Ande-licious...

An old man once said to us, ¨I see a hill and I want to climb it.¨ - Peter Ryan, 2014

The Inca Trail was just the beginning of our reunion with the blessed Andes. As soon as we laid eyes on those jagged, snow-capped peaks and felt that familiar Andean wind through our hair, we tucked away the bikini and dug out the hiking boots from the bottom of our bags.

Let me introduce you to the main players in this story (and please feel free to hum the "Rocky" theme song as you read along for dramatic effect).

Sexy legs, Bradley

Resident photographer and emergency model, Kathryn

Boobie, the wonder dog.

Macca the Mule

First Stop: Colca Canyon, just outside of Arequipa in Southern Peru. We took the, "we don't need no guide!!" approach to this one and organised it ourselves. This canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and about 4100m at the deepest point (I just wikipedia'd it, so it must be true).

Stop looking at the legs and look at the view!!!

We started at 3287m in a little town called Cabanaconde and headed out from here on a three night hike. This hike basically involved walking down into the canyon one day, back up to the edge the next day and then repeating the process until we were completely pooped.

View from Cabanaconde, our destination was that river in the distance

Geysers on the first day! 

Full moon

On the second night we stayed in a town called Fure, population ZERO at the time of arrival. There were a few houses and animals, but not a single soul in sight. We wandered around for a while in eerie silence before an old man with a donkey pointed us in the direction of the "hostel".

"Anybody home?!"

That night as a lady cooked us a lovely two course dinner (which cost us about AU$10 for both of us), we asked her how many people were in the town. She pointed to herself, "uno," and then to us, "dos, tres," and then in the direction of the old man who had greeted us that afternoon. "Cuatro personas ahora," was her final answer.

Beautiful Fure, the town with no people

We had officially doubled the population of this village!! And we didn't mind one bit. We went for a walk to a nearby waterfall, read our books on the edge of the canyon and enjoyed incredible views of the river and canyon below us. All the while random donkeys, mules and dogs would run past us, but there were no people in sight. It was very peaceful.

Fure

The next day we walked to another town called "Oasis Sangalle", one of the most bizarre finds of our hike. As we moved further down into the canyon that day, the hotter it became. By the time we reached the bottom, we were sweating (a bizarre feeling after feeling quite cold in the last town).

As soon as we saw Oasis Sangalle, we knew why it had been given its name. This town is filled with swimming pools and waterfalls, right in the middle of a remote canyon - what a refreshing and unexpected end to a long walk. It was an absolute paradise.

Oasis, Sangalle. Our hostel.

Next stop, Sorata in Bolivia. Here, we hired a Spanish only speaking guide named Pablo and a mule named Macca for a 3 night hike into the Cordillera Real mountain range. Final destination: the glacier lake at 5038m. To our delight, Pablo´s family dog, Boobie the wonder dog, took a liking to us and followed us for the whole hike.

Boobie the wonder dog keeps watch at our first campsite

Loading up Macca.

On the first night, we camped on a hill just above a small town (4200m). When the bell went at the school, some of the kids came running up the hill to see us. One little girl had an absolute field day playing with my hair and re-styling it. Every time she would style it, look at it and say in Spanish, "no, no, no, a little more beautiful!" and start all over again. By the end, I think I looked like Tina Turner in her heyday. Pablo found this very entertaining and kept saying, "muy bonita Amiga...".

The kids come to see us!

"Un Poco Mas Bonita"

This hike was great because: a) we had a mule, which was a BIG novelty b) the scenery was stunning and c) we could practice our Spanish.

Our campsite on the second night.

Walking in the snow to Glacier Lake

We made it to Glacier lake at 5038masl as it snowed lightly around us and it was a great feeling. There is nothing like having a refreshing drink of water out of a glacial stream.

Crooked selfie with Pablo and Boobie the wonder dog at Glacier Lake

Glacier Lake 5038masl

Boobie the wonder dog also enjoyed the entire hike, with only one altitude related spew at the top. He was especially chuffed when we constructed the "Casa Del Boobie" for him at our last campsite.

Casa Del Boobie between our tents

And so we were ready for our toughest challenge yet. An ice climb up Huayna Potosi, Bolivia, 6088masl. But I will leave that adventure for the next blog....