We were up at 5:30 AM today to finish packing up for the start of our three day trek in the Cordillera de los Frailes. We met at Condor Trekking at 6:30, then loaded up into the bus around 7:00 for the 1.5 hour drive to the trail start. Since we were the only ones that wanted to do the 3 day trek, we ended up with our own private guide!
If we hadn’t mentioned, this is the rainy season in Bolivia, and it definitely showed today. Our bus couldn’t make it to the dropoff point because of all the mud on the roads (no 4×4), so we had a little bit further to walk. Before we headed off, we had a meal of banana bread with some hot drinks. There were actually a couple guys that decided to back out and cancel the trip because the weather really didn’t look so great when one of the biggest attractions is the scenery. Despite the fog, the start of the trek was still interesting, and our guide explained to us about a lot of the local plants. (Yes, if you zoom in, our guide is wearing FLIP FLOPS! Apparentlt that’s how they do it in a lot of Bolivia)
After a lot of hiking in the clouds, we finally reached the location of the ancient cave paintings that were approximately 2500 years old. Somehow it had actually gotten colder since breakfast, and we had been hiking in the rain the whole time. Cassie wasn’t the happiest of campers despite her smiles in these pictures. We were surprised with a great lunch of fresh veggies, cheese, and boiled eggs (turns out the couple that runs the trekking company is vegetarian, so all of our meals during the trip were veggie). It was delicious and just what we needed to keep on going.
After lunch, things FINALLY started clearing up. A little while in, though, we reached a river that is usually passable wth some rock jumping, but because of the rain, we had some trouble finding a way to cross. Eventually we had to use a log as a bridge and move it across with us, but we made it to the other side all dry! (You can see the log we used here.)
The rest of the trek was beautiful, with waterfalls, red soil with contrasting green grass. After >10 miles, we finally made it to Chauanca, our home for the night.
Dinner was corn soup and quinoa. We were both in bed by 9pm to rest up for the next day.
Travel Fun With Cassie and Alejandro 