Trek to Rainbow Mountain - Day 2

  Nevado Auzangate, Cusco, Peru Wednesday, April 6, 2016

We woke up early at about 5:30am as we could hear the horses and the men mooching about outside. It was freezing! We stuck our heads outside and saw .... snow! It had been snowing overnight and the ground had a light layer all across it. No wonder we were so cold. But we had slept well despite that. We stayed inside our tent for as long as possible then dashed over to the big tent where Ilario had a hot drink and breakfast waiting for us. Amazing!The cloud that enveloped us first thing gradually lifted and we packed up the tents and our things and set off on foot for a bit. The horses and the crew caught up with us (it's amazing just how slowly we are walking here up at altitude compared to the men with all the gear to carry). We turned a corner and saw a collection of buildings and were told it costs $300 a night to stay there. Hence why we were in a tent! But having said that - if we had a spare $300 would we chose to still stay in the tent? Probably not actually, even though it is all part of the experience! There was a large crowd of Americans or Europeans ahead of us as we passed it. Their guides were outside packing all their gear onto llamas. We love the llamas. As we passed them it was like they all stopped and turned around to watch us. We could just hear them all chuntering away to each other saying "ooo look at them".It was lovely to see them all go off as a herd up the hill with their people in local, traditional dress. It made for some beautiful pictures. As did the scenery. With our hands free on the horses, we had many WOW moments as we made our way up the mountainside. Pepe was still with us too and kept running on ahead for a mile, stopping to wait for us then running on again. He clearly knew where he was going and sometimes he would run off in what appeared to be completely the wrong direction. Then appearing in front of us again and looking at us as if to say "what took you so long?" Occasionally he would run back to where we were and look along the line as if checking each of us was still in the pack, then he would race off again. That dog must have ran 10 times the distance we walked! The scenery just continued to impress us. Everywhere you looked was a beautiful picture waiting to be taken. We just wanted to fix these images in our memory for ever as it was just breathtaking.Every now & then we would get off the horses and walk for a bit. Sometimes because we felt like it and other times because there was a tricky bit coming up and the horses needed to pick their way carefully. Remember there are no well worn paths here. Eventually we came to a ridge. The sun had come out and for the very first time, we got a tantalising glimpse of Rainbow Mountain, still a long way in the distance, but beautiful nether-the-less. At the top of the ridge, we caught up with the group staying in the fancy pants buildings we had passed earlier. They were all doing their own thing but weren't very friendly when we asked if someone would take a picture of us together on our camera. That's what comes of staying in expensive accommodation - it makes you too good to mix with campers. Or maybe we just smelt like we hadn't showered!We set off from the ridge ahead of them and had a very steep walk down from here. We were off the horses and making our way on foot to the bottom where there was a lake. Here we stopped for a rest and we soon kept company by the llamas. Very cute. Their grumpy people soon followed and secretly we took pictures of them as their colourful clothes looked great against the mountain backdrop. Ilario had prepared a snack for us earlier and we sat here a while to eat our fruit and cake and drink the juice. What a beautiful setting for a rest. Pepe was way away off on the other side of the lake doing whatever Pepe does. But we could see him charging around and making his way to our side of the lake. It was here that William sent off in a different direction, Illario and the horsemen whilst we took a different track - the one which went to the mountain.We climbed a ridge and another guide stopped to chat to William for a bit. He had been leading a Swedish Chap by the name of Lars up to the mountain but declared this was as far as he went. Would it be ok for William to show Lars the way off the mountain? It seemed a bit cheeky of the guide - to abandon his client on a cloud-covered, freezing cold mountain in the middle of nowhere, so of course we were happy to have him along. As we climbed higher, the cloud cover got lower and at times we could barely see where we were walking. We were off the horses again by this stage as the tiny ridges they were walking along were extremely narrow. We followed. About an hour later, there in front of us all of a sudden, was the Rainbow Mountain! It took us completely by surprise as we stared at it through a gap in the clouds.Wow! We had made it! And guess who was there to greet us? Pepe! - He knew the way all along and had chosen to stay with us - even though his owner had gone a different way! Nice one Pepe we are glad you stayed with us as you make us smile when we see you. But it was freezing and covered in cloud. William said we had time to wait for up to 1 1/2 hours to give the cloud chance to disappear so we hunkered down behind a wall to protect us from the wind and cracked open a bottle - like you do. Jody had bought this bottle of traditional Peruvian liqueur when we were on the bus back from the Sacred Valley trip a few days ago. This was absolutely the perfect time to share it. And it really hit the spot! Whilst we were at the top which was 5,000 mts, a group of 20 somethings appeared out of the cloud. They were not dressed for the weather by any stretch of the imagination. One chap (who by the way came from Lechlade - just how small is this planet we live on???) was dressed just in a teeshirt, showerproof jacket and shorts. He was frozen through. It looked as if a girl had leant him some leggings as there is no way I could ever see a boy buying those, but he was past caring what he looked like.We chatted to him and the others for quite a while as we all waited for the cloud to clear. Then William shouted out to us - go now, go higher - so Bryan dashed up a bit further in hopes of getting that great shot of the mountain. The sun popped out for just 30 seconds or so but it was enough for Bryan to get a photo that showed all the colours in the mountain. Then the moment disappeared. Well the weather beat us into a retreat eventually. The hail and snow started lashing down, all whipped up by a freezing cold wind. We decided to make our way back down and admit we were not going to get the amazing view of it we had hoped for, but we had our experience instead which meant a lot to us. We set off walking to start with then Bryan and Lars picked up the pace and Jody climbed onto Curly and walked down with William. On the way he was teaching her some Quechua which is the native language from this area and William's first language.The Rest of our crew had gone ahead this morning and put up the tent next to another lake near the path that everyone took to go down. We had told Lechlade chap all about the chef we had with us and how we had a hot lunch and coffee waiting for us when we went down the mountain. Ahead of us in the distance, we could see him arrive at the point where our lunch was waiting and we saw him hesitate on the path. He was clearly in need of a hot drink and we could see him first make a move towards the tent, take a step, then stop. Then he walked a few more paces, stopped and looked at our tent again, then carried on his way. We were too far away to be able to say anything to him but we were willing him to stop and ask for a coffee and to take a moment to get warm. But he didn't and that was the last we saw of him. We hope he got warm soon enough. Well Lars stopped with us and declined the hot food offered to eat his tin of tuna (Lars you must be mad!) but he did take a coffee and we sat and chatted for a bit whilst we all got warm.The trek down continued at a much faster pace and we met many people still making their way up on a one day trek. Up and down in a day is a very hard slog and we didn't envy them at all. The trek down was just as beautiful too as it took us past fast flowing streams and mini waterfalls, little stone houses and herds of alpaca. We all arrived back at the car knowing we had been somewhere truly special and extremely unique. Our cameras were full of memories and images we would want to treasure. But first - a hot shower and a massage please. Wow! What an experience this had been. We loved every minute of it but neither of us are in any hurry to do it again. Maybe when the weather is a bit warmer......!