Trekking with a team of a donkeys
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2004
1
24
25
Trip End
Jul 27, 2004
Huaraz,
Peru
Friday, September 10, 2004
on the bus i took my seat next to what would turn out to be a loud snoring, fat bastard, who would basically keep me up all night even thru my earplugs...we played the elbow each other in the ribs game all night as we fought for the arm rest between us...
arriving in huaraz at 6 in the morning, i met up with an israeli couple and we shared a taxi to three or four different hostels till we could find one with rooms for us (about an hour long adventure)...we may have been better off just going along with one of the many annoying hostel touts who were vying for our business at the terminal...i spent the morning and half the afternoon sleeping (thanks u fat bastard!!!) and then wandered around the town looking for some other travellers to hook up with for a trek into the mountains...i didnt have much luck, as most people had already done the trek, or were planning on doing the longer 12 day one which i didnt have enuff time for (and likely not enuff ambition either!!)...early afternoon of the next day, i still hadn't found anyone to trek with and was just about to sign up with an agency for an organized trek, when i ran into 3 israelis who were lookin for some more people for their group...i was also in the process of reading a book at the agency with a listing of travellers looking for partners and was planning on going to look a dutch couple up at their hostel...at that moment they walked in as well...all of a sudden i had a group of 6...shortly after reserving our tents, camping kitchen, and other supplies, as well as a team of donkeys and a donkey driver for carrying the load, the american girl i had met in arequipa earlier also strolled into the agency...now we were 7...we split up into groups to purchase food and supplies for the four day trek into the mountains...this would turn out to be a 2.5 hour ordeal at the local market as well as about another hour or so running around town to a few other stores, but we were finally sorted...along with jeroen and lotte (the dutch couple) as well as dana (american), we headed to a few local restauraunts which at that time had already closed..we just managed to catch one that was in the process of closing, but they let us in to make a few more dollars for the day...
early the next morning, we all met up at the agency to load up our gear into the van we had hired to drive us out into the mountains to the village where we would pick up our 4 donkey team...after joking with jeroen about purchasing a live chicken to take with us on the journey for some protein the day before our hardest climb, we decided to do exactly that and asked the donkey driver to get us one...we were told they didnt have one at that yard (despite the 10 or so that were running around-i guess they thought we were blind), but we were to go on ahead and he would meet up with us later with a chicken...after debating whether it was safe to leave all our gear behind and start the trek, we did exactly that...i didnt care much as i had all my personal belongings in my daypack on my back because i didnt realize the rest were bringing their big bags along for the donkeys to carry...those poor beasts of burden...
after a 2 hour uphill hike and another 3 hours on the flats, we set up camp (our donkeys passed us about halfway), and began to prepare dinner...it was now that we realized that the israeli girl was a strict vegetarian...it should have been no problem though as i had specifically bought a soy bean meat substitute for the protein needs of the trip because we couldnt carry any other meat products other than tuna and the chicken...(the tuna out there is pretty shit-house)...dinner turned out to be an issue however as i used the same spoon to stir the soybean dish as they were using for the veggi dish!!!i tried to explain that soybean meat substitue isnt a meat product but a plant...that didnt matter though, the package said meat on it and that was enough...i momentarily lost it and tried to explain that the stuff was specifically developed for vegetarians, and how are you gonna complain about it touching your spoon???dont get me wrong, i have no problems accomodating vegetarians as i have plenty of friends that are, and also spent almost a year not eating meat, but come on!!pull your head outta yer ass woman!!!it was a shortlived outburst, and everything went on fine...
it would not have been that big of a deal if we were at home, but when you are camping with one knife, one cutting board, and only 2 pots, it is a little difficult to have to acknowledge such unreasonable requests...but we managed...the meat substitute didnt have many fans that evening as it was pretty bland and tasteless so i vowed to change their minds on the next package of it...
the second day was a fairly easy day of hiking for 5 hours or so...we decicded that it was time for the chicken to meet its end that evening, and we found out that they gave us what must have been the oldest mangiest rooster they could find in the lot...i think they even chased it around for an hour or so just to make sure the meat was extra tough...our guide did it up for us and made a fairly decent sauce/stew out of it, but the meat itself was by far the worst i have ever tried to choke down...
waking up in the morning (like 5 am) to snow and ice on our tent, we prepared our breakfast and lunches, and started the hard 2 hour ascent...it wasnt that bad(well kinda, but not really in the grand scheme of things)...fortunately it was followed by a flat(ish) stretch for 3 hours, and all contained absolutely amazing views...that day we picnic'd at 4750 meters above sea level...hiking at these altitudes is more like a slow, steady walk, as you are starving for oxygen the entire time...if you had to run 10 meters, you would be completely exhausted...
that evening i took over the cooking detail and went to work on spicing up the soybean stuff to make it taste like something...after almost two hours "in the kitchen" i had convinced everyone of the wonders of soybean meat in spaghetti sauce...for a camping meal with limited provisions, it was quite fantastic if i do say so myself, (thats just me stroking my ummm......ego again)...
luckily it was our last day following because we were (to no surprise) running out of food by that point...that day on the way back to the town where we needed to catch a collectivo into town, we walked down the road that connected all the houses in the mountains...every time we would pass one, you could hear the kids yelling to each other that the gringoes were coming and they would run out to the road to ask you for "caramellos", which is their word for candies...they have been trained just like pavlovs dog to respond to the tourists on the trail...
we reached a "mandatory check in" where we were to sign in and pay 2 more soles for the service...we flat out refused this and kept on our way, having been previously warned by others about make-shift checkpoints out there to con the tourists out of more money...
declining an offer to hop a bus for the village we kept walking till we just about got there, when we stoppped for one last picnic and a rest...a few locals passed us by and told us that the rest of our group had stopped at the last village and boarded the bus, and they told the locals if they saw us to tell us...once we made it to the village we waited for said bus to come along, and we packed in on the already full transportation...i was so uncomfortable that i thought my back was broken...it turned out that the mule driver had turned back for his village at the last point when the israelis had boarded the bus...this meant that jeroen and dana were not able to get their sweaters back that they had lent the driver...
side note: we actually had a driver switch halfway thru the trip when ours met the new one who was returning due to his people deciding the trek was too difficult...when they had switched, our new guy forgot to grab his warm clothes off the other donkeys and was therefore in dire need of warm clothing at night...
anyways, about an hour or so into our return trip, wouldn;t u know it, the van got a flat tire...and we would also learn that it had gotten a flat before it picked us up originally as well...so there we all were waiting on the side of the road for an hour and a half in the hot sun, waitng for the driver to hitch a ride into town, and return with a tire...the way these guiys had that van jacked up was ridiculously unsafe...the jack was making about a half centimetre of contact on the curved part of the spring and seemed to be just teetering there as the driver and the guides went in and out of the van, leaning on it, slamming doors, etc...i was just waiting for the jack to slip out and the van come crashing down...somehow it didnt , and we were eventually on our way again...
