Friday, April 20, 2012

Cachora - Machu Picchu trek. Days 4-6

After another night of heavy rain, we were beginning to think we were lucky that it wasn't raining like that during the days. March is still wet season, so it wasn't out of the question that we'd still get some rainy days. But for now, the mornings were very foggy, and the afternoons quite sunny, temperatures probably around 15-20C. Good hiking conditions really, except that we missed out on some spectacular morning views because of the clouds.

After the relatively easy day 3, my batteries were recharged for another decent climb on day four, which was, looking back, probably the most fun/adventurous day. On paper the itinerary seems about the same as day 2; morning descent, river crossing, uphill for the rest of the day. Where it differed was in the details, the morning descent was via a very overgrown, rarely used track, again descending about 600m in 40 minutes or so. Approaching the final section to get right down to the river we encountered a number of fresh landslides, fresh as in 2-3 weeks old. Since this was a rarely used track, there was work to be done in clearing a path for our horses. I didn't get to help out personally, but watching the horseman and chef (all round helper, really) clear a decent track with a pick axe and a machete was pretty cool. Having to stop to do this four or five times slowed the descent, and it ended up taking about an hour to get the Rio Blanco.

What looked like a rather sedate and straight forward river crossing from hundreds of meters above, quickly became a much more difficult proposition at river level. While certainly much smaller than the previous river, this one we had to cross without the assistance of a bridge. The sight and sound of the icy cold waters gushing downstream was not unlike things I'd seen before, but the power behind the foot deep flow was quite extraordinary. We spent almost half an hour wandering up and down stream looking for a good place to cross, and then another 20 minutes throwing rocks in to make some sort of stable platform to shorten the jump across to the other side. Watching rocks we could barely move get washed down stream as soon as they hit the water was both disheartening and exhilarating at the same time. Eventually we had about a six foot jump over to a nice big rock, then a few more little jumps over the shallows and we were across. Sounds simple enough, but if anyone is able to get across without ending up with two wet shoes, I'd be impressed. Getting the horses across next gave me goosebumps, they struggled a little but got across without too much trouble. These animals are incredible and with a little encouragement will do anything for you, it was great to watch, and I felt like an extra on the set of 'The Man From Snowy River'.

From this point it was all uphill once again. Still traveling on fairly unused paths, at times we really had to push through the overgrown 'high jungle'. The altitude and climate obviously combined to make the perfect conditions for mosquitoes. And these weren't just ordinary mosquitoes; bigger than I've ever seen, they were like grasshoppers. Blood sucking grasshoppers, whose bites would end up bothering me for the next 10 days (hopefully there's no longer lasting side effects!). Mosquito repellent did little as within a few minutes of walking in the humid conditions it sweated out, so the only solution was to just keep walking to get above mosquito altitude. 'Cant stop, grasshopper mosquitos will eat me' was a line that replayed over and over in my head in Simpson-esque fashion. Onward and upward it was. The track remained overgrown, but fairly rocky and dry, so it wasn't too difficult physically. There was less traversing than previous days, meaning you could often see 30 or more meters ahead, all of which was solidly uphill, so it was best just to concentrate on a spot just a few meters ahead and keep on plodding one still wet foot in front of the other, mentally it was very tiring. After 2 solid hours with barely more than 30 seconds rest at a time (curse you, grasshopper mosquitoes), we arrived at the nights camp site. 1500m climbed in 2 hours, we'd certainly earned an afternoon of rest, and even treated ourselves to an ambient temperature beer, the possible purchase of which astounded me as we were now at least two days walk from anywhere. There's no possibility of cars accessing these areas, so at some stage someone has to bring these supplies here, presumably on horseback, amazing stuff. A single family lived here, along with a whole bunch of chickens, and a few goats and cows. Looking out over the surrounding valleys, it's hard to believe people can live in places as remote as this. Night four was once again peaceful, and rainy.

Days 5 was, to be honest, a fairly uneventful day. Probably the cloudiest of days, there wasn't much scenery to be seen, and the hike was tough, without being memorably difficult. Starting from camp, this path had been worked on recently, and was fairly wide and clear. Muddy in places with plenty of waterfalls along the way, it was nice to walk in a slightly different environment. Along the way to our summit we passed a number of 'illegal' mines, where we were able to fossick our way through rubble and find some decent chunks of silver, a nice little souvenir to take home. Our lunch destination was the pass between two summits, at about 4100m. Once again, being a solo tourist, we'd managed to cover this ground quite quickly, so it was an early lunch then we had some time to wait for the clouds to clear. Unfortunately on this particular day that didn't really happen, so we moved on a little over an hour later, downhill to the day 5 campsite at Yanama, the closest thing to a town that we'd seen since leaving Cachora, but really its just a big farming community. The late afternoon was spent laying on nice thick green grass, maybe even falling asleep for a brief moment, a sign that 5 days of hiking was starting to catch up with me. But still I felt fine as long as I kept drinking enough water, ready for day 6 - 'Challenge day'.

After earlier being told that day 2 was the hardest day, I was intrigued by what day 6 would have in store. I was pleasantly surprised by the first 90 minutes hike, quite clearly the most scenic hike of the whole nine days. Walking along an easy, only slightly uphill, rocky path through a valley above the river was an almost magical experience offering spectacular views in all directions. Mt Salkantay in the distance was unfortunately mostly obstructed by cloud for most of the morning, but the few glimpses we got made a lasting impression. The rest of the hike was breathtaking, literally as well as figuratively. After 90 minutes we started heading more severely uphill, at first not too bad, but after an hour it was getting tough. The last half hour was constant traversing up the steep dry, rocky path, to the pass at about 4200m, and was as tough as it got for the whole trek. The effects of altitude kicked in a little and I found myself with extremely tired legs, and hiccups! Rest was required every couple of minutes, and it was very slow going. Finally reaching the pass, we rested there and it wasn't long before I found myself with a bit of energy and wanting to scale the nearby rocks to get as high as possible. Some good photo opportunities arose as the skies cleared a little, but then just as quickly clouded over again and we decided that it was time to move on.

Another couple of hours walk down the opposite side of the mountain, along another picturesque valley above a river and we reached our lunch destination, Totora (3500m). More delicious soup and another hearty meal had our batteries recharged for the final 90 minute walk to our campsite for the night, the town of Ccollpapampa. There we met up with some other hikers coming in on the Salkantay trek, my first sighting of other Gringos in 4 days! Day 6 was over and it was certainly the  longest and one of the most challenging, but also the most picturesque and peaceful days of the trek. The rain set in a little earlier and heavier than what we'd come to know as normal, so the small huts at this more popular campsite were a welcome relief to sleep in for the night once our regular card games had finished up.

So we were now 6 days down, with 3 to go, and the worst was now well and truly behind us. Days 4 to 6 were tough, tougher than I expected, but not so tough that anyone in reasonable shape couldn't do it. From this point it's all about looking forward to Machu Picchu, and some of the fun stops along the way - hot springs at the end of day 7, and zip lines on the morning of day 8. We were nearly there now...

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