Advertisement
Published: August 13th 2009
...or at least back in semi-civilisation, with access to computer and phone. Huarez seemed like a veritable metropolis when we got back in this morning, so I am likely to experience massive culture shock when I hit a real city.
Trek was hard! 16 nights camping, sharing tent, no washing facilities etc... so quite hard core from my perspective. Also not helped by the fact that I was quite sick in the first week and had ongoing stomach issues throughout. Still not quite sure what it was, though I suspect altitude and physical strain had something to do with it. I came armed with lots of drugs, so at one stage I was taking 2 kinds of antibiotics for the tummy ailments, plus diamox for the altitude.
BUT none of that mattered, because it was really amazing. I can´t describe scenery and views. Will try and add a few pictures to this blog, so you get an idea. Each day was anything from 4-7 hours walking. The Group crossed 13 high passes... I did 11, including one on horseback (Toledo, the wonder medical horse), but at least I can now say that I did a walking and riding holiday.
And when I say high, we were over 5,000 metres several times, with campsites up to 4,600 metres (cold!). We had to really work for the views. When you are down in the valleys, you can often not see the mountains at all, but when you get to the passes, they look like you can reach out and touch them. Worth all the effort in getting up (and, in my case the real struggle, down). Luckily I didn´t have to carry my day pack on a lot of the days, as Toledo would take my pack, or my little amigo Amnar, who at 15 was a great guide in training.
I shared a tent with Tessa Tysome, who is 21 and had come with her parents. She was great and very forgiving of my multiple excursions from the tent in the middle of the night. We had a good laugh. The rest of the Group really nice too and very supportive.
Our guide Val was AMAZING. We took a route that she worked out some years ago, but it only follows the standard route to a very small extent, which meant that at most campsites we were alone.
We took it hard when we had to share. She has been working in Peru for 25 years, with the same family, so the crew consisted of Melky and his wife, kids, nephews etc. Amnar got a lot of teasing because he was helping me so much... in fact he was quite willing to come to NZ with me... as long as it would mean that he got 3 meals a day! Perhaps I have been setting my standards a little too high! Because Val has known the family for so long, it meant that we probably mixed with the Peruvian crew more than if we hadn´t had an English speaking guide as well.
Will be back at work next week! Feels a little odd, as I have been so out of contact, that I have no idea what has been going on. I thought I would spend my time thinking about lots of stuff, but the reality was that I was not too introspective. In fact much of it was so hard, I had to spend most of my time concentrating, or looping songs through my head to take my attention away from what my feet were doing.
Hard core!
I thought we had it tough, but this little girl´s load was quite typicalBut as I say, it really was great. One of the hardest, but best, trips I´ve ever done.
Lucy xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.158s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.1215s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jane Riddiford
non-member comment
congratulations
My God Lucy ...I am so proud of you ...and a litte jealous !! this is completely awe inspiring ... double infact triple respect to you, enjoy the last few days Much love Jane xxxx