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Published: April 4th 2006
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We have been trekking in the cordillera real for 4 days and it was stunning.
We travelled in a car for about 4 hours out of La Paz and stopped at a tiny mud house and were told that we would have to camp there, we wouldn't be walking today, we would have to walk longer the 2nd day to make up time.
The reason we couldnt start, was that our guide couldn't find any donkeys to rent- the donkeys were needed to carry our tents,all the food and cooking equipment. So we waited for them to arrive, thinking better to wait than struggle on with the stuff. It was just gone lunchtime and there was nothing to do, it was freezing too. Having never waited for donkeys before, we didn't know what to do with ourselves.
Just after dinner, the owner of the house came back with 100s of sheep and llamas that walked in our camp, I'm sure they thought it was strange that suddenly there were 3 tents in their home. They were really noisy all night, and as we lay in our tent with the rain and the sheep, it was easy to feel like we
were having a weekend in Wales.
On day 2, we were woke up early for breakfast and had the bad news that the donkeys weren't coming and we would have to carry the stuff ourselves, on top of all our own stuff we had tents, food, pots etc. Mine and Los backpacks had never been so heavy. the first few hours of walking were completely uphill and we got to an altitude of 5300. I thought I was gonna die, and Im not being dramatic! I could bearly breathe getting up the hill, it was terrible. After every 5 steps I had to stop and get my breath. I just wanted to turn back, but we had to carry on.
The views were amazing though, we could see Lake Titicaca and the mountains, when at the top it was definitely worth it.
The worst part of the day was when we had to cross a river. With our shoes off, we had to walk across a freezing cold river - with our heavy backpacks. It was horrible and after about 10 seconds, I lost the feeling in my feet and couldn't feel the stones underneath.
This time it
was my turn to fall in the river, just at the last second, the guide held out his hand to help me out - and he slipped and fell in, so I fell in too. I was freezing, and even got offered some silver foil stuff to warm me up! But it was OK once I got changed and luckily I didn't get my camera wet - otherwise we would be stuffed. We had to eat rice and cheese, but at altitude we found it difficult to eat anything, but knew we had 5 hours of hills ahead so needed the energy. It was not nice, both me & Lo have been put off rice and pasta (and anything else we had to eat on the trek), for life. The mention of those foods and we want to throw up! Even cant face chocolate anymore.
The second night of camping wasnt good, it was freezing and we were at about 5000m, so breathing was difficult. And just before we went to bed, our guide showed us the mountain we would have to climb first thing. He said, that the day we had was easy compared to the following day.
So spent all night panicking about the next day, with the huge mountain in view.
The walk up the mountain was awful, especially as we had all the stuff on our backs. The tent was so heavy. But the view at the top was amazing, and as soon as we stopped walking, we got our breath back really quickly. I was really annoyed at myself for struggling, but when I looked around I realised that there was absolutely no life up there, there is not enough oxygen for plants to grow. And with only 2 days of acclimatiasation and the heavy bags, I dont think we did too bad at all.
After about 5 hours of walking, we found ourselves in a thunderstorm with hail, rain and snow. But still had 4 more hours before we could camp. The grass became very slippy and we were very cold.
On the last day we had to walk 4 hours to the main road. It wasnt so bad, at least it was flat and we werent in the middle of a storm. But our feet were wet and we were tired, no one said a word to each other until it
was over!
It was an adventure, that would have been better had we had some donkeys! but we got to see some amazing things and even got to use our water purification tablets (and painkillers). We have 2 days to recover before we come back and climb a mountain 5700m high....
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liz your mum
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storm
loved the blog entry felt for you lot with the storm the terrible weather conditions.and the way you couldt talk to each other coz you were all cold/tired/ reminds me of our day trip to blackpool cya chick x