We were picked up this morning at 05:45 (the Peruvian version of 05:00 - 05:30!). With us we had our special duffels and a day bag - leaving our big "moletas" at the hostel. The rest of our group was already in the van (somehow we have always been the last pick up this holiday!) and consisted of two girls from Lille, Perinne and Sarah, American ladies Susan and Marie-Beth, American/Spanish couple Christy and Rodolfo, and British couple Wendy and Roger.
Two chilly hours later and we arrived in Mollaypata, where we had a bite to eat before heading on for another 40 minutes to Sayllapata, where our trek began. Our duffels were loaded onto very wet looking horses, whilst we wrapped ourselves up in waterproofs. On the drive up the vegetation had gotten greener and greener, I guess because of the regular rain! We set off with our guides Diego and Eddison up the mountain. I found the group generally a bit slow, and they took many breaks on a short ascent. Hoping this was everyone just finding their hiking legs, we continued along the path, which itself was adjacent to a canal. As our path was apparently descending gradually into the head of the valley, we found it interesting that the canal was flowing in the opposite direction. The explanation for this was that there were short steep, downhill ramps to give the water rmomentum.
At the end of this descent, maybe an hour later, we reached our overnight "camp" at Soraypampa (3920m). Instead of the tents we were expecting to find, there were very cute-looking mini observatories! These were cosy pods for two people, with a very small door. The view from them included two glaciers, and once the clouds cleared was quite stunning. We ate lunch in a bigger pod, and then went to prepare our belongings for an afternoon hike up to Humantay Lake (4200m). As our group were a little slower, we followed some other groups up a steep climb for an hour, at the top of which an amazing, blue glacial lake was revealed. This was reflecting the glacier which fed it, and with the sun bouncing off it was certainly worth the climb!
When the sun was lost behind the mountain, we made our way down the slope (which was tough on the knees!), meeting our group on the way down. Once at our camp, I was looking forward to getting into a nice warm pod. Unfortunately, glass in a metal frame wasn't the best insulator and at was surprisingly chilly, but we took the cover off anyway in order to watch the rest of the sunset.
After this, we were served our pre dinner snacks ("Happy Hour") which consisted of hot chocolate and fresh salted popcorn - very welcome! Dinner was next, a traditional meal but tasty of quinoa soup follwed by meat, rice and potatoes. After this, we were so tired, with a final call of "sleep like babies, don't make babies" from the guides, we went to bed. From here we could see the almost-full moon, but unfortunately not many stars, as there was a thin cloud cover and rather thick condensation layer...
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