Ausangate Trek Day 3

Third day of our trek started out beautifully with blue skies and one of the neatest parts of our trek, because we were just walking through these herds of alpacas, like, right next to us. I think the videos I have show it better than my pictures, but it's hard to upload videos, so I'm not going to. 

And then the landscape started to change. I feel like we went through some extreme landscape changes in the day-- sunny meadow to dark and angsty mountain pass, back to pretty lake.

Navy's faces in these pictures. haha. Also, I hate hiking poles. I actually feel like they could be super duper useful in just the right conditions, but basically my kids would ask for them because they were novel, so we (meaning Brett, usually) would adjust them all over to the right size, and someone else would be complaining that they wanted them because we didn't have enough for everyone, and then they'd use them for two minutes and then not want them anymore because they're annoying, so then I would have to carry them. It was dumb.

Thank heaven for Tomas and the emergency horse! (Tomas always adjusting things for Navy's comfort--putting on her coat or zipping her or taking it off again. He was so nice. He also had no English, so although I love him I have zero information about him. That's not true--I take it back,  we went to his house the next day.)

It was quite cold on the way up here to the top of this pass. Probably the coldest we ever were while hiking. We put on all our layers and hats and gloves, and for a minute it seemed like it was going to snow/rain on us, but then it stopped.

So we got up there and then Luis (that was our guide's name) did a little ceremony to Pachamama (or mother earth, is my understanding. If you say the word Pachamama, Wyatt will sing the word). We all held three coca leaves and pointed them to the mountains and something... then Luis basically said a prayer, and then we put down our coca leaves and buried them. And then I think Luis sang a song, and Tomas played his flute again. And then everyone gave everyone hugs.

Then I felt like we should sing a song of our own. So I picked a hymn, and some of us sang it (me, Brett, Jethro, Hazel, and maybe Ethne) but it was the wrong hymn. So then I begged them to sing just one more. So we sang "The Spirit of God" and THAT was the right hymn! And Jethro sang harmony and it was so invigorating and bracing and uplifting and I loved it so much. I wanted to video it, but everyone was very opposed to that idea. Rude. Anyway, it was awesome and fitting and I loved it and why don't we sing more in our daily lives??

I think this viewpoint was the one I had seen somewhere in my Peru research and sold me for the whole Ausangate Trek. This was it. The entire reason we went on this trek, and honestly it wasn't as good as the pictures I had seen, just because of the grayness of the sky or the time of year and how green it wasn't--or the picture that I saw was photoshopped. But it's totally okay, and I don't regret in any way going on the trek. It's just the way things turn out sometimes. And sometimes real life is better than the pictures.

 And it was really cold and windy then. We stopped and took some pictures. These lakes are sacred for some reason. I forget the story (actually I probably never really listened closely enough to get it the first time) of why.

A lady came to sell some wares, and talked to Tomas for a while.

Then we started going again, and there had been one group of Peruvian tourists that had come after we'd been there for a while. They were from Lima and they were freezing! haha. And part of their group were still behind. Then I think one of their group had gotten altitude sickness, so they borrowed our emergency horse for a little while. So we walked on, and Tomas and the horse caught up with us a little later.

See--not too much later.

Then we came around the corner and descended down to the lake.

This is the best picture ever. Honestly, I was like, Javier's company needs to have it on their website to advertise, because it's front-page worthy. :)

And it wasn't nearly as cold and windy, and the sun started peeking through a tiny bit, and we all got a refreshed feeling and started jogging down the hill with a little more energy.

We passed some other lakes in the area. I think you can do this bit as a day trek called 7 Laguna Trek or something like that.

There was a boggy moor section for a bit.

And a rocky section.

Then we got to our campsite. This was the first campsite that didn't actually have some sort of bathroom, so they put up a bathroom tent with a bucket, but you were only allowed to go number one.  As Hazel said, "toilets are the greatest invention. Never take them for granted."

I found a perch up on a warm rock where I could overlook our pretty views of the lake and our campsite, and the kids playing.

Wyatt and Orrin started throwing rocks in the creek, and then after a while, started building a dam. Later, Talmage came over to inspect and then joined in with the building. Boys and beavers, I tell you. They just gotta build dams.

And I just sat and watched and watched them. Not doing other things, not feeling like I should be doing something else--just watching. How often does that happen in real life? That you just watch your kids play for an hour or more? Never. It was pretty awesome.

I'm not sure what's happening, except that Jethro is apparently carrying Talmage to the creek to dump him in. haha

Lots of viscachas. One night I was being silly and we were saying the word viscacha over and over again, and I told Brett we had to have another baby and name it Viscacha. 

The guide told us that if we followed this trail we could go up near the glacier, so Brett, Jethro, Hazel, and I headed up. 

This was another time when I would have liked to know how far we went.  It was a ways. After a day (and more days) of lots of hiking.

There was a lot of boulder-hopping and rock-scrambling.

We made it!!  So those guys decided to do some yoga. :)

It was very cold by the glacier! And so cool!! And enormous! Brett tried to climb it and Hazel tried earthbending. We were all very jubilant that we had made it to the glacier.

I adore Hazel laughing at Brett in this picture.

Hazel got stuck for a minute, trying to climb this rock. I don't remember why, but I remember it was hilarious!

Then we took a bunch of selfies, but it's a funny series because after the first one it's like we took turns making a crazy face, so usually one person is making a crazy face while the rest are normal.

The way back was far trickier than the way in (we had split up on the way in, each taking a way that seemed best to us). We took a higher up path, and ended up having to cross a crevice thing on the side of the hill. This was very difficult because it was very crumbly and shale-y. I went first and got across with no problems, but then the rocks gave way under Jethro and he slid down with a rockslide down to the bottom, and none of us could do anything to help him. It was very scary to watch because it looked like some big rocks were going to hit him. They didn't, and he was absolutely fine, but still, we were definitely shaky after that. So we didn't let Hazel cross by herself. Brett kind of handed her over to me.  (Thanks to Hazel for recording this part, because I think I forgot all about it until I was reminded.)

The rest of the hike back down was grand. Hazel was all bouncy and everything seemed fun and funny. 

When we got back, there was still some time before dinner, so Hazel and I went walking closer to the lake, and it was beautiful, and we climbed a big rock and sat there for a while. Very peaceful and nice. It's so good to be in nature, and I know it's good for you even if you only can have it for a little bit at a time, but there's something about having it for days at a time. So you can really drink it in and saturate your soul with the calmness and wonder of the world.

I wish I had taken more pictures inside the tent while we ate, but it was usually very cold and even though the food was so good we wanted to hurry and finish so we could get in our warm sleeping bags with our nice warm water bottles. :)

Talmage, looking very iconic up on the ridge.