07 September 2007

Huayhuash Day 8-10

The magical views continued for the rest of the trek, as we huffed and puffed our way between the high peaks and down to the campgrounds. Amazingly, to me, there was always at least one family living wherever we slept, and I thought we were absolutely in the middle of nowhere. One of the campgrounds even had a hot spring, which I totally sat in for hours (also dipped my feet in the morning). A couple of teenage girls lived at another one, one of whom called me "caro mio" or something. I think she was 14. The last night, we slept at the same campground where we spent the first night. The old woman who lived there tried to sell me giant bottles of beer (to support her babies, she said, but I heartlessly demurred). The next morning, we woke up, and the burros were gone. That added some last-minute excitement to the proceedings, but anyway everything worked out until the whole convulsion thing happened. And I really thought the hike was pretty easy for a ten day affair. Another group we bumped into did a slightly different route in eight days (and for far less money.. oh well). Still, I enjoyed being out in the Andean wilderness for such a long time, and I'm glad my body waited until it got back to Huaraz before collapsing into a gibbering heap. Details to follow.

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