Keller and I left Cuzco a few day ago (mainly because I was tired of western tourists...but also becuase I have wanted to see this mountain for over a year..) So we packed up our backpacks and headed out without plans for a bit of adventure. We arrived in Tinki in the afternoon. Tinki is the last outpost of civilization aka last flushing toilets and market. Freddy our bus driver recommended a family who leads the 4 and 8 day treks around the range. He dropped us at the door. We were told by Aurturo that his Dad (the guia) was in Cuzco picking up a group of Slovakians so we put out stuff up in a room and took a walk around town (aka 3 blocks up and down a single street) where we ran into the Presidente of the parks horsemen association. They have certain rules about entering the park with the intention of improving services and conserving the parks resources. There are hundreds of men in this group and they have basically self organised into a group that pays a multa of $86 or so (you could look at it as a tax..) which pays for maintaining the trails for the horses. which is vital to their clients saftey and comfort. and of course....the clients are the ones who end up paying it anyway right? and there really is no way around it since everyone is on board with the association. also they have agreed to not do trips for less than 4 days (you arent even supposed to enter the park). of course once I started to explain that we didnt have time for the trek he offered me a ¨special deal¨ of 2 days for 150 USD since he was the president. In the end though we went with Aurturo-the 15 y/o son of the guide whose house we were staying in. We couldnt have had a happier guide...he was trying to talk his Mom into letting him take us but she said he had school. Of course I chimed in that it was Friday..so we had two full days. After settling on 20 soles a day plus food we crawled into our dark cold room to sleep till 4 when we would head out...We ended up walking for two days with Aurturo and his 11 year old friend, Clever, who lives up in the mountains. His whole family lives there and they have sheep, vicunas, llamas and horses...as well as trout which are grown in huge nets in a 'llaguna' nearby. Clever grew up exploring these lands and we had a lot of fun climbing around with them, fishing, and just taking in the landscape which is just breathtaking. We even found some gold and copper when we were walking the moraine up to the glacier! There were also hot springs to swim in. I have been in a few of these over the past year but this one had the best view by far!!! It was right at the foot of Mt Ausangate. After finishing the trek we got up early one morning and walked down about 10k to Tinki to try to catch a bus to Cuzco...while waiting we decided to go watch some local soccer games we saw going on and got there just in time to see the girls play! I have never seen girls play in sandals...and huge skirts like this! It was very entertaining!
