The first day of the trek was a 3 hour drive in a minibus to the little town of Tinqui/Tinke. The road was paved, but very windy, and the driver was a wannabe Formula 1 driver who pushed the little van to its limits around every corner... it was a little on the scarey side, tell you wot.
When we arrived in Tinqui 2 and a half hours later, it was pissing down with rain. No views, and we were squashed into a tiny room with 2 single beds for the 4 of us. That night, poor Leece was up and about with the shits and spews again, and got very little sleep. So she decided to call it quits and head back to Cusco. There was a strike on that day, so she had to pay 130 Soles for a private car to take her back to Cusco. We waved goodbye to her as she left, and crossed our fingers she would make it safely back to Cusco. We didn't find out till after we got back that she'd had an epic of epic proportions getting back. Suffice to say the 3 hour journey ended up taking 7 hours... more about that later.
So Day 1 of hiking was only 3 and a half hours long, and brought us to the alpaca farming community of Upis. I think we counted 3 buildings in total. The weather cleared up enough for Jen to snap this nice shot near our campsite:
Campsite day 1... couldn't see much else.Day 2 was still just as bleak, and it was long and involved 2 passes. We left at about 8am and got to the campsite by 1pm. Actually, every day we did all of our walking before lunch, never taking more than about 5 hours of walking per day. The second pass was characterised by horizontal hail. Urghhh.
Luckily the weather cleared soon after we set up camp, and I jumped for joy.
Luckily the weather cleared soon after we set up camp, and I jumped for joy.
Camp, day 2, near a beautiful glacier and glacial lake.Day 3 dawned and we found everything covered in snow, including our gear tent, which had collapsed under the weight of the light snowfall. Lucky for us our sleeping tent stood up to the light winds and pattering of snow. Man, if Leece had been with us, 2 of us would've been in the shitty collapsed tent. Dodgy as hell. See our FB album for a photo of the collapsed gear tent.
So the goal of today was to get over the highest pass, at 5200m. It took us an hour and a half or so in bleak weather to get up to the top. It was cool.
The grim weather cleared enough for Jen to snap this photo of Em and I heading up the pass.
Jumping for joy at the top. It was the highest Em'd ever been.After descending for a few hours, the weather cleared, and we could get great views of the foothills and some peaks further away. We cranked it along a flat section for a few hours, and the weather kept getting better. We hit camp by around 1pm and were rewarded by sweet views of some nearby snowcapped peaks.
Campsite, day 3, where the weather finally cleared enough for us to see the tops of some peaks.
Alpaca, near the campsite, day 3.
Nice ridge and peak, taken from camp on day 3. Beat that for location.Day 4 was another longish day, involving another 5,000m pass. The weather was brilliant today and we got great views of the mountain range to our right as we went over the pass (though we still hadn't seen the actual peak of Ausangate, which we were circumnavigating).
Top of the pass! Views!After the pass was a bit of a downhill slog to a cool village with hot springs! So we had lunch, set up camp, and then jumped into the springs. Then the lightning started. And the thunder. And then the hail came. It was awesome!
Ahhh, hot springs.Day 5 was a short day, and it dawned perfectly clear. Finally we got to see Mt Ausangate, the peak we'd been circumnavigating for the past 4 days. It's a pretty cool peak, made cooler by the beautifully clear blue skies above it.
Finally, we get to see Ausangate. Mansana (left) and Vasillio load the horses before we set off.2 and a half hours later we were back in Tinqui, and then on the bus back to Cusco. Brilliant.
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