First Day of the Ausangate Trek

 So Javier came over a night (or maybe two) before our trek and dropped off some duffel bags for us to use for packing. He was there with the guy who would be our main guide (I've never been quite sure why there was this middle-man. Maybe because Javier had to be responsible for everything operating smoothly--with the cooks and horse drivers and everything he felt like we needed someone to always be right with us and he couldn't do both? I don't know. But I didn't particularly love our guide. Honestly I can't even remember his name now, but he was okay.) Here's some info about the trek from our papers he gave us.

"The Ausangate 4 day trek is considered to be among the 10 best trekking routes in the world. You'll find stunning natural splendor on these high mountain trails, along with multi-colored glacial lakes at over 4000 meters above sea level. The trail is physically demanding to the max. This trek is considered a high altitude hike. You reach an elevation of 5000 plus meters on some passes, and your campsites will be set up at over 4,400 meters above sea level.

The route includes Rainbow Mountain. It is a route of earth and rock. The landscape in the high puna region is spectacular. The views are absolutely amazing. The colored lagoons and the alpacas and the llamas are unforgettable.

It will be chilly in the high country. Daytime temperatures reach approx. 15 degrees C, at night they will drop to -5 degrees. The weather is unpredictable. You might even have to wait out a snowstorm. It is all part of the adventure.

Day 1: Cusco - Checacupe - Pitumarca - Pampachiri - Rainbow Mountain (walking distance 5.3 miles, 6 hours, max elevation 5,100 m (16,732 ft) )

The highlight of the day: Rainbow Mountain, a wonder made by nature where happiness is expressed in the colors of the mountain.

We leave the Imperial City of Cusco at 4:00 in the morning for a 3-hour trip to the town of Pitumarca (3,570 m / 11,712 ft), where we will have breakfast. We continue in our private transport to Pampachiri- Cayrahuiri, (4,750m / 15,583 ft.) where we will get ready to start our trek. You will notice that the day starts with the classic mountain chill that warms up after the sun rises.

The ascent up Rainbow Mtn. will be slow and gradual as we hike along a rocky path. As you ascend you will discover that conquering a mountain requires perseverance and determination. After I hour we will reach the top of Rainbow Mtn. (5,100 m / 16,732 ft) and we will take photos of the fantastic panoramic view. After enjoying the moment and taking a break, we will descend to the Surine Cocha lagoon (4,800m / 15,748 ft.) We will eat a snack and then we will start on the second ascent that will take us to the Warmisaya Pass (4,985 / 16,355 ft.) From here you can see Ausangate massif in its entirety. After expressing thanks to Pachamama for being able to be in such an energetic place, we can rest up while our guide tells us stories and transports us to distant times where the llama and the man walked the roads carrying products from the sea to the mountains and from the mountains to the Amazon jungle. We will come to understand the vital importance of the snow-capped peaks of these sacred mountains as they hold water which is used to irrigate the crops of the people.

So if you read the info from the papers they gave me above, we were supposed to leave our house at 4 am but I expressed my doubts, and they said okay 5 am. It was still very early, and the problem was that we didn't eat breakfast until we had driven a couple hours (and then the breakfast was really not good, and we didn't feel inclined to eat or drink very much), so several of us felt really sick driving on the windy mountain roads with nothing and then only a little in our stomachs. When we got here to Checacupe, Orrin felt horrible and ended up puking on the ground by the bridges. Hazel did too, but earlier, before breakfast. It was a cute little town though. I feel like we would have been a little more impressed if we weren't sick. (P.S. We did bring Dramamine and give it to people who tended to get sick, but sometimes we forgot or if we didn't eat it just still didn't work.)

Then we drove a couple more hours and that's when I felt really really sick. I kept my head down and focused on not throwing up. So our short hike up to the Rainbow Mountain felt really difficult to me.   These ladies were here to offer the horses in case we didn't want to make the very steep hike up to Rainbow Mountain.

Our first wild alpacas! Except of course they're not really wild, they're farmed and taken care of.

So cool to be walking amidst the herds of alpaca! And the colors of the mountains were amazing!

Kami told me that she and Sebastian decided this bird is a mountain caracara.

At the instagram-made-famous Rainbow Mountain.

I'd read that there can be huge crowds there, but we didn't have anything crazy. A few other groups of people. It was pretty awesome.

So windy!

I adore this picture of Navy and her huge smile with the fluffy alpacas. :)

Then, we settled the little kids down to wait there for a while because they didn't want to walk the steep trail up to the very top. Brett, Jethro, Hazel, Ethne, Talmage, and I went up. Don't those mountains in the distance look so cool?

Our guide took other pictures of us, we did a cool moving around in a panorama picture, but he never sent us all the pictures he said he would. Oh well.

Then we went back down and gathered up the littles (there was one of the Peruvian ladies selling things to tourists that was laughing at something Orrin and Wyatt did--I don't remember the story exactly, but I remember loving her for noticing my kids) and started down the trail and immediately there were no other people around. No tourists or Peruvians.

These are cool pictures.

Wyatt saw one of these pictures the other day and said, "Weird that I was in shorts," and I was like, "yup." But when you TELL him not to wear shorts, he doesn't listen. What can you do. ha

Navy and I fell behind a ways.

We stopped here for a snack and hot drinks. I don't remember what it was, probably a soup or something. I just remember that we had to wait quite a long time, and we got cold because we had stopped moving.

The other horses passed us so they could go ahead and set up camp.

It started hailing, so we hurried and went inside the tent.

Then we started up the pass, and it had stopped hailing, so that was good timing.

Navy had a moment. hahahaa

As we came over the pass and around, it was a beautiful view that was one of Brett's favorites.

I like these pictures a lot, and wish that Talmage were up front with us. The funny thing is, he didn't want to be in them at all, but he WAS! (look to the left of me) hahaha

And down to the campsite.  As we were walking down we saw Wyatt's hat on the ground. It had blown away, and happily we retrieved it. There were some great bunkhouses but I don't know who runs them or what, but we didn't stay in them.

We meandered around, looking at all the alpacas and everything.

Then we ate dinner and it was likely very delicious because almost all of the time it was. And then we snuggled into our tents and sleeping bags. Navy was always in the one with Brett and I.

So awesome!