We slept for 10 hours last night, something I have not done since I've been traveling.
After nearly three full days of hiking (the majority of which was downhill - a literal pain in the ass), camping in 2,000-3,000 meters a.s.l. at near freezing temperatures (sans alcohol), we needed it. Definitely the most rustic camping I've done. No toilets, a hose with running water was where I'd splash water on my face or rinse off my toothbrush.
So how was the hike itself? Well. You might say our group was spoiled. Having had to leave Chris behind at the hostel due to an inconvenient case of traveler's stomach/altitude sickness/ food poisoning, or a combination of the three, we were a pack of five hikers instead of six, plus a guide and two porters. The porters carried our food, sleeping bags, tents. We had day packs with our clothes, snacks, water, etc.
Making up the group was myself, Judy (who finally decided to tell me last night, over a week into traveling together, after a very strong margarita made of Bolivian tequila, is actually named Judith, hates the name Judy, and thought I had taken it upon myself to give her a nickname. Oops. Plenty of apologies and laughter ensued); a maybe-couple (we never got the full story) consisting of a Peruvian woman from Lima named Pilar and a French dude from SW France, Johan; and a solo traveling Frenchie who currently lives in Australia, Guillaume. Guillame, Judith and I eventually formed a clique, as the couple/ not-couple were in their own little world. Guille had spent a year traveling Asia and has hiked Nepal. Judith of course has the Alps in her backyard and has done Patagonia, as have I. The three of us also just finished the salt flat safari. So you could say we were used to some pretty fantastic landscapes. This, in comparison, was just... okay.
Perhaps unfair, but true. Sure, we started at 4,900 meters a.s.l. where we were dressed in our full winter gear, the landscape was arid, and within hours we were in moderate climate, pulling layers off, until finally we were in the jungle, below 2,000 meters, in tanks and shorts, swimming in the river, walking through waterfalls. That part was cool.
Seeing llamas at the top, almost purring like kittens, also cool.
Being above the clouds for the majority of the hike, taking pictures of them floating in the valleys. Cool. Seeing the rustic Bolivian countryside, clamoring across old rickety bridges reminiscent of Indiana Jones,
traveling back in time where houses are made of stone and thatch roofs, have no running water, with chickens running amok, feeding children along the path chocolates, getting them to smile when they at first were all frowns, very cool.
Meeting a doubled-over 78 year old Japanese hermit who has lived at least two hours from anyone else for over 50 years, who has hand-drawn maps of the world to mark where his visitors are from, who rushes to bring out a book about Austria written in Japanese to show Judith, super cool. (Look to the right in the picture below, there he is with his book):
Okay, so it was a good hike. Like I said, we may just have been spoiled. The food was surprisingly decent, with homemade veggie soups at dinner, spaghetti or rice, fresh vegetables, chicken, fruit, yogurt and muesli at breakfast. Not sure how the porters carried it all, but, hell they're strong.
The nights were spent playing Who Am I, drinking mug of tea after mug of tea, until eventually it was 9:00 and we felt it was late enough to call it a night. By the end of the three days, we had exhausted our life stories, and were at the point where we comfortably discussing bowel movements. Living in the wild will do that to you.
Returned to civilization yesterday afternoon in Coroico, a quaint, not-yet-overloaded-with-backpackers mountainside town three hours outside of La Paz, where the three of us scored a private triple at a picture perfect hostel with a view of the valley to write home about. And a pool that was a scary color of yellow, and thus avoided.
Found a Mexican restaurant that had 3 variations of 3 dishes on the menu: meat, chicken or vegetarian: tacos, enchiladas or burritos. We decided to share everything and went for a meat burrito, chicken enchilada and veggie taco. They all came out looking exactly the same, two rolled tortillas covered in black beans, with whatever the appropriate filling was. Pretty funny. Not so funny this morning when we all woke up running to the bathroom. Like I said, we'd gotten pretty close at this point.
Disappointed to find out there were no massage joints in town, the hot springs we dreamed about were really just little waterfalls (low in water as this is the dry season), the hostel shower went from scalding hot to freezing cold in nanoseconds, and the best restaurant in town was German with the rudest waiter I've ever encountered, we decided to come back to La Paz earlier in the day today than planned. Took the local bus the 3 & 1/2 hours, Judith jammed on the seat above the back tire, Guille squished next to a larger than his seat local man, and me in a fold out seat in the aisle between them, feeling every bump of the dirt road, I somehow was able to enjoy a This American Life podcast and the fresh mountain air coming in through the cracked windows.
My view for 3 1/2 hours. Very typical Boliviano.
This is what three days hiking with no shower will do, in case you're wondering:
Now we're back in La Paz, just Judith (not Judy), and me. Chris has gone on to Copacabana (on Lake Titicaca, not Rio!) and then Peru, as she only has two weeks left before she returns to Germany. Tomorrow we'll check out the colonial bit of town, get some much needed beauty maintenance (haircuts, pedicures, massages - taking advantage of the Boliviano as much as we can), and finish touristy shopping at the markets. Tuesday morning we're off to Copacabana ourselves.
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