Hi all of you 2 or 3 people that might be checking this out! Jess and I are in Lima right now, but looks like I am behind on the anglophone version of the trip... Can´t keep up with Jess. Here´s what´s been happening.
We had a nice night´s rest back in Cuzco, following our trip to Machu Picchu. From the next day on, we applied ourselves to actualizing the blog entries... in both languages. We spent a lot of time doing just that and got in contact with some great guys we had met in Uyuni and Sucre. We had the chance of meet them again for a last drink and meal, and they left for Arequipa right after. Time flies by, I thought... They had been on a 5 months journey, and it was already over in a week´s time. If you guys read this, I had a great time with you and I wish we´ll meet again. You have our e-mails, make sure to keep in touch.
After a quick "adieux", we left them, and focussed on finding information on a trek our guide to Salkantay had suggested. We tried to hire him to do this trip, but couldn´t find him. So we asked around to agencies to find out about prices and times and decided to go to Tinke, and find an arriero from there. If it worked, we would save an enormous amount of money. When we got there, we bought some food for dinner... turned out to be a bad idea. So we were sick throughout the night as could be expected!
In the morning, we met with a young guy (16) offering his services as an arriero. He actually came to our room... so we didn´t have to look for him much! We explained our sick condition to him, and that we wouldn´t leave until the next day. So se manage to fix a departure time of 7am and go for last minute buys such as bread, water and more "alcool de quemar". On our way back, Jess meets that kid again, and he starts telling her what we have to buy for the trek. She can´t believe what she´s hearring and takes him back to our room. After a few minutes arguing with him -he just doesn´t listen when we speak- and showing him all the food we have, he finaly says that it´s OK, that we´re prepared. Oh, thanks, I didn´t know that! As the day goes by, we see we´re feeling good, so we can have some food after all. I ask for a NON meat meal. That is soooooo hard to make, it takes over 30 minutes (Jessica has finished her food long before I even get mine!) for them to bring me a plate with rice and slices of tomato and cucumber... lets say that all that was pre-cooked and pre-sliced!
5:30 am, time to get up. We have a very complicated breakfast of two hard boiled eggs and 2 cups of oatmeal... We get ready to leave and wait for the boy, who should be accomplanied by his friend. Well, it´s his 6 years old brother! We tell him we wouldn´t want to wait if he got tired, but he sais that it won´t happen. Ok, we´ll trust him, and that´ll give him someone to hang out with... having him as an arriero doesn´t mean we necessarly get along. We walk to his parents´ house, where his brother joins us, and on to where the map says we should stay and sleep. It took 2 hours to get there... What are we ever gonna do with the rest of our day! So of course, we continue on, up the first pass of the trip. About 350m above the valley, we seek cover in our tents to avoid beeing caught by the rain and hail comming our way. It´s still quite early, so after lunch, our guide asks what we want to do. We can go forwards, to the other side of the pass, or down to the hot springs below... Well, we knew there were hot springs, but he said we couldn´t access them! Make up your mind young boy. Too late anyway... I don´t want to go down the valley and have to climb again that night or the next day. So we do what we were quite ready for, we take a nap! They wake us up for dinner and we get it all ready for them. Then it´s time to go to bed for real. Jess gets up in the night and says there is a beautiful clear view on Ausangate and the stars... Too lazy, I don´t go out and look. I am too afraid to get cold!
In the morning, I wake up early, start warming up some water for hot chocolate and oatmeal. It takes a while, but we enjoy a warm breakfast. First part of the day: finishing to go up the pass. Hard to start a day that way. We make it to the other side in a short time, and now we want to get as far has Lago Ausangate. It´s a long way, but except for a little confusion on our trail, we get there and it´s beautiful. The lagoons we cross on the way are amazing and we take the time of making little movies we don´t actually think we´ll be able to send via e-mails! But we´re very happy, and that´s priceless. We make tea and dinner shortly after arriving in Lago Ausangate and spend some time relaxing and taking more pictures. It´s now bedtime. Another group is with us at the campamento, we will leave all of us at the same time: 8:30am, when it´s a little warmer!
Wake up at about 6am, warm up some water for avena, hard boiled eggs and tea, fold the tent and do some "Ausangate (Sun) Salutations" to kill some time and warm up our muscles. We leave for a 500meters gain in elevation to the altitude of 5130m or so. 1 hour and 15 min. That´s what I call a work out! We enjoy a few minutes of rest and a piece of good dark chocolate (a generous little gift from someone of the other group). It´s beautiful to be that high. The mountain is magestic just beside us.
We start our way down the pass to a few little populated campements. We see more dogs then people! We keep on walking down the valley to another similar village and have some lunch soon after. We are walking all the way to Campemento Campa, just before Paso Campa. It´s far and we can´t make up time because it´s mainly only distance, not elevation gain. The scenery is vast and completely deserted. It´s beautiful. Our guide collects herbs to bring back home.. We walk a long way and we´re exausted when we get to the camp. Before I see anything happen, the guide is running up the mountain, after his horse who ran away!!! He never gets him back but luckily, we already have all our gear off him and we can go on with putting up the tent and cooking dinner. It´s a cold night and we know we´ll have a long day ahead of us.
In the very early morning, I brave the cold and actually go outside for a pie... Those who know me know that I never get up before my time, especially to go pie... even in a nice warm house! But I was rewarded twice. First, it fells good!!!! Second, I saw the nicest scenery in many years. I took a few pictures in which the tent glows from a candle lit in it, and the mountain is allucinating!!!! I still can´t get over it. I haven´t seen the picture yet, but if it turns out good, I´ll frame it and make it a center piece in my house, or Tippy!
We left later than expected and had to deal with all the luggage ourselves. The climb was quite a bit of work at that elevation, with the incline and the load... But we made it in 1hour. About 3x faster than with the horse, based on what our guide said. We rock!!! Once on the other side of our Campo Paso, we walked down to a valley and collected fresh herbs to donate at the house in Lima... It seamed like a good gift we would have enjoyed recieving. A little later, we passed some really nice Lagos. We also had to cross little creeks along the way, and Jess soaked her boot!!!
Charged the way we were, the walk was a bit more difficult, even on flat terrain. So we got tired and my calf started bugging me.. (Old running injury.) We nontheless followed to our destination, where we would find hot springs and decide if we stayed or continued on to Tinke, our final destination... The little kid (6 years old) eventually found the footprint of his horse and went ahead to look for it... It managed it and kept control of the horse while his brother came to join him, much later. (He was carrying a load that seemed more uncomfortable than heavy, therefor slowing him down.) We gave our bags back to the horse and walked to the hot springs and relaxed our tired legs... I would have enjoyed it for a long time, but I felt dizzy, maybe due to the elevation or an increasing thirst. We also hadn´t had any lunch yet. So we got out of the pool almost right away and joined our arriero and our hero.
Time to head back. We walked up and up and up... on some road leading from one town to the next. No traffic on that road, but the incline was very minimal, so the walk quite easy if it hadn´t been for our thirst. Just about 2h30min before we were back in Tinke, and that was long before the kids got there. They were so tired! We paid them, gave them some tip, gave them money for lunch and said goodbey. We bought some late lunch for ourselves (4:30pm) and carried our bags to the bus. It left a 6pm and we were in Cuzco quite early, at about 9:30pm. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we went in search of some food. We didn´t find too many places still serving dinner at that hour, but one did the trick and I can say Hunger hit us with a brick when we were sitting in the restaurant. Wooooo! Jess doesn´t remember having been so hungry, and I can almost say the same! We had pizza, pasta, salad, chocolate cake and a cold glass of milk! What else do you want when your hungry? I didn´t regret it, but didn´t feel hungry until 3pm the next day!!! I must have rolled into bed!
When we woke up the next morning, we were wandering if we should skip the 19hours bus ride back to Lima, and fly instead. Jess really didn´t want the bus. So we looked into what it might cost to do that and decided to buy some really comfy bus tickets and save a lot of money. We bought the most classy seats for the next day. (Labours day in Peru is not a good day to travel, that´s why we stayed the day) 12:30pm at the bus terminal, with all our luggage and a few gifts that were just bought. Many movies, a veggie omlet I bought on the way to compensate for the non veggie bus food, more movies and some sleep later, we were in Lima. At 7am or so, thursday morning, we took a cab with 4 more people and our luggage... a little tight, but we were in San Miguel quite early.
It was breakfast time and we were invited to share their table. I didn´t mean to be so untimely, but it was to be so! We recieved a warm welcome from just about everyone and were very glad to meet and recognize all of them. We took the first day quite easy, sleeping part of the day, but we started looking for bicycles shortly after and had a really hard time finding anything of quality... On Saturday, we found something that could have done, but it wouldn´t be ready until the next friday. Too long for us, we didn´t want to take advantage of the religious´ generosity. Well, the next day, Carlos, "Monicas´ man", offered to help us look for what we wanted. Wow, he came with us, and so did his friend Manuel. We looked at all that was in Lima and couldn´t find 2 aluminum road bikes of the same quality. So we spent too much time and money in taxi and trips from different neighbourhood in Lima, just searching! But when we were sick of it and about to redefine the nature of our travel from then on, the solution kind of presented itself. We went back to "Avenida Grau" and asked for a second bike to be ordered, the same has what we had seen before. It would take 1 week, maybe more, but we could always go to Huaraz we thought... So we bought it and ordered the second one.
The next day, I got a phone call from the salesman saying the bike would arrive on monday. Wow, 3 days! So we decided to stay in Lima, forget going to Huaraz and make our own bags... which we can´t buy in all of Peru, we were told. It takes us 2 days to make them and we call to see if the bike arrived yet. No, it´ll be there tomorrow. I go with Jessica for some more shopping (helmet and a spare tire) and recieve another phone call while I am gone, delaying the arrival of the bicycle. And another the next day... That´s when I ask if someone in the room has been praying that we don´t do this adventure!!! No answer, but a few laughts. I just need a bit more patience.
At least, all that time, we have had a great relation with all the girls in the house. We cooked, and mainly baked... Apple crumble, cinnamon twists, pudding cake, Jeannettes cake... So needless to say, we enjoy the access to a kitchen! And the religious are enjoying our presence too. We can´t say enough Thank you, and they say we help them anyways, so that all is good. Still, it´s been 2 weeks tomorrow since we got here. Quite a while! And we calculated 3 days to make the swich to bicycles!!!
I´ll put some picture very soon, but for the Ausangate trip, they are on Jessica´s french version of the blog. See you.
We had a nice night´s rest back in Cuzco, following our trip to Machu Picchu. From the next day on, we applied ourselves to actualizing the blog entries... in both languages. We spent a lot of time doing just that and got in contact with some great guys we had met in Uyuni and Sucre. We had the chance of meet them again for a last drink and meal, and they left for Arequipa right after. Time flies by, I thought... They had been on a 5 months journey, and it was already over in a week´s time. If you guys read this, I had a great time with you and I wish we´ll meet again. You have our e-mails, make sure to keep in touch.
After a quick "adieux", we left them, and focussed on finding information on a trek our guide to Salkantay had suggested. We tried to hire him to do this trip, but couldn´t find him. So we asked around to agencies to find out about prices and times and decided to go to Tinke, and find an arriero from there. If it worked, we would save an enormous amount of money. When we got there, we bought some food for dinner... turned out to be a bad idea. So we were sick throughout the night as could be expected!
In the morning, we met with a young guy (16) offering his services as an arriero. He actually came to our room... so we didn´t have to look for him much! We explained our sick condition to him, and that we wouldn´t leave until the next day. So se manage to fix a departure time of 7am and go for last minute buys such as bread, water and more "alcool de quemar". On our way back, Jess meets that kid again, and he starts telling her what we have to buy for the trek. She can´t believe what she´s hearring and takes him back to our room. After a few minutes arguing with him -he just doesn´t listen when we speak- and showing him all the food we have, he finaly says that it´s OK, that we´re prepared. Oh, thanks, I didn´t know that! As the day goes by, we see we´re feeling good, so we can have some food after all. I ask for a NON meat meal. That is soooooo hard to make, it takes over 30 minutes (Jessica has finished her food long before I even get mine!) for them to bring me a plate with rice and slices of tomato and cucumber... lets say that all that was pre-cooked and pre-sliced!
5:30 am, time to get up. We have a very complicated breakfast of two hard boiled eggs and 2 cups of oatmeal... We get ready to leave and wait for the boy, who should be accomplanied by his friend. Well, it´s his 6 years old brother! We tell him we wouldn´t want to wait if he got tired, but he sais that it won´t happen. Ok, we´ll trust him, and that´ll give him someone to hang out with... having him as an arriero doesn´t mean we necessarly get along. We walk to his parents´ house, where his brother joins us, and on to where the map says we should stay and sleep. It took 2 hours to get there... What are we ever gonna do with the rest of our day! So of course, we continue on, up the first pass of the trip. About 350m above the valley, we seek cover in our tents to avoid beeing caught by the rain and hail comming our way. It´s still quite early, so after lunch, our guide asks what we want to do. We can go forwards, to the other side of the pass, or down to the hot springs below... Well, we knew there were hot springs, but he said we couldn´t access them! Make up your mind young boy. Too late anyway... I don´t want to go down the valley and have to climb again that night or the next day. So we do what we were quite ready for, we take a nap! They wake us up for dinner and we get it all ready for them. Then it´s time to go to bed for real. Jess gets up in the night and says there is a beautiful clear view on Ausangate and the stars... Too lazy, I don´t go out and look. I am too afraid to get cold!
In the morning, I wake up early, start warming up some water for hot chocolate and oatmeal. It takes a while, but we enjoy a warm breakfast. First part of the day: finishing to go up the pass. Hard to start a day that way. We make it to the other side in a short time, and now we want to get as far has Lago Ausangate. It´s a long way, but except for a little confusion on our trail, we get there and it´s beautiful. The lagoons we cross on the way are amazing and we take the time of making little movies we don´t actually think we´ll be able to send via e-mails! But we´re very happy, and that´s priceless. We make tea and dinner shortly after arriving in Lago Ausangate and spend some time relaxing and taking more pictures. It´s now bedtime. Another group is with us at the campamento, we will leave all of us at the same time: 8:30am, when it´s a little warmer!
Wake up at about 6am, warm up some water for avena, hard boiled eggs and tea, fold the tent and do some "Ausangate (Sun) Salutations" to kill some time and warm up our muscles. We leave for a 500meters gain in elevation to the altitude of 5130m or so. 1 hour and 15 min. That´s what I call a work out! We enjoy a few minutes of rest and a piece of good dark chocolate (a generous little gift from someone of the other group). It´s beautiful to be that high. The mountain is magestic just beside us.
We start our way down the pass to a few little populated campements. We see more dogs then people! We keep on walking down the valley to another similar village and have some lunch soon after. We are walking all the way to Campemento Campa, just before Paso Campa. It´s far and we can´t make up time because it´s mainly only distance, not elevation gain. The scenery is vast and completely deserted. It´s beautiful. Our guide collects herbs to bring back home.. We walk a long way and we´re exausted when we get to the camp. Before I see anything happen, the guide is running up the mountain, after his horse who ran away!!! He never gets him back but luckily, we already have all our gear off him and we can go on with putting up the tent and cooking dinner. It´s a cold night and we know we´ll have a long day ahead of us.
In the very early morning, I brave the cold and actually go outside for a pie... Those who know me know that I never get up before my time, especially to go pie... even in a nice warm house! But I was rewarded twice. First, it fells good!!!! Second, I saw the nicest scenery in many years. I took a few pictures in which the tent glows from a candle lit in it, and the mountain is allucinating!!!! I still can´t get over it. I haven´t seen the picture yet, but if it turns out good, I´ll frame it and make it a center piece in my house, or Tippy!
We left later than expected and had to deal with all the luggage ourselves. The climb was quite a bit of work at that elevation, with the incline and the load... But we made it in 1hour. About 3x faster than with the horse, based on what our guide said. We rock!!! Once on the other side of our Campo Paso, we walked down to a valley and collected fresh herbs to donate at the house in Lima... It seamed like a good gift we would have enjoyed recieving. A little later, we passed some really nice Lagos. We also had to cross little creeks along the way, and Jess soaked her boot!!!
Charged the way we were, the walk was a bit more difficult, even on flat terrain. So we got tired and my calf started bugging me.. (Old running injury.) We nontheless followed to our destination, where we would find hot springs and decide if we stayed or continued on to Tinke, our final destination... The little kid (6 years old) eventually found the footprint of his horse and went ahead to look for it... It managed it and kept control of the horse while his brother came to join him, much later. (He was carrying a load that seemed more uncomfortable than heavy, therefor slowing him down.) We gave our bags back to the horse and walked to the hot springs and relaxed our tired legs... I would have enjoyed it for a long time, but I felt dizzy, maybe due to the elevation or an increasing thirst. We also hadn´t had any lunch yet. So we got out of the pool almost right away and joined our arriero and our hero.
Time to head back. We walked up and up and up... on some road leading from one town to the next. No traffic on that road, but the incline was very minimal, so the walk quite easy if it hadn´t been for our thirst. Just about 2h30min before we were back in Tinke, and that was long before the kids got there. They were so tired! We paid them, gave them some tip, gave them money for lunch and said goodbey. We bought some late lunch for ourselves (4:30pm) and carried our bags to the bus. It left a 6pm and we were in Cuzco quite early, at about 9:30pm. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we went in search of some food. We didn´t find too many places still serving dinner at that hour, but one did the trick and I can say Hunger hit us with a brick when we were sitting in the restaurant. Wooooo! Jess doesn´t remember having been so hungry, and I can almost say the same! We had pizza, pasta, salad, chocolate cake and a cold glass of milk! What else do you want when your hungry? I didn´t regret it, but didn´t feel hungry until 3pm the next day!!! I must have rolled into bed!
When we woke up the next morning, we were wandering if we should skip the 19hours bus ride back to Lima, and fly instead. Jess really didn´t want the bus. So we looked into what it might cost to do that and decided to buy some really comfy bus tickets and save a lot of money. We bought the most classy seats for the next day. (Labours day in Peru is not a good day to travel, that´s why we stayed the day) 12:30pm at the bus terminal, with all our luggage and a few gifts that were just bought. Many movies, a veggie omlet I bought on the way to compensate for the non veggie bus food, more movies and some sleep later, we were in Lima. At 7am or so, thursday morning, we took a cab with 4 more people and our luggage... a little tight, but we were in San Miguel quite early.
It was breakfast time and we were invited to share their table. I didn´t mean to be so untimely, but it was to be so! We recieved a warm welcome from just about everyone and were very glad to meet and recognize all of them. We took the first day quite easy, sleeping part of the day, but we started looking for bicycles shortly after and had a really hard time finding anything of quality... On Saturday, we found something that could have done, but it wouldn´t be ready until the next friday. Too long for us, we didn´t want to take advantage of the religious´ generosity. Well, the next day, Carlos, "Monicas´ man", offered to help us look for what we wanted. Wow, he came with us, and so did his friend Manuel. We looked at all that was in Lima and couldn´t find 2 aluminum road bikes of the same quality. So we spent too much time and money in taxi and trips from different neighbourhood in Lima, just searching! But when we were sick of it and about to redefine the nature of our travel from then on, the solution kind of presented itself. We went back to "Avenida Grau" and asked for a second bike to be ordered, the same has what we had seen before. It would take 1 week, maybe more, but we could always go to Huaraz we thought... So we bought it and ordered the second one.
The next day, I got a phone call from the salesman saying the bike would arrive on monday. Wow, 3 days! So we decided to stay in Lima, forget going to Huaraz and make our own bags... which we can´t buy in all of Peru, we were told. It takes us 2 days to make them and we call to see if the bike arrived yet. No, it´ll be there tomorrow. I go with Jessica for some more shopping (helmet and a spare tire) and recieve another phone call while I am gone, delaying the arrival of the bicycle. And another the next day... That´s when I ask if someone in the room has been praying that we don´t do this adventure!!! No answer, but a few laughts. I just need a bit more patience.
At least, all that time, we have had a great relation with all the girls in the house. We cooked, and mainly baked... Apple crumble, cinnamon twists, pudding cake, Jeannettes cake... So needless to say, we enjoy the access to a kitchen! And the religious are enjoying our presence too. We can´t say enough Thank you, and they say we help them anyways, so that all is good. Still, it´s been 2 weeks tomorrow since we got here. Quite a while! And we calculated 3 days to make the swich to bicycles!!!
I´ll put some picture very soon, but for the Ausangate trip, they are on Jessica´s french version of the blog. See you.
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