My three day trek to the town and ruins of Chavin began 40 minutes outside of Huaraz in the village of Ollieros. Due to laziness and having not figured out exactly when and how I was going to get from Huaraz to Ollieros, I didn't find myself at the trailhead until sometime around 3 in the afternoon. The suggested campsite was a 5 hour walk away and it looked like rain.
I toyed with the idea of finding a bed in town and waiting for the next morning, but quickly elimenated it after considering the idea of being kooked up in some crappy room for a day and a night just waiting around. I had spent most of the day figuring out how to get to the trail head and I was ready to hike.
On my way through the first village at the beggining of the hike, whoever was out working in their yard would stop what they were doing and look up with a wave and a smile. "Chavin?" some of them would say. "Si!" One guy I met near the edge of town was a little bit too friendly for my liking.
This little man was clearly very drunk. When he asked me where I was going, and I told him, he declared that we were going to be partners and that he was going to go get his horse. He then veered off the path and I blew it off as a simple encounter with the town drunk. Five minutes down the trail leading out of town I heard the clickity clack of holves behind me. I turned around to find that this guy had not been messing around. There he was, on top of a shabby looking, hungry, little white horse. "Partners," he said in spanish, pointing back and forth between the two of us. "Lets go to Chavin!" he yells. " Hop on the horse." Amused by the situation, I politely declined, and told him that I wanted to walk. Out of his drunkness he couldn't grasp the idea that I was walking there for fun. I had no time contraints and didn't have to get there for any reason.
He followed my for easily two hours telling me at least 30 times to get on his horse, that it was faster and easier. After the 5th time explaining to a wall why I didn't want to get onto his damn horse I was starting to get annoyed. This guy was ruining my hike. Twice he fell off his horse. Both times after he had worn out his welcome, so I enjoyed a couple of nice open laughs.
The secound time he fell off he played dead and I had to yell at him to get up. I gave him some water and told him for the last time to get lost. As it was begining to rain, he obliged, and took off in the other direction. Not however, without giving me a harsh 10 second stare down from over his shoulder as he rode off, like I was the asshole.
I sped up my pace as it started to sprinkle more. It stayed at a drizzle for a little over an hour and then came the down pour. Soaking wet, about four hours into my trek, I decided to climb out of the valley i was hiking through to make camp in a flat grassy area on the side of a hill. When you're setting up a tent in the rain, no matter how fast you do it your tent gets wet. My tent got wet. After I got my tarp over it, and my stuff inside, I did my best to clear up what I could with my camp towel. It ended up not too bad. A little bit cold and damp but much better than hikking in the dark, through the rain and cold wind for who knew how much longer to the suggested campsite.
It rained all night long, but with the morning sun came a blue sky and a whole new begining without an unwanted, and very drunk companion. I suppose if we were both drunk, and I was an expert at slurred spanish it could have been a fun little trip, ridding on the back of a horse for 50km through the beautiful Cordillera Blanca. But that wasn't the case, and I didn't want it to be. The secound day of the Chavin trek was difficult, but also my favorite day of hiking I've ever done so far.
I woke up with the sunrise and climbed out of my tent to a tremendous veiw of a valley full of cattle. I packed up my soaking wet tent, ate a bar of chocolate, and went on my way. About an hour in, I found myself at what should have been my campsite the day before. Luckily the trek didn't consist of very long days and I had all day to hike the additional 14km to campsite number 2. My hike that day included coming within 15 feet of wild horses, bulls, and llamas, all at seperate times. For most of the hike I had beautiful panoramic veiws of half a dozen different famous, jagged, snowcapped mountains of the Cordillera Blanca.
The highlight of the whole trek was reaching the top of the mountain pass at the end of the valley. From 4700 meters above sea level I was able to look down at the entire sunlit valley that I had spent the last day and a half hiking through. On the other side of the pass was a veiw of the valley I would be heading into. It was even more beautiful than the one I was leaving. I felt like the lion king up there, looking down at all that was mine.
I climed down into the new valley and walked a couple more hours before making camp just before the afternoon rain rolled in. On the third day when I woke up and continued walking, I noticed that this valley had more people living in it. Not a lot of people by any means, but every half mile or so you would see a little settlement on the side of a hile. A couple of stone walls and a thatch roof hut was all that was included on the properties of these mountain people that had been doing things the same way for a long long time.
After crossing a river and entering the main valley things seemed to reluctantly become more populated. I found the mountain road leading to Chavin and took it through many villages on a two hour walk into town. I was able to look down at Chavin and the Incan ruins for about a half hour on my way down, and I must say it's a great way to learn the layout of a city before you get there. I finally reached town, where I quickly found a big plate of food and a beer in a riverside restuarant. The ruins were impressive but for me didn't compare to the trek itself. Most of it consisted of stone tunnels and rooms that were dug down under some giant grassy hills. It was quite a huge network and took my an hour to explore all of it with a flashlight. Like all other ruins I've ever seen, it was very hard to imagine what the building process must have been like. The underground ceilings and walls consisted of giant car sized boulders stacked artistically on top of one another.
I found a cheap ride back to Huaraz in what is without a doubt the worst car I've ever seen in my life. The tires were beyond bald, the back window was out, and the door pannels along with most of the dashboard had been gutted and replaced with plywood. I decided in all of my smartness that it was an excellent and safe option for getting myself through the three hours of winding mountain roads leading back to Huaraz. It was a nice little adventure to cap off nice medium sized adventure.
Back in Huaraz I made the decision to pack up and head to the coast for a few reasons. Firstly, I learned that rainy season is no joke. It rained everyday on my trek from mid afternoon to early morning and this had a big effect of the trails. When every I found my self on an uphill trail I also found myself walking up a downhill stream, and vise versa on my way down into the other valley. My other reason is simple, I want to go to the beach! I've been excited to start surfing for a while and I want to give myself time to do as much as I want. I very well may head back to Huaraz in early March for another trek or two. As I said before, some of the best walks in the world are in that area and I would hate to say I only did one. March is still the rainy season, but its the end rather then smack dab in the middle so we will see....
Sorry there are no pictures in recent blogs. I'm trying to work out some technical issues with my computer/camera.
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