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Published: December 8th 2007
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Daniela was the first one to tell me about this mountain to the East of Vilcabamba. She said it was a beautiful 2-3 day hike nearby, with overnight stays in a refugio. It sounded interesting. I subsequently got various other pieces of information about it: there is no path up there, macchia-like wild vegetation, it is very difficult. So I concluded I should not do it on my own. But then Daniela suggested to go together, and of course I could not resist. José Maria, a local guide, had told Daniela it was 1.5 hours from the refugio to the ridge, and that it took him another 2.5 hours from the ridge to the summit. So it sounded doable.
We packed food for 3 days, and up we went one morning. We first had to hike up the path to the Cascadas, then up a crest and down to the river. The path followed the river. So to say. In fact, the path was jumping from one side of the river to the other. In the beginning there were two so-called bridges, i.e wooden logs with a thin metal wire to hold on to. Very good practice for your sense
of balance, especially with a heavy backpack on you. After that, there were no further bridges. Which meant: shoes on, shoes off at every crossing, and there were about five more of them. After another ascent we reached the refugio. Here lives Anita from Switzerland and a horse.
The refugio was fairly comfortable, there were even bedsheets and a hot shower, that is, if the water pipe is not congested....We had a cheerful evening with a meal of spaghetti, followed by guitar playing and singing. Anita was invited to join the next day’s adventure.
We left at 6.30, well equipped (we thought) with four bottles of water each, sandwiches, chocolate and a machete. It was a beautiful morning, with not one cloud on the sky, and the morning mist rising in the far distance. We made up our way to the Filo (ridge) and indeed reached it within the 1.5 hours José had indicated to us. We could not understand why people had told us the
sendero was in bad shape and very difficult, as it was in fact a rather pretty path, steep in parts, but very hikable.
The next section was along the ridge, described
by José as
bien descansando (very relaxing). It did indeed start bien descansando. For the first 10 meters or so. After that we required the machete: meter high reed grass, thorn bushes, roots, thick branches. We swing the machete, we separate the reed with our arms, we climb over the roots, and under the branches. I always get stuck on everything with the walking sticks attached to my backpack (that was the most stupid thing to take, as nothing could be more useless as walking sticks in that type of terrain). An especially rewarding experience is when the huge bromeliad flowers empty their content of rain water and dirt over you. The path was hardly visible, and in parts we had to search hard to find the last traces of it. So we walk on and on and on, hill up and hill down, always along the ridge. The sun gets hotter an hotter. Then Anita says "oh, we are good, we have already done four hours’, and I think "what, we have already done four hours, and have only done that little piece on the ridge?’ The summit was still miles away, in addition to about 800m of
altitude. So we continue fighting our way trough the thicket, the sun gets higher and higher and burning hot. The cuts and bruises on our arms and faces add up, not leaving much intact skin. I am so glad I am wearing long trousers, and not shorts as I had originally intended. The final ascent from the ridge to the summit is tough, the very last part rocky.
The summit is reached at 14.30, exactly 8 hours after our departure. It was a beautiful view over some lagunas and another mountain range in the middle of the Podocarpus National Park. Very remote place. There were only a few minutes available for a break, though, as it was only four hours until darkness would fall. So the way back was a race against time. At one place I stumbled, twisted my leg and fell down a few meters into some bushes. I thought that was the end of me walking, as my knee really hurt. However, the adrenalin must have pushed me on. The way seemed never ending, one hill after the next re-appearing, whenever one thought one had finally reached the place where the path was leading down to
the refugio. Th sunset was beautiful, though. We reached the hut in complete darkness, after more than 12 hours of walking. The first thing we all did was to drink cup after cup of tea, as we had run out of water hours before on the mountain (I had even tried to drink some of the bromeliad water, as I was so thirsty, but after a few drops decided I would rather die from thirst than from an infection caused by the dirt in the water). What an experience. To round up the day Daniela told us stories about the shaman ceremonies that are held here with a hallucinating drink extracted from the San Pedro cactus.
After a long sleep-in Daniela and I walked down from the refugio to Vilcabamba very slowly, as all our muscles were aching. In addition I must have sprained a ligament of my knee and walking is now a bit painful. Anyway, when we reached the hostal everybody looked at us in awe, and they made us feel a bit like heroes.
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