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We are back safe and sounds from the llama trek. A little worse for the wear but not too bad. It was an amazing weekend all around. A group of 8 of us loaded in a van around 8 in the morning on saturday. Alejandro dos was our driver and Pancho our guide. The drive was fairly uneventful, surprisingly considering the roads here. We stopped about an hour into the journey to buy some fresh trout for dinner and to use the um... latrine. Think 3 walls and a hole in the ground about a meter across. Another uneventful hour later, unless you consider the amazing classic 80s rock cd Alejandro was playing eventful, we left the paved road for a dirt one I swear was going to collapse at any moment. We arrived at a small village where we were joined by our llama pack and our quechua guides. Thankfully they knew some spanish and Pancho surprised us all with his quechua knowledge. After loading some gear onto the llamas and strapping on our back packs we started our trek at 1300 ft around 10:30 in the morning.
The scenery was unbelievable, completely undescribable and pictures don't do
it any justice. We were constantly surrounded by mountains of all colors, yellow, brown, green, red, orange and white. There were huge beautiful rock formations above us and lakes below us. After a fairly easy first hour Pancho said it was time for a snack, we were at 13500 ft, taking our time. The snack he proceeded to pull out from his pack was one of the best picnic lunches I have ever had.
After lunch the real trek began. At 13500 ft the air is pretty thin and climbing a mountain isn't all that easy to begin with, so needless to say we struggled. Pancho was nice and stopped every 100 meters or so to let us catch our breath and let our hearts calm down. He claimed he need the break as well since he was born on the coast but we all know he could run up that mountain if he wanted. Our quechua guides were amazing and laughed at us when we needed a rest. One woman actually knitted as she walked up the mountain. Considering we weren't on any sort of road it was quite a feat. 500 more feet later we were 14000
ft up.
With only 500 more feet to go we were getting excited. The last hundred feet wasn't as steep of a climb as the middle 500 so there was plently of picture taking and laughing, although even laughing left us winded in a matter of seconds. All of this time we were noticing the sky getting darker as we climbed. By the time we reached the top we were exaughsted but happy. The sky behind us was black but we hardly noticed because we were so happy to be over the mountain. 14500 ft is absolutley beautiful in the Andes, but at the same time a little sad because we weren't even at highest point in any direction. After much excitment and picture taking we started our trek down the other side.
About 10 minutes down the mountain the snow started. We were excited to see snow and stopped to look at it but one of the quechua guides stated yelling at us and pointing down the mountain. Pancho and 3 of our group members were basically running downhill. At first we were confused because it was just a little snow but after 10 more minutes the
little snow turned into a lot of snow all blowing horizontal across our faces. So I'm afraid I don't have many pictures from the way down because we didn't stop at all. By the time we reached the village on the other side we were all exaughsted, cold, wet and sick from the rapid change in altitude back to 1300 ft.
We spent the night in a school house of the village. They cooked us a wonderful meal of asparagus soup, fresh trout and potatoes. I even ate the fish! Which looking back on the rest of the night wasn't such a smart idea. Since there was no electricity in the village there was no heat. Therefore we bundled up in long underwear, leg warmers, wool socks, hats, mittens and fleece jackets and crawled into our sleeping bags under alpaca blankets after dinner. When you are cold on a mountain with no electricity and tired after a long days hike what else do you do at 7 pm? you go to bed. Well bed was nice for about 2 hours but then the altitude sickness set in for me. I was up most of the night in and out
of my sleeping back, in and out of the school, basically changing temperatures all night. Not so fun really, and I don't think I will be eating fish any time soon. Although, one good thing about the night was the stars. When you are alone outside on a mountain in the Andes and there is no lights anywhere to be seen the stars are incredible. I just wish it wouldn't have been so cold so I could have enjoyed it more.
Out of a group of 8 only 2 of us got really sick that night so that is pretty good. The next morning and a lot of coca tea later we loaded on to some horses for a ride through the mountains. I'm not a big horse person but By the end of the journey I was getting the hang of it, and actually enjoying myself. We ate a quick lunch, or I should say the rest of the group ate a quick lunch, I ate rice, and then we packed up and headed to the hot springs. Unfortunatly I didn't go into the springs because of my fever and the changing of body temperatures was getting old.
But everyone said it was nice and they enjoyed their baths. We arrived back in Ayacucho in time for dinner on Sunday and for the first time it felt good to be at 9000 ft.
All in all it was a great trip, even though I got sick I still enjoyed myself. And to look on the bright side, if I hadn't gotten sick I never would have seen so many stars. Next weekend its the jungle, sea level! I'm so excited!
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