Aug
28
Written by:
Natalie
Thursday, 28 August 2008
This morning I woke up feeling different.Not only because my stomach no longer had cramps, but today we were starting our journey into the Huayhuash. The whole point of today was to get to our first camp site for the trek. It was a 5hr bus trip into the Andes! Zac, our guide and Abraham (our cook) were with us for the bus ride, so it was a good opportunity to get to know them before the trek.
Once we left Huruaz, the scenery quickly changed from mud brick buildings into sparse medows and distant snow capped mountains -it was beautiful and I felt a sense of excited apprehension about the up coming days in the mountains. We passed through little towns which were built into the sides of massive mountains; over muddy glacial rivers and saw numerous donkey herds. The road wound and zig zagged down one mountain and up another - this continued for hours and it really started to feel like we were venturing into the middle of no where...it was great!! At one stage we had to get out of the bus and walk over a rock fall which was blocking the road. I couldnt believe how basic the condition of the road was, nor how simply the people of this country side lived. Not long after the rock fall we had to be cleared through a security check on the road that appeared to come out of no where. No wonder, it had been set up by a mine that was excavating one of these majestic mountains. Apparently this was a fairly new mine site and it made me feel sad that this technology and destruction had reached so far into Peru...little did I know then, but mining was to become a common thing in Huayhuash.
A few hours later and our bus ride abruptly finished in a meadow. We were at Matacancha - our camp site for the night. As soon as we got out of the bus, the cold hit me like a brick wall.OMG this was cold!!!! We started setting up our tents straight away -they were basic and we set them up surprisingly quick. Next we turned our attention to the mess tent....this was not so basic! Five girls and Zac, struggled for about an hour to put this tent up - but finally we did it.I have to say it was the girls who figured it out ;-)
Zac, Jade, Chloe and myself then went for a walk to get a better view of the mountain pass we were going to climb tomorrow. It looked beautiful, but steep. After a gorgeous dinner and a quick game of Pigs with Zac and the girls we tucked into bed. I knew we were going to need all the energy we could get for tomorrow...that pass was 4 690m high - I cant wait!
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