In the middle of a mostly sleepless high altitude night, I was woken up by highly accented cries of “Morning!” I looked around in the dark and remembered that wakeup time was 4:45. Shortly, I crawled out of the tent and made my way to the breakfast tent. We had tea and the dry rolls with margarine and jelly.
The weather was not looking good and the guide advised us to stick to the regular trail. Two guys insisted on going the alternative way. We didn’t see them until much later that day.
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We made it some ways up the valley when the rain started. By the time we hit the big ascent to the pass at Punta Union it was foggy and raining strong. The rain gradually turned to snow as the altitude rose and the temperature dropped. With the thin air, snow, and no views, the hike quickly became a harsh one-foot-in-front-of-the-other ordeal. I still managed to fall behind by taking pictures and taking swigs of cold coca tea.
The pass itself is impressive, but the (still) great feeling of accomplishment was tempered by the opaque sky in all directions and the wet cold. The rest of the group were well on their way down as I took my pictures of the fog, or so I thought. I turned the corner and there they were, lunching along the stone wall of the ridge, but certainly ready to descend from the cold pronto. I had a quick half lunch with (hot!) coca tea: I highly recommend bringing a thermos.
Punta Union.
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As we went down the clouds slowly cleared to reveal a gorgeous laguna below. I kept turning my head back toward it as I could see it and the mountains above better and better, even as the scene ahead revealed a stunning never-ending valley. I had to restrain the camera hand for the sake of keeping up with the group.
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved.
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved.
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
At 1PM we set up camp in the middle of the valley with a cloud obscured view of several famous peaks. The After two hours’ rest and tea time, four of us set off for an optional side trek to see Apumayo and another laguna. The hike was to take three hours. It took us to a view further down the valley, surrounded by the shimmering grass of the páramo, a laguna glowing at the horizon in the afternoon sun, and a sandy wasteland in between. It then turned into another valley: a green one dotted by wild horses and topped by Apumayo in the distance and in the clouds. By the time we got to the laguna, as beautiful as the last, and not quite to Apumayo basecamp, it was past time to turn back.
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
We hurried back to camp with headlamps. The side hike took four hours. The pair that took the alternate route in the morning did not get back much earlier. We were all happy with our day’s hiking and our choices, but not with the guide’s time estimates.
We were even more frazzled as she tried to explain the plan for the next day. This somehow involved several options, the more enticing of which were “impossible.” We ended up selecting the basic route, sans hot springs.
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