Back from Ausangate
Since my last update,
canyonwren and I did end up catching the mystery bus to the village of Tinqui. The bus ride out here was very long 5 hrs and the bus was extremely crowded. I had to pee really bad for about 3 of those 5 hours. I mean, really really bad! And it was very bumpy and hot, and noone would open the windows because the dust was so bad. There weren´t any chickens but there were some dogs on the bus. Every seat was crammed full, with babies on laps and extra people sitting in the center aisle. Fortunately, Peruvians don´t seem to have much BO that I have noticed. We´re now in the village of Ocongate waiting to take that same bus home for another 5 hours. We ended up getting a hostal room for the afternoon just to shower and clean up. Hot water! Joy! First clean hair in two weeks!
The 5 days we just spent circling Mt. Ausangate were incredible! The views were truly stunning, although the hiking was quite difficult and the altitude was pretty tough. I felt like a complete wimp the whole time huffing and puffing and stopping every ten steps while climbing the passes. Oh, and one of the packhorses was a buckskin pony! Yay for buckskin ponies! The only negative was the group of French Assholes that were travelling near us in parallel, but that´s a story for another day. It was also very cold at night, I really wish I had gotten that zerodegree bag and brought it along. I also stupidly didn´t even bring the fleece liner that I did end up buying. Each night was below freezing, and one night must have been around 10 degrees. I spent each night with all of my warm clothes on and more warm clothes stuffed around my body inside the sleeping bag, and the face opening almost completely closed except for a tiny airhole. Though, I don´t know that a zero degree bag would have solved my problems, since
canyonwren seemed to be having the same level of difficulty staying warm. Maybe it´s time for the -20 bag.
Oh, and speaking of gear... of course there is the matter of tent poles. You know how you´re supposed to store them longterm elongated out in the assembled position, instead of folded and tucked into the bag? Well, my tent poles are still sitting in that lovely extended position... at home in my garage. In Fucking Portland!!! I must say that
canyonwren was very gracious that first cold night as we were numbly unrolling the tent when it suddenly dawned on me. About a half hour later we had rigged something up using my trekking poles and lots of rope. After witnessing ¨la tienda más patética del mundo¨ one of the other guides took pity on us and loaned us some type of military or boyscout tent made out of green canvas.
Anyway, more later... but for now all I´m gonna say is that after 5 days of feeling like a complete and total wimp I feel much better now that I have looked up the elevation of the passes we crossed over on our trek. The highest one was at least 16,600 feet, though another site reported it as 16,900. Either way, I´m definitely looking forward to my next sea-level cardiovascular experience.