20th September

At 5am Joseph woke us and brought coca tea and coffee to our tents then breakfast at 5:30. We started walking at 6 and the first two hours were uphill along the river then into the mountain-side, feeling good. Then as we went further up the mountain it got much harder to breathe and the next 3hours were very cold and difficult. The landscape changed from grass covered valley to icy rocky mountains with many beautiful blue lagoons. The horsemen and Lamas overtook us but an 'emergency mule' followed very closely behind.

We made it to the top at 4,800m! We were up in the clouds and it was freezing but the views were spectacular and you could see both sides of the mountain which had very different landscapes.

The rest of the day was really enjoyable as it was all downhill which meant I was able to keep up with Lara at the front, and not be at the back, dying! We walked back down to 3,300m over 3hours.

Along the way we saw lots of young children that came out for bread and fruit. Although they were quite dirty, and some of them were very shy, they all looked healthy and happy - and tough! And of course lots of dogs, sheep and lamas too.
We met one boy called Sebestian who was 7 and on the weekends it was his job to take the Lamas up the mountain in the morning and graze them, then bring them back at sunset on his own.
On the first day we walked through a village with a primary school where all the children from the mountains would go but met some older children that had to walk 2hours through the mountains to Lares town for the secondary school. Obviously there were more children that lived further into the mountains that had to walk even further to get to the school in Lares.

The second night we camped right next to a waterfall with a beautiful view of the valley with just our group. It was a warmer camp but I was still sleeping in thermals and jumpers plus two scarfs, hat and gloves, inside two sleeping bags and two liners!