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Larry's LogAfter hot showers the next morning (after a cold night), we had a simple breakfast and Iris prepared lunch for us to eat on the trail. We left by about 9:30 and our guide for the day, Douglas, was very good about making my stirrups long enough. I still had a small horse, but at least I was more comfortable. He had arrived about 9 and got the horses ready for the long trip. We would all ride today and there were 4 horses, 3 for the riders and one for the bags. Douglas was only 18 but he had been doing this with his father for 6 years already and he knew the trail very well. For some reason, Diane got the bigger horse again but as we started out, my horse seemed fine. The only problem was that although with the stirrups the proper length, my feet were only about 8 to 10 inches above the ground since the horse was small. That meant that when the horse went past heavy brush or rocks, my feet would hit and I had some trouble keeping my feet in the stirrups because of it. We started very well and had a wonderful ride up through some beautiful country. The views were really fantastic as the air was very clear and the light (before the clouds came in) really good. The peculiar plant life on the paramo was very interesting. The predominant plant, call los frailejones (the friars) was not very pretty but had long fuzzy leaves and in season (October mostly) turns the paramo brilliant yellow with its flowers. We did see a few that were blooming early and they were very pretty. Diane had some problems with her horse though as it was very unsure of its footing on the sections of the trail that were rocky, which became more common as we went on. It turned out that the horse had no shoes. The guide blamed this on insufficient notice. Well, this made the horse insure on rocks and this caused us some problems, particularly later in the trip. Being a glacial valley there were rocks, loose and otherwise, all over. We made one rest stop on the way up and a few short ones for pictures (although many of these didn't work out because I was still having problems with the camera) and got to our spot for lunch, Laguna de Los Patos (Duck Lake), at about noon, at an altitude of over 4200 meters (14,000 feet). It was very beautiful although the clouds had already closed in. It was very still and quiet as we walked around the area a little after eating the lunch Iris had packed. We were a little tired from the ride and the altitude but really enjoyed being there. Diane had to dismount once to lead her horse over a very rocky section but that was a short distance and we had ridden most of the way up. Unfortunately, riding most of the way up didn't carry through on the way down. After leaving the lake (with the garbage in a plastic bag brought by our guide), it started to rain. We ascended a little more and then started to go down. The descent was very rough - along with the rain, the terrain got much tougher and the trail became very narrow with loose rock and large boulders that we needed to climb over or down. This meant that, for safety, we had to dismount and hike, with the guide leading the horses. We asked and he said there had been instances of horses slipping off the trail and falling, with their riders. Since much of the trail was just barely carved from the side of the mountain, we walked without complaining, realizing the problem, at least at first. The problem was that walking down took MUCH longer and was MUCH harder on legs and knees not used to this much hiking. We wound up hiking down over this rough terrain, in the rain, for almost 5 hours! With the exception of perhaps an hour in total, we hiked down the entire mountain trail. Diane and I were both having problems with our legs and my feet, in new hiking boots, were getting very painful. We became prime candidates for falling and breaking a leg or twisting an ankle. Luckily (and we were lucky), we made it down in one piece. Douglas kept saying we were getting closer but I think he said this so we wouldn't get too discouraged, as he saw that we were having a hard time and getting upset. He realized that we were going to have a hard time making it to the next mucuposada before dark so he took a shortcut. Unfortunately, this became even steeper than the rest of the trail but he managed to lead the horses down with us on them and we got down OK (I was holding on 'fore and aft', even though the saddle didn't have a western type horn to grab). It was really unfortunate that we couldn't enjoy this section of the trail since it was supposed to be part of the Camino Real, used by the Spanish when they first settled this part of Venezuela. Our biggest problem, after getting down the mountain, was that this was represented as an easy trip, which it obviously wasn't and we were both pretty angry. Douglas realized this and kept pretty quiet and although we didn't blame him, it made for an unpleasant last couple of hours. The rain kept up most of the afternoon and only made a bad situation worse. By the time we arrived at the next mucuposada, El Nidal, we could hardly walk. The scenery down had been spectacular but we couldn't enjoy it. The woman at El Nidal, Rosalva, was very nice and she saw we had had a bad time on the trail. She later said it was meant for young people. She also realized I was in some pain and asked if she could help. While Douglas brought in the bags (something I normally would have helped with) I managed to untie my boots but couldn't get them off without Diane's help. The bags, of course, were wet but fortunately, the clothes inside weren't too bad, although they didn't dry completely until we got back to Merida. Diane gave Douglas a tip and he started on his way home, with 3 horses in tow in the rain. I imagine he wasn't too happy either, although we had gotten along well and didn't blame him at all for our problems (except for the unshod horse). Anyway, when I looked at my feet, one was a little bloody and on the other the big toe nail had turned black (blood underneath the nail). I figured I would lose the nail at some point. Well, poor Douglas left in the rain and we tried to recuperate. Rosalva, the older woman who had greeting us and was the owner, brought us some tea, peppermint I believe, and it was excellent and just what we needed to recover a little from the rain and cold. She also gave Diane a large basin so I could put my feet in some warm water. Rosa, the daughter, helped with that and they were both very understanding about our situation. Rosa also had a daughter, about 6, and they were the first family to still live in the mucuposada we stayed in. The others had started out that way but found that it was better to use all the rooms for a guest house and find someplace else to live. Since we arrived late, they gave us a nice dinner shortly after we got there and I just collapsed afterward although Diane talked with Rosa a bit. We were both very tired but we still had trouble sleeping, probably because of the altitude and the cold. The cold was offset a little by the blankets and the bottles of hot water they gave us but we still weren't used to the altitude yet. Sleeplessness and strange dreams are two symptoms, and I had them both. Sunday morning we got up and I took a shower and felt a little better. While Diane was showering, I walked (painfully) outside and saw that the place was really quite pretty. Rosalba, the grandmother, had marvelous flowers all around and inside the house and along the road leading to the house. The views surrounding the house were also beautiful and I could see the last part of the trail along the mountain we had come down yesterday. Rosalba and I talked a little (difficult with my level of Spanish) and she asked about my legs and foot. She and her daughter were both very welcoming and nice. I took some pictures although I couldn't go very far afield. We had a simple but flavorful breakfast and waited for the taxi to arrive at 11am. We had made arrangements with Rosa's brother the night before to have a taxi come then. He worked in Mucuchies and said he would make sure someone came. We wanted to go to Merida but would go to Mucuchies first and then get the bus back to Merida from there, unless the taxi ride direct to Merida was cheap enough. The driver came on time but wanted too much to go to Merida so we went to Mucuchies and he helped us find the right bus to continue. The trip went just fine and we arrived back at our posada in Merida by about 1pm. We dropped off the bags and had a quick lunch nearby. Back in the room, we unpacked all the wet clothes (put in some plastic bags Diane had brought with us) and just rested for a few hours. I still couldn't walk too well so we planned to eat dinner nearby also but just to make things interesting, the power went out about 5pm. We read and had a drink in the sitting area, waiting for the power to come on again but we finally went to dinner after the posada staff was nice enough to find out that the restaurant (our good pizza place) had electricity (using a generator). While we ate, the power came on and we just relaxed back in the room. We planned to go to the Andes Tropicales office tomorrow to give Dayana, the operations manager we had spoken to and who had arranged our trip, some feedback on our experience. We still had a positive feeling about the program but felt they should know about our problems and how we felt. I finally slept well, I guess Merida's altitude was low enough for us now. We got up about 8:30, went to breakfast and stopped at the office of the tour guide we had when we went to Mucuchies. Carlos told us he had eventually managed to start the van and got it back to Merida; he was also very apologetic about the problem and said he had spoken to Dayana at Andes Tropicales about refunding the money we paid for his part of the trip. We didn't even have to mention it and were pleased about his business integrity. (I don't think many tour guides would have been so forthright about it.) We also picked up the several bottles of jam we had left with him. He called Dayana for us from his office but she wasn't available until later in the afternoon so we said we would go see her tomorrow. We also spoke to Carlos about a trip to Los Nevados, another small (much smaller than Mucuchies) Andean village to the southwest. Many people go there by mule from the teleferico station, but since that was closed, we would have to take a 4x4 on a high mountain road. The cost for private transportation there and back with a guide/driver, staying at a posada for 1 night, and a mule ride with guide into the mountains was fairly expensive. We asked at another tour company also and it was similarly priced so we decided to get there by 'public' transportation and hire mules and a guide on our own, which turned out to be much cheaper. Of course, we wouldn't be able to stop for pictures along the way but hopefully some of the shots I had gotten over the last few days would be OK (I had continuous problems with the camera). We relaxed back at our posada for a while and then had lunch at a nice restaurant nearby. While Diane stayed in the room, I then went to an internet place to make a CD of the pictures I had taken. Looking at the CD, it seemed that I had lost some shots but there were still lots that were OK. Unfortunately, the only one I got of a fully flowering frailejon plant and some really good ones of mountain views were gone. I was going to use the internet at the same place but it was packed with kids playing games over the internet so I went someplace else. Once I got back to the room, we talked about leaving for Los Nevados on Wednesday and coming back on Friday. We had dinner at a (book) recommended Mexican restaurant but weren't too impressed. It was the Venezuelan version of Mexican food. Tuesday, we got up late (still recuperating I guess), went to breakfast at our usual place and went to the Andes Tropicales office. We met with Dayana and her boss Christine, a French woman who spoke English well and who seemed very interested in our experience and what we had to say. Basically, we explained that we thought the program was excellent but they needed to improve the information provided to English speakers. We also told them about the various problems with the horses (mine on the first excursion and Diane's on the second) as well as the somewhat misrepresented 'easiness' of the trip, although Dayana did mention that the second day was tougher than the first. They also provided a full refund of the ride we were took with Carlos (the tour operator) who had his van break down. During our talk, we asked about Los Nevados and it turned out that they were just starting a project there. They knew a farming family there but the farmhouse wasn't setup yet as a mucuposada and it didn't have hot water but they said the owners would heat some water for us on the stove to wash up. It sounded interesting and they said they would find out about it - perhaps we might stay in the farmhouse one night and in one of the 'regular' posadas for another. We emphasized we didn't want much walking (since we still felt the effects of hiking down the mountain) and they said a 4 hour mule trip was possible, just around the area. We decided we would think about it and call back at 5pm to see what travel and lodging arrangements they could make. We took the bus back into town and went straight to the room since it started to rain. After it let up we went out again and I noticed that part of the soles on my sneakers were falling off. One of the stores we stopped in suggested a shoemaker nearby so we went there and, although busy, he fixed them right away. Of course, we had to wait for the glue to dry. We walked a little more, relaxed in the room, and then walked some distance to another restaurant we heard was good. It was OK and had a nice view but the food was just fair. They did give us 30 minutes free on the internet after dinner though. |