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Day 7 View
And probably the best of the trek, although this photo doesn´t show it all. April 11-20: After eventually leaving Lima a night later than originally planned we got to Huaraz early the next morning and got talked into taking the 'free tourist bus´ to our accomodation. Only catch was they had no intention of taking us to where we wanted to go, but instead they took us to where they wanted us to stay. Eventually checked into a place that was further out of town than we would of liked but at 5 Euros for a double room who could complain. We then had to fight off a concerted effort to sell us a tour there and then by agreeing to talk to them later after we´d had a few hours sleep.
A few hours later and there´s a knock on the door to let us know that our tourist adviser is ready to see us. Out we come to be met by 4 tourist advisers. With such lines as, 'don´t tell the others what you are paying´and 'we can probably do a little better on the price´, all adding up in my mind to 'they´re hoping to rip of the new people in town before they know what the real price should be´.
Brother and Sister, Joel and Freddie
Met these kids on day 4. He´s built a little seating area where him and his sister can wait for the backpackers and there goodies. We advise them that we´ll let them know our decision later after we´ve spoken to another couple of agencies. A couple of agencies later and we´ve signed up for a mammouth 8 day trek around the Cordillera Huayhuash, with a different and reputable agency that was of course also cheaper (shock horror). Don´t know how we convinced ourselves that an 8 day trek was preferable to the standard 3 day trek, but we did. Ten minutes after handing over our cash we start questioning our sanity.
We then spent the afternoon wandering around Huaraz which isn´t exactly the prettiest place we´ve been, largely a result of the place being flattened by an earthquake in 1970. 50% of the 30,000 inhabitants were killed, and 90% of the buildings demolished. One of the other local towns was completely wiped out by a resulting avalanche killing all 17,000 inhabitants who were home that day. The next day is just spent wandering around giving ourselves more time to acclimatise to the altitude again before our trek.
Come 4.30am Sunday morning and we´re on our way. We being myself, Niamh and our guide/cook for the trek, Carlos. A short (6 hour) bus journey
Start of Day 7
Niamh in her favoured aerodynamic hands on hips uphill position. Last nights camp was just down to the right in the valley. takes us to our starting point, where we meet our donkey driver and his donkeys. Our donkeys are loaded up with enough food and supplies to keep us alive for the next 8 days. Then we´re off. The area we´re treking is the Cordillera Huayhuash which might be more familiar as the setting for the dramas depicted in the docu-film 'Touching the Void´. If you haven´t seen it, get it out, but for now you can go to the following link to get a bit more detail on what happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_the_Void.
Over the next 8 days we trek 147km through the most spectacular scenery in South America (at least the most spectacular we´ve seen, and we´ve seen plenty). If you don´t believe me, just look at the photos. Apart from a few hours the entire trek is between 4000 and 5000m with 8 passes between 4600 and 5000m. The first 4 days are mostly overcast, which helps as it´s not too warm. Day 5, is snow and rain all day and then that night our guide, while pointing at the moon, tells us that´s the end of the rain as apparently the wet season has just ended. For the
next 3 days it´s blue skies the whole way. Happy days, but it also means that the tent is iced over each morning. In total we climbed over 6000m and that´s not including the shorter ups and downs. That´s a bit like climbing Irelands highest mountain 6 times in a week but starting from sea level each time. It´s no wonder that by the time we got to the end in Llamac we were completely bollixed, but both agree it´s the best thing we´ve done. We both looked forward to using a toilet again and having a warm shower.
When we get to Llamac, we´re greeted by every kid under 10 coming up to us saying 'caramello´s gringo´. So in return for a photo, sweets are handed over. Everyone´s a winner. As we´re loading our gear onto the roof of the bus we notice that there are already 2 sheep tied to the roof for the 2 hour journey to our next bus. Along the way, and the old woman who owns the sheep is none too happy as her sheep seem to be having fits up on the roof. Turns out they´re getting a bit crushed by some
Llamac Family
With sweets in hand. of the bags on the roof that have moved. So as to ensure the sheep are ok for the rest of the journey one of the locals travels on the roof with them. Animal welfair always a top priority.
When we get back to Huaraz we just have time to grab a quick shower and a bite to eat before we board an overnight bus to Trujillo.
You´ll be glad to know the sheep were last seen standing on their own 2 feet, if looking a little shaken.
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