Sunday, July 25, 2010

Back from the trek

We left Ollantaytambo yesterday morning and drove up to Patacancha, the weaving village we visited last week, and started our trek from there. The skies were clear blue and the weather was warm, and we dropped most of our gear with the porters prior to starting the steady climb up through the high alpine fields. We encountered clusters of llamas and alpaca en route and walked past numerous remote villages. We ate lunch overlooking a high alpine lake prior to pushing up and over a 15,000 foot pass. At 4:30 we made camp, set up tents, had a wonderful meal prepared by the porters, and climbed into our tents as the cold closed in. Songs in several languages ensued, and we laughed this morning as some among us recounted the crazy dreams induced by our high altitude campsite.
Today, we broke camp early and headed down the valley to a beautful hot spring, where we took a soak and had lunch prior to heading back to Ollantaytambo for a wonderful dinner at El Albergue--where most of us feasted on Alpaca steak.
Tomorrow, we'll head to the worksite for a shortened day of work, after which we will return to Ollantaytambo for Peruvian Independence Day celebration.
The weekend was a huge success--

all the best, Craig, Nancy, and Jason

1 comment:

  1. Alpaca steak! It must have been so gratifying after the trek. It's only one of the millions of things i miss about Ollanta... Reading all of your posts makes me wish I were there!
    I've been checking this blog often and I'm happy to be able to read up on this year's trip. It sounds like it's very successful so far.
    If you can, please send my love to Alex, Luis, Senora Panchita, Adela and Adolfo before you leave Ollantaytambo!
    <3Jane

    ReplyDelete