hard, which is especially perfect in camp tonight since we are in sharp point hay ground haha.

Stage 1 done. First I will start with the positives. To the first checkpoint we had a very nice mix of hills, one of which was actually that big cliff we experienced yesterday on the buses. It was much more enjoyable on the bus....fear of running of the side and all. However, up until Checkpoint 2 (because Checkpoint 1 was really only about 800m due to course changes) there were alot more downhills...nice long downhills. I started off thinking I would just run for 20min then walk for 10min and repeat but I felt pretty good, the temperature was cool and we were mostly in the shade, and my pack weight hadn't started to bother me...yet. So I went through Checkpoint 2, I think well under 75th place, and feeling good...it was about 7miles I think and I did it a little under an hour and 20min so that was solid.  About a half hour later I began to remember why on Day 1 in Atacama I told myself I would never do this to myself again. Here are just a few of the joyous and magical feelings and thoughts I was experiencing.....

"Where the hell are these damn stray dogs so I can pull its tail and hopefully get it to bite me."

"Wellpp this is definitey the last RTP ultra I will ever do. Sorry mom and dad but I just want to die and it doesn't seem fair to feel like dieing at such a bright and youthful age."

"What the f, rock, why couldn't you have actually caused me to fall and twist my ankle instead of just making me stumble forward and look unathletic and dumb."

"Why is that man walking and I am running and he is passing me. That just doesn't seem fair. I wish I was a man. No I take that back..I wish I was Anne Marie (who is freaking my idol and unbelievable and came in 4th place today."

"Perhaps if I fake pass out right before the next checkpoint they will declare me to unstable to continue and that way it's like I didn't quit...except I did but no one would know but me. I'd get over it."

"Yep this sucks. Not going to Sahara. No way. Not gonna happen. F this. I hate my life."

"Running is stupid. There is no such thing as a runner's high. It's called going numb to the pain. So why hasn't that happened to me yet."

"Yep this sucks. Not going to Sahara. No way. Not gonna happen. F this. I hate my life." (Oh wait, did I already mention that?? Yea that's because that's what I was thinking for an entire 5 hours.

And here is what my left hip is saying to me (which is so excruciatingly painful right now I honestly don't even know how I am going to make it the rest of the week): "Hahahahahahahaha. Tara, I am going to make you cry."

So for the next few hours we ran through this rocky crap, which included a river bed that luckily we could hop bank to bank and not get our feet wet. Jimmy was pissed they made the river crossing out to be more than it was because he was going to wiait and tape his feet after he went through. Turned out we never needed to actually step in the water so he never taped his feet and I think he got a blister...mild though. Speaking of blisters, the bottom of my feet under my heels are peeling off but no real blister yet. Phewph. Ok anyways so between Checkpoint 2 and 3 I managed a nice run/walk routine and what do you know I caught Jimmy. We arrived at Checkpoint 3 together but then he took off as I was still refilling my water. Ok anyways, so from Checkpoint 3 to the end my hip was ready to pop out of its socket and my pace really slowed down. The mountains in the background were really pretty but otherwise it was a long and boring crawl. Just the same old track with rocks and dirt. Everyone else agreed it was pretty mentally taxing. Here is something cool though. Tonite we are staying in one of the villages so our sleeping bags are actually on the floors in these stone and brick huts that are basically huts with a bunch of separate rooms. So each tent group got a room or area and actually our group of 10 got pretty lucky because we have one giant room and another smaller one so we were able to separate the snorers from the non snorers.The floors have rugs down (questionable sanitary issue here but probably not any worse than the stanky hotel we were in during traveling so whatevs) so anyone without a sleeping pad is pretty lucky cus it is actually decently comfortable. The village people are all into it and as we finished the last half mile through the village all the way to the end (which was such a tease because you totally thought the RTP flags were going to pop up every second and the road seemed to go on way longer than I wanted at that point) the people were outside on the street waving, which was cool. I saw one person leading bulls...that looked over at me and the guy leading them had this tiny branch he waved to get them back on track and I was like hmmm reallyy man you think thats going to keep it from coming at me. So then I pet it and it bit me and now I get to go to the hospital and not have to run anymore...oh sorry, I was daydreaming for a moment. So the bull man kept his bulls under control and then later I saw a camel and donkey and I got all excited because I wanted the camel to bite me so I jumped in front of it and to my dismay it didn't spit but stepped on my big toe and now its broken and I can't carry on with the race. Oh wait no that's not right, the camel and donkey actually looked like they were going to die of heat exhaustion so I waved to them and was like yea dog I feel that, and we both carried on. Then freaking finally I got to the finish line and I shed my pack and laid down. Unfortunately I landed right on a tarantula and it bit me...nope.

So since the day was cut short due to rain flooding the original route (halleluah there is a god) I got back earlier than expected. Also side note about these races: as soon as you cross the finish line your mind is like oh hell yea that wasn't so bad....pain? what pain? which is probably why I decided to do this thing even after many long hours in Atacama telling myself NEVER...EVER...EVER do it again. Unfortunately my hip is still way out of wack and when I lay down I can't even lift my leg so that's sort of a problem. But finishing for the day definitely tricks your mind into thinking you are totally fine and the day wasn't really that bad. So note to future Tara whose naive self is going to be totally tricked when/if crossing the final finish line and getting a medal put on her: BACK THE F OUT. DO NOT REPEAT. QUIT RUNNING. FOREVER. A finalI thing worth noting is our toilets. Well the holes in the ground, that is. In the village the hole is in the same room as cows....I can't really describe the scene well enough to give it justice but just imaging some poop stained holes and as you squat down you have a cow in your face mooing at you. It is like trying to pee/poo through the eye of a needle...which is why as the day goes on you have to stand with your feet wider and wider apart as you squat because some people are no good at getting it through the hole.Aim people. Jimmy said I should go and then wait until a long line forms and then right before I squat, look down and say  "Challenge accepted." Hahaha this actually made everyone in our tent crap up. It was pretty hilarious at the time. Ok well going to go eat my delicious sweet and sour chicken meal now, where the rice will probably be real hard because I am too lazy to wait the full fifteen minutes to let it fully cook. Everyone at home you should def do an extra prayer or knock on wood or send some positive thoughts at my hip...otherwise tomorrow could be a very long long and slow day.

Mom and Dad: Jimmy says hi.

Ry: Loves. If you really cared you would fake an emergency so I have to come home. NO NO NO..Im only kidding...but seriously. No, just kidding, sheesh I am not a quiter duh. But seriously...

Friends: June 22nd never sounded so good.

Most importantly...BRIAN (AmFit): HELP ME! My hip seriously feels like it is going to pop out of place. 9.5 pain out of 10. When I lie on my side I can't lift it up. ITB and groin don't seem too tight..I mean tight but not out of control. My finishing this race is in your hands. If you fix me I will bring you  back a cool Chinese hat.

PS. All the negativity is mostly met in a funny way... mostly...haha

So after what seems like 4 days of straight travel I think it's safe to say I likely am more tired and smell worse than I will at the finish line of the race. Just kidding. But quite possibly. The time difference made it tough to sleep when you were supposed to (not to mention that also happened to be when our only comfortable options were on airport floors, sidewalks outside the airport that apparently closes in the middle of the night even if that happens to be during your seven hour layover (thanks steph), or in one of the stankiest hotel rooms I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Speaking of which, it is likely both me and jimmy will be returning with various body mites and probably far worse disease

We are at Camp 1...finallyyyy!!! The days leading up to the race are always slow and sort of boring, but its nice to be here and get this party started. Woo woo! So before I get into the day I am pretty sure some Chinese got into my last blog. The words are supposed to say, "Westerners," because it was as if none of the Kashi people had ever seen Westerners aka white people before when we walked on the streets. And at the end I said:

PS. Casey: Tyler Lockwood is here. I told him I was sorry Klaus took over his body, and particularly because I enjoyed seeing Klaus's face. So then he bit me and I transformed. So now I wil probably win because I am supernaturally fast as shit. (adjustment: now that we have had proper face time, it is more T Lockwood from a distance...whatevs)

Anyways, on to today....we got up early at the hotel for a competitor briefing where we learned about the course and all the safety stuff. For the most part I think I just have to make sure I stay away from any of the wild animals we will be encountering, because if you get bit you have to go to the hospital no matter what. I don't really like stray dogs or cows or goats anyways though so shouldn't be an issue. Met alot of really awesome people just like in Atacama...that's definitely the best part...and their are actually a bunch of people from Atacama, so it is nice to see familiar faces. And as always the Brits sense of humor gets me everytime. It never really gets old. So after everyone got their equipment checked and cheked out of the hotel rooms we got on buses to be transported to Campsite 1. As we were sitting on the buses about to leave, the hotel people set off a bunch of fireworks right in front of the entrance. It was pretty insane...and really loud...and something we'd probably get arrested for doing in public in the States...which made it even better.  The bus trip was two hours and consisted of a lot of mountainous backdrop. I fell asleep for most of it. And about 20min before we arrived we got to this huge cliff that we had to climb. I swear if the bus went any further to the right it would have slipped right off the cliff and we all would have gone tumbling to our deaths. That was easy though compared to the downhill...as in straight down...finish to the trip. Some of the competitors were freaking out a bit. I have to say it was pretty freaky...even Jimmy said if he did this race again he would purposely miss the buses and get a taxi to bring him haha.

The camp is in this gorgeous valley with green and red mountains, but it is really really rocky (soooooo glad I have a sleeping pad this time....in fact I have been getting a lot of bribes for it). Anyways, as we pulled in all the people from the village were in two lines and were chanting for us as we walked through them and into camp. The tents are different from Atacama and are actually a lot better. They are bigger and have doors on both ends which is nice since it can get pretty hot and smelly in there, so at least we can have air coming in from both ends. Me and Jimmy rushed off the bus and got to the tent first so we were able to snag the two ends closest to the door. Hopefully we just don't encounter any snakes or scorpions that way though. After unpacking a little the village people put on a welcome show for us which was pretty entertaining. They really get into it and all the little kids were drinking our cokes...it was cute. All the men were also wearing these white, tall hats, while the women were all dressed up in dresses, scarves, and even heels. So they took turns singing songs and doing little dances...probably eight different individuals or ensembles went on stage (which was a large green rug over the super rocky ground...props to all the women in heels). It sort of was like we were watching Chinese American Idol.  It was impressive, but then some of us were wondering if they were actually singing. We were fifty fifty on it, but it was still fun to watch. Especially this one worman who was like an Asian pop star (not really...but thats how she performed). Then afterwards they put on a "horse show" for us. It was actually a game where two teams of men ride horses and try to get a dead goat into their goal, which is a hoop on the ground. Yes...I said dead goat. It was odd. But I think I am going to bring it back to the States and market it towards drunk college frat boys who will think its cool to toss a dead goat around. It was cool to watch for a bit and then I had enough watching men on horses get caught in a standoff as each grabbed on to one end of the goat and pulled. I guess the game ends when one of the limbs or head gets yanked off.  Kidding. But actually that probably happens sometimes and I guess it would put an end to the game. Unless maybe they have spare dead goats hanging around. OK so that was the end of the excitement for the day.  Im still tired from jet lag so probably going to go to bed soon even though it is still so bright out at 8:30pm. The sun sets and rises at really annoying hours here---sets at 10pm and rises at 7:30am--which is very inconvenient for our particular schedule.  Our tent mates are pretty  great so far. Apparently we have two big snoarers but one of the guys that came with them brought tons of ear plugs so he offered me a pair. So clutch because snoarers make me angry and I don't want to be angry at them because they are cool. I think there will be a lot of laughs. Also they threaten to fart alot so as of tomorrow we are having a girls side and a boys side of the tent. Jimmy was voted to be on the girls side because all the females in the tent think he is nice and calm.

Oh also, both me and Jimmy had packs that weighed 8kg, which Jimmy says is 17.5 lbs. This is a HUGE improvement from my 12 or 14kg pack last time so I'm very pumped about that.

Over and out. Loves.

Ryan--I think the email  I wrote you was in Chinese. Is that true??