Almost straight after we finished three weeks of school we headed out on a 4 day trek to the Maragua Crater, organised by Condor Tours. Sucre isn´t really known for its trekking, especially compared to the opportunities in the Andes and the Amazon, however we were very happy that we did it. It was like walking through a geography textbook, seeing the rock formations, different types of minerals, gouged out river valleys and fantastic scenery in general. It wasn´t very easy as we were walking around 11,000ft for most of it carrying our packs full of food and gear for our group. Gasping and resting were normal daily events. At least we had lots of time to snooze at lunch. We were 6 in total. Us two, plus two more paying participants including a Swiss granny who we think turned out to be part mountain goat as she jumped from boulder to boulder and at one point said a bike ride from Switzerland to the Mediterranean sea ¨wasn´t that far¨ (at first we were glad to see her, thinking that we might not be the ones to slow the group down. Sadly, we were mistaken). The other member of our group was Tom from England, a guy who took pride in killing his body and pushed as hard as he could. Those two travelled with our Bolivian guide (David), who kept their pace and better despite carrying about 100lbs of stuff. With us was a Canadian volunteer (Torrence) who was very happy to meander, take pictures and talk about home as he hadn´t been there in about 8 months: "most Canadian travelers, I´ve discovered, don´t vote for Harper". / Très rapidement après avoir fini nos cours d'espagnol à Sucre, nous nous sommes embarqués dans un trek de 4 jours dans la région. Nous allions enfin pouvoir sortir de la ville et découvrir le peuple bolivien. Sucre n'est pas reconnu pour ses randonnées, surtout par rapport aux opportunités qu'offrent les Andes et l'Amazonie,mais nous avons été très heureux de faire ce voyage. Ça n'a pas été facile de marcher environ 8h par jour à une altitude moyenne de 3500 m avec beaucoup de pauses pour reprendre notre souffle.
Nous étions six en tout. Nous et 2 autres deux participants, dont une mamie suisse qui s'est avérée être la chèvre de montagne du groupe (au début, nous étions contents de la voir, pensant qu'il y aurait plus lent que nous . Quelle erreur!). L'autre membre de notre groupe était Tom d'Angleterre. Ces deux voyageaient avec notre guide bolivien (David),qui ont conservé leur rythme et en transportant environ 100lbs de trucs sur son dos. Le bénévole canadien (Torrence) était très heureux de devoir nous suivre et prendre des photos et parler de la maison lui qui était en voyage depuis 8 mois. "la plupart des voyageurs canadiens, j'ai découvert, n'ont pas voter pour Harper ».
Bref, quelle belle expérience! Je suis très fière de moi et de Mike. Celui-ci vous donne encore une fois plus de détails en anglais. Désolé les francos, je paraisse! (Puis je trouve que Mike a TELLEMENT une belle plume!)
The first day of the trek had us up at 4:00am to catch a two hour bus up a mountain ridge to the start of the trek. We wound our way from there down into a steep sided river valley before settling in for the night at a basic ´hospedeja´. The colours and definition just jumped out at you. While the going was tough the scenery more than made up for it.
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| Before the decent on the first day./C'est le premier jour! |
Also on the first day we saw two locations where ancient aboriginal drawings had been made, some thought to be over 2000 years old.
On the second day we travelled along a river valley for most of the morning which was shouldered by copper and iron rich mountains. Eventually we began a climb into the Maragua Crater itself, but not before having lunch beside a waterfall that we also showered in. The crater is a result of a combination of two causes: two mountain ranges, both part of the bigger foothills of the Andes, pushing on each other and, erosion - it used to all be part of a sea and shells can still be found in it. The crater is enormous, some 2km from side to side and houses two villages. Reaching the village of Irupampa near sunset we were treated to a wonderful sky...and a warm half a beer. We´d found out that a previous group had come along with bottles of wine and whiskey, only to have the guides carry more of their gear. Aussies eh, go figure. We weren´t similarly weighted down and appreciated the beer.
| Our second night, in the Maragua Crater itself. /2e nuit dans le cratère de Managua. |
It was also very interesting to see that the local people, who all speak Quechua as a first language and spanish next, were having a meeting in our hospedaje to discuss whether or not to support the development of a cement making plant near their village in the crater. The debate centered around very similar lines to those in Canada - jobs and money vs. loss of cultuer, environment and increased social pressures. We´ll be very interested to see if the plant project goes ahead and the eventual paved road comes through - currently the only access is via a very poor dirt road.
On day three we had to climb out of the crater and I´m sure there are remains of dead tourists on its sides because it was f**king hard. Straight up, under blazing sun at 11,000ft is not a great way to wake up in the morning. And it also turned out to be the longest day at just under 20km of walking. Poor Elise had serious blisters but never complained once. Even Granny was impressed. Shortly after making it out of the crater we stopped at a set of dinosaur prints that were discovered after an earthquake removed the topsoil about 20 years ago. Very impressive to see how big these animals must have been, but also pretty sad to see that eventually these prints will dissappear or be destroyed because of lack of conservation.
We stopped for lunch at a school seemingly in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no road access. The kids come from the surrounding countryside and the parents take turns making food for lunch. There were about 60 kids there and the parents receive a subsidy from the government if their children have decent attendance. The subsidy is roughly 500 Bolivianos a year, or about $80 Canadian dollars, and is hugely important for these poor farmers. This doesn´t mean the kids are nice though. We played soccer with them and were routinely pelted with the ball. Elise was mobbed when taking video of us playing. Final score: children 6, tourists 1. Mike scored our lone goal though, to the englishman´s embarrassment.
That night we camped in tents next to a river so contaminated by the run-off from the Potosi region´s mines that local people won´t let their animals drink from it. Water is a huge problem in Bolivia, even though it shouldn´t be. Mis management and corruption are the biggest culprits - why be environmentally responsible when you can just pay off the clerk for a permit? We were promised a hot springs at the end of the day, which turned out to be a SCORCHING springs, and not very nice full of green algae. That night we slept pretty well on the river side´s soft sand!
The fourth day we didn´t trek at all but instead took a cattle truck for 6 hours back to Sucre, packed with locals that we picked up and dropped off along the way. While not always the safest feeling ride ¨how does it feel knowing you´re one break cable snapping from certain death?¨ (thanks for that Tom) it was a gorgeous day and a great way to see how absolutely poor this country really is. We passed villages that didn´t have electricity, where the houses were made of brown mud bricks and where little ladies carried enormous bags full of onions or whatever else they were selling to Sucre. After a very bumpy ride we were happy to be back in Sucre at Casa Verde, showered and ready for a meal with our fellow trekkers.
All in all it was a fantastic experience. Condor Trekkers try and give back to the local villages through efforts like giving tooth brushes to kids and promoting small scale tourism. It felt good to have seen the countryside, be in a little better shape and know that our dollars might help this pretty poor part of the world out.
On the truck going back to Sucre./Voyage de retour à Sucre.
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