Upon reaching the base of the mountain, we were greeted by a gentleman at the gated entrance who asked us, "Did you bring water to drink?" Yes, we had. "Are you wearing tennis shoes?" Yes, we were. "Sunblock?" Yes, once again. By the end of the trek, I fully understood why he had asked all of those questions. Going up 5.5 kilometers and down the same distance under the summer sun is not an adventure for the water-, tennis shoe- and sunblock-less. His questions also made me chuckle to myself as I recalled a time in Nicaragua when I was hiking with a friend and we passed other hikers wearing flip flops and high heels. Such footwear is not welcome at Uritorco (not to say that it was a great choice for the Nicaraguan hikers, either).
As we started our hike at approximately 9:45am, we were each told to grab a walking stick. During the first kilometer I didn't even use it, thinking to myself my legs were made for this, why am I carrying a walking stick? By the 8th cumulative kilometer on the journey down, my knees and hips were screaming, and I was wondering why didn't I grab two walking sticks?
This plant is called paja brava, or "wild straw," because if it happens to catch fire, it spreads dangerously fast.
Smiling with approximately one more kilometer to go on the way up.
Proof that we made it to the top!
Although we had walked (climbed) 5.5 kilometers, the actual altitude of the peak (only) reached 1.9 kilometers. Nevertheless, the views were spectacular! The last kilometer was pretty rocky and required some strategic maneuvering, but we did it!
While we were literally up in the sky with the birds, we ate our lunch and enjoyed the views before heading back down. One would think that the trip down would take less time because gravity is on your side, however, that was not exactly the case. In total it was about a 6.5-hour adventure: 2 hours and 50 minutes up, 2 hours and 40 minutes down, plus the time that we spent at the top. By the 9th kilometer we had run out of water, and our skin was starting to burn despite using copious amounts of sunblock. We were in a bit of rough shape, but it was all worth it.
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