We decided we felt a bit like explorers. I don't know why. Maby because we are traveling with a head guide, 2 cooks, and 14 porters. Combine that with the 8 of us there are 25 of us in total in this expedition. It's strange watching the porters carry our gear, set up the camp, and lay out our sleeping bags. When we arrive at camp each night the porters clap at our accomplishment. Of course, they have cruised ahead of us in sandals carrying 3x as much gear and have camp all set up. So, it's really the porters who deserve a standing ovation.
Today we hiked a total of 7 miles and climbed 4000 ft to the highest point of the trek 13,900 feet, Dead women's pas. Holy cow, that was a hard climb. About 75% of the climb was all stars and once we hit 12,000 ft the air was thin. Although our lungs seemed to be OK, our thighs are killing us!
The last 500 vertical feet were killers. We would count 50 steps then stop and rest and repeat. Sydney and Charlie didn't seem to have any problems. But Lara and Irene were slow! They were steady, but slow. We hiked uphill for about 6 hours today.
Once we reached the summit, we marveled at the vastness of the Andes mountains. They were amazing. The trek down to camp was 2 miles of steps. Equally as hard as the climb on everyone's muscles, but the breathing was a lot easier. We had to carefully watch where we placed every step so that we wouldn't slip or trip. The steps were not even, and some were very steep.
We made good time today. We arrive in camp with enough time that we could relax, stretch, and enjoy a snack. It's much colder tonight - but the stars are amazing. Funny thing, we rain into a kid wearing a BYU sweatshirt today. He'll be a freshman next year with Sydney. Small world.
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