ANOTHER HIKE

Tuesday, December 20:  The hiking group set out again on a scenic venture this morning.  We went south this time, about 5 miles out of Vilcabamba, and then took a gravel road to the left.  The road went into a valley with a river.  With all the mountains and valleys around this part of the Andes, I’ve now concluded that many roads off a main road is going to go through a valley with a river.  

This time I sat inside of one of the king cab pick-ups so as to avoid the bumps sitting in the bed.  We drove along side the river for about 4 miles, past the “Trout Farm” and restaurant, and through the river.  About a mile after crossing the river, we veered up to our right, winding up the hillside.  As I’ve come to expect now, the farther up you go on these types of roads, the worse they get, this road had lots of switchbacks.  About a half mile before we disembarked, we were driving along the hillside with a steep drop off.  I was a little scared.  

            THIS IS THE DROP OFF AS SEEN COMING BACK DOWN THE HILL

We reached the end of the road, or at least as far as the vehicles were going, went through the gate and headed up the dirt lane.  A local person was hired to take us to a viewpoint (Mirador), which was probably about 2.5 miles away, mostly uphill.  The views were really worth going.  We had a river valley downhill to our left, and the tops of mountains to our right.  

Here are some of the views:

For a mile or so the uphill was gradual and enjoyable, but after that it became steep in parts, which put me in the rear, needing short rests often.  Near where it leveled out again I had to rest one last time.  For about 30 seconds I felt nauseated, so stayed put until that passed.  But once getting to the level ground I was OK, keeping up with the rest.  

We soon reached the lookout, the goal of our hike.  Most partook of their lunch now and basically enjoyed the views.  The guide had explained that there were some plants here that had red flowers at this time of year. 

We sat around in the sun for about 45 minutes eating and socializing.  Now that I’m back I can see being in the higher elevation and thin air resulted in me getting sunburned some.  At least the hike back would be all downhill, much easier. 

Eventually we made it off the side of the mountain and onto the flats where a river was, the one we drove through, and decided to rest here.  Some took off their footwear and walked through the water, but I saw a “foot bridge” just downstream and decided that was better, as did most of the others.  

I WAS NOT AWARE THAT SUE TOOK THIS PICTURE.  SHE MAILED IT TO ME LATER.

About another half mile down the road the taxis returned to take us back, and I eagerly got in the back seat again, not wanting to be jarred around in the bed from all the pot holes.  I should add here that we had some really torrential rains a couple days ago which dislodged some smaller rocks and gravel from the hillsides, and the main highway at times showed evidence of that.  

Once back in Vilcabamba  about half of the group headed to a coconut bar.  Here the owners put coconuts in a large refrigerator to chill them, take them out upon request and cut off the tops, place a straw in the hole, serving them fresh for a cool drink.  They will also cut them in half once drained so one can scoop out the loose meat to eat.  I joined them last week for the experience, but have to say that I really did not care for the fresh coconut water.  So today I had a pop cycle.  

I should add that the bird life was really sparse until we reached the river on our return trip.  I should also add that my pedometer registered over 6 miles for the hike.  It also indicates 149 flights of stairs.  I’m convinced now that it must register going downhill as well as uphill.  We did descend a lot of road on that return trip!