I had to get up at 4am this morning, to be on time for our trek's departure at 5. It being the weekend, half of my dorm hadn't even gone to sleep yet, and I had to get up after only four hours of sleep...
I had booked the trek with Condor trekkers, a non-profit organization that gives all profits to local communities, supporting them with medical supplies and materials for schools. A good part of condor trekkers is run by volunteers. The guides are Bolivian, but all others - administration and office staff, as well as the people who are doing trek preparations like shopping and cooking - are volunteers. I really like the idea that communities living along the route of a trek get to profit from the tourists, so I was happy to discover that such an organization exists in Sucre.
Again, it seems that I had very good luck with the other people in the group. Our group consists of our Bolivian guide, a volunteer from the US, a French couple, and a Canadian - all really nice people.
After a 90 minute bus ride and breakfast, we started walking at 7am at the tiny chapel of Chatakila. The views during the first hour of the walk were already fabulous:
The path continued along lots of beautiful staircases like this one...
...and along spectacular rock formations like this one:
We also visited the small cave Pumamachay with 2000 year old cave paintings. The cave had a makeshift gate to protect the paintings because about 20 years ago, someone stole one of the paintings - including the stone it was painted on, of course. There should have been a person there to open the gate for us, but we found the gate open and no guardian in sight.
A little later, we came upon another gate, leading to the rock paintings of Incamachay. This one was locked and guarded, and we had to register with all the details people usually want to know: name, nationality, passport number, and signature. The rock paintings date from approximately the same period as the ones in the cave. The guide explained that the red color was made from earth which contains a lot of iron here. White was made from the extract of a tree. And black was made by crushing a certain kind of small insect. Amazing how the colors have lasted for two millennia without much apparent decay!
A little while later, we started our descent into this valley. Aren't the colors just fantastic?
In the afternoon, we had some rain so the pictures were not as great. However, the rain really did bring out and deepen the colors of the entire landscape, like on this agave:
Somewhere along the way, I mentioned that I like blue flowers. But they are really rare, the Canadian said. Funny as things sometimes are, we found at least five different kinds of blue flowers after that :-)
In the evening, we got to talking about why we travel. Turns out that two of my trekking fellows started only after their dads died too soon, without ever being able to profit from the freedom of retirement to travel. Sad but true, isn't it? Sometimes we seem to need dramatic events to adjust our priorities.
I had booked the trek with Condor trekkers, a non-profit organization that gives all profits to local communities, supporting them with medical supplies and materials for schools. A good part of condor trekkers is run by volunteers. The guides are Bolivian, but all others - administration and office staff, as well as the people who are doing trek preparations like shopping and cooking - are volunteers. I really like the idea that communities living along the route of a trek get to profit from the tourists, so I was happy to discover that such an organization exists in Sucre.
Again, it seems that I had very good luck with the other people in the group. Our group consists of our Bolivian guide, a volunteer from the US, a French couple, and a Canadian - all really nice people.
After a 90 minute bus ride and breakfast, we started walking at 7am at the tiny chapel of Chatakila. The views during the first hour of the walk were already fabulous:
The path continued along lots of beautiful staircases like this one...
...and along spectacular rock formations like this one:
We also visited the small cave Pumamachay with 2000 year old cave paintings. The cave had a makeshift gate to protect the paintings because about 20 years ago, someone stole one of the paintings - including the stone it was painted on, of course. There should have been a person there to open the gate for us, but we found the gate open and no guardian in sight.
A little later, we came upon another gate, leading to the rock paintings of Incamachay. This one was locked and guarded, and we had to register with all the details people usually want to know: name, nationality, passport number, and signature. The rock paintings date from approximately the same period as the ones in the cave. The guide explained that the red color was made from earth which contains a lot of iron here. White was made from the extract of a tree. And black was made by crushing a certain kind of small insect. Amazing how the colors have lasted for two millennia without much apparent decay!
A little while later, we started our descent into this valley. Aren't the colors just fantastic?
In the afternoon, we had some rain so the pictures were not as great. However, the rain really did bring out and deepen the colors of the entire landscape, like on this agave:
Somewhere along the way, I mentioned that I like blue flowers. But they are really rare, the Canadian said. Funny as things sometimes are, we found at least five different kinds of blue flowers after that :-)
In the evening, we got to talking about why we travel. Turns out that two of my trekking fellows started only after their dads died too soon, without ever being able to profit from the freedom of retirement to travel. Sad but true, isn't it? Sometimes we seem to need dramatic events to adjust our priorities.
