DAY 4 - SUNDAY - QUISUARANI (3700m) to HUACAHUASI (3600m)
via the HUCHAYCCASSA PASS (4400m)
11 -12 hours trekking
6.30am - buying my gloves (mine being soaking still from yesterday)
6.30am - had breakfast and on to warm up exercise. Go for it Louise!
Never could do this one ...easier to take photos!
Wow another great view
7am: off we go
Mike looking cheerful as always. Does he not know it's only 7am?!
Lake Queullacocha (4050m)
Jo
Val by Lake Queullacocha
Our trusty steeds who'd just brought a couple of us up on their backs
Ozzy and Grace. 9.35am.
Looking back down on Lake Queullacocha
Whoops - weather's deteriorating. These 5 sols (£1) ponchos are hopefully going to
keep us all drier than yesterday when even many good quality waterproofs leaked. 10.22am.
11am: At the top of the Huchayccassa Pass (4400m)
Lunch is 'just past the 4th lake' they said......
1pm: Well almost 2 hours later we are past the 4th lake and lunch is 'just at the bottom'!!!!
... can now see it in the dim distance!
... those chemical toilet tents to the left are starting to look inviting....
2.40pm - getting going again after eating lunch
getting ready to set off again for the afternoon 'stroll'
half an hour walk to where the bus is parked
(carrying those too ill to make the walk over the pass earlier)
the bus!
a few more get on the bus.....which then follows us slowly into camp mopping up exhausted and ill trekkers en-route. And then has to return to get the next lot! And the horses too..... 3.40pm
6.07pm. Somewhere near camp after an hour or so of pleasant walking and chatting on a wide good road, follwed by one hour of complete exhaustion uphill ('just a gentle slope' they said). One 'short cut' about 5.30pm (vertical up mountainside to avoid several hairpin bends in the road) did a few more of us in. Thoses buses and horses got more and more inviting. But I walked every step despite extreme temptation!
7.13pm. At last camp! Beer (care of the 5 year old children selling it as ever),
coffee, coca tea, Milo, popcorn. Spot the coca leaves bottom right.