Reaching the Top

We woke a little before sunrise at 6 AM. After a quick breakfast and packing our belongings, we were ready to cycle by 7:38 AM. Record time for us. We said our goodbyes to the alpaca farmers and, as a token of thanks, gave them our last Dutch ontbijtkoek (for non-Dutch readers: that is a spiced, sweet rye cake, traditionally sweetened with honey and often eaten with butter on top). The farmers were delighted with the gift. Let’s hope they also enjoyed the taste.

The climb was incredibly exhausting due to the steep inclines and the thin air. The further up we went, the dizzier I got to the point where I felt like I was close to fainting. But I am getting ahead of myself. The way to the top took longer than two sentences (unfortunately), because much happened in the three hours that it took us to get to the top. Apart from our usual stops to gasp for air and have some water (mostly again on me), we started hearing funny noises about halfway up our climb. One look behind us showed us that we were followed by the herd of Alpacas from the farm we had stayed the night at. Well trained dogs and a group of skilled women herded them up the mountain path until (I am ashamed to say) they overtook us. While I had initially hoped that a pick-up car would conveniently make its way up to the pass as well and be willing to give us a ride, no such vehicle turned up. No vehicle of any kind at all actually, except for one motorbike around 50 elevation meters from the top.

It was very hard and exhausting but close to noon we finally reached the pass: 4930 m above sea level. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I could feel every single metre in my legs…but it was worth it because at the top the sight of a massive mountain ridge blanketed in snow and glaciers greeted us. At the foot of the massif lay a calm, turquoise-blue lake the icy waters of which were fed by the trickling stream of glacial water.

At the top a cold wind was blowing so we put on most of our warm layers, gloves and hats, and began our descent. Racing down the steep gravel slopes was a bit scary in my opinion but at the same time it felt so liberating to not cycle uphill for once. After about half an hour of cycling when the wind finally felt less icy and the sun came out, we had a leisurely lunch in a field. The sun rays were warming us up and we enjoyed the calmness of nature as well as the beauty of the scenery around us. We cycled a bit further until it was late afternoon and set up camp at what I would dare say was our most beautiful campsite up to date.

We slept in a nature reserve (of which I have way too easily forgotten the unpronounceable name, sorry) and set up our tent on a lush green field that was cluttered with big rocks here and there. A small mountain stream snuck and meandered its way through the field. If I were an author I would probably find better ways to describe the natural beauty that made our campsite so charming, special and simply perfect. Now all I can do is hope, that the pictures we took sufficiently manage to convey what my words are lacking.
A bit further upstream Göran even built us a little basin to bathe in, while I was cleaning our bike bags which had gotten very dirty from all the dust. The bath was icy once again but all in all the beauty and convenience of our campsite had all of us in high spirits. After brushing our teeth in the very crisp air and underneath the Andean starry sky and the beautiful milky way, we happily went to bed.

distance cycled: 27.1 km
elevation gain: 546 m
Actual altitude: 4930 m
time cycled: 3 h 29 min