The night was long - I probably slept for about 4 hours because I was freezing. In the morning, nature called and so I had to go outside and bare the cold temperature and the blowing wind. I was glad to leave that camp behind and head out towards the highest point of our trek.
We had to climb 1000 meters until we reached the pass at 5200 meters. It took Sanjay and I about two hours, and we were admiring the view, some coca tea, and the lack of oxygen as we waited for Nirupa and Raul. This ended up being a big mistake, as my body temperature plummeted while sitting on the pass and I was really sick for the remainder of the day. We celebrated on the pass with some coca tea before heading down towards a glacier. I managed to make it down to the glacier, but as soon as we reached it, all of my energy vanished and I felt a bit of nausea. Raul gave me a pill for nausesa, which stopped the feeling of wanted to vomit, but it didn't do anything for my ability to hike quickly. It was a struggle to put one foot in front of the other. I labored on for two hours, holding up the group. Raul made the decision (which I was in support of by this time, as this had not passed) to put me on a mule and take me to camp. We were only about 15 minutes away from lunch camp. When we arrived, they unpacked my sleeping bag and put me inside of the dining tent. I slept for an hour or two inside the tent, still feeling extremely cold even though Nirupa couldn't sit inside the tent because it was so warm. I dragged myself on top of the mule, and Raul lead the mule and I down the valley.
By 4:00 I was feeling much better. When we were crossing a river, I dismounted from the mule and walked the remaining 30 minutes to camp. When we reached the camp, I headed straight for my tent. I slept until 7:30, woke up to eat a few bites of rice, and went back to sleep. If I didn't start feeling better soon, the rest of the trek was going to be miserable. Raul sent me off to my tent with a half bottle of water and rehydrating salts.
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