Merry Christmas.  I get up to another good breakfast.  By now I try to eat as much as I can from breakfast because it is the best meal of the day.  

 

This is our rest day to acclimatize and I go down to use the satellite phones, $2/min to the US.  I ask, “what do I dial to get the US”, they tell me “001 and then the US country code and then the number”.  I enquire, “What is the US country code?”  They respond, “We don’t know”.  I try this multiple times as I think the country code is either 1 or 11.  Sometimes I get “no number” sometimes I get ringing with no answer.  Since no one answers within 30 second window (I hang up at 29 seconds), I don’t owe anything.  I give up.

 

Lunch begins with the same soup as last night.  Jack comes into the dining tent and says to me, “I think your bag is outside, a yellow North Face duffel with an ID that says Robert Barta.”  Jack, always the jokester.  You are joking, right Jack.  No?  I go outside and there is my bag.  Merry Christmas!!!!  I’m jumping up and down.  I high five Jack and tackle Andres.  Finally, I can relax.  Things are looking up.

 

I’m going through my newly found gear.  I decide to just keep my pad/sleeping bag setup.  I don’t know why, you’re always more comfortable using your own stuff.  Inside my duffel is a note from the TSA that they inspected my bag…it was so expertly packed when I did it and now I can tell they had to work hard to fit it all back in…I sure hope that my bag wasn’t held up at TSA due to repacking.  

 

Frank and Vicki go to the hotel for showers and satellite phone.  When they get back I find out that you dial “001” and then the number, but you must dial it slowly so that the international connection is established before the 30 seconds starts.  It’s that simple.  I call home and it connects.  Sunn is relieved I have my gear.

 

We have another medical check today and my numbers are very good.  We had to hike quite a bit down to get to the medical tent and then all the way back up to camp.

 

Dinner begins with the same soup as last night dinner and today’s lunch and ends with pasta that has been cooked into a starchy paste.  I didn’t know that was possible, but let me assure you it is.  They topped the pasta with a few bits of ham and a cream sauce that seems to have been made using the leftover starchy pasta water.  This is possibly the worst dinner I have had in my life.  I force down half of it.  I feel like Rambo, I’ve eaten things that would make a billy goat puke. I wish I had brought a few backup freeze dried dinners.  Some other camps had signs out that advertised food for sale, but I’m too upset and it just doesn’t come to mind.  However, dessert was a fantastic custard over ladyfingers all covered with chocolate.  

 

The group starts to talk that after summit they prefer to compress the schedule by one day, skipping the Puenta del Inca bunkhouse disaster and going straight to the hotel.  I finally realize that if we summit on schedule (ie don’t use our 2 backup days, and skip Puenta del Inca, and with my extra day in Mendoza) I will be down from the mountain for 5 days before getting back to altitude on Chimborazo and possibly losing my acclimatization.