Ok, so there was the first trek in there as well, but the new shorts are exciting to me! It was a very accurate url choice. I got a wee bit burnt on the trek (and sunburnt lips really hurt!), but otherwise everything went reasonably well. More later.
I moved in with Randall and a few other Condor Trekkers people on Thursday, then we got pleasantly pissed before Zero (one of the guys in the house) got a bit too drunk. I offered to take him home because my alcohol tolerance was surprisingly good considering I was sleep-deprived and unacclimatised, and unfortunately he was convinced he lived somewhere completely different. I overruled him despite not knowing exactly where the house was myself (Day 1, it's acceptable!) and more by luck than anything else we made it back.
The next morning there was a marching band, loud traffic, a hundred rings on the doorbell and all the other things you just don't want when you're jetlagged and trying to get into the right time zone. The doorbell isn't for us, but for some reason it's right against our flat and the Bolivians who live next door can't hear it. A hundred rings is probably not even an exaggeration, everyone who comes rings about 3 times every 30s until it's answered.
The other part of Day 1 was getting a Bolivian sim card when I didn't know the Spanish for anything involved with a mobile phone (or basic sentences). Eventually it was done, and someone helped activate it, but he did it in his own name and now the credit disappears on its own. A waste of 20B$, and I'll get myself a new one in case he actually is siphoning off my credit.
Day 2 was fairly chilled, Patrick joined us as a new volunteer and we did the prep for a trek the next day (buying lots of vegetarian food, plenty of chopping to make a sauce etc).
Day 3 was the start of my first trek! Sucre's at about 2800m, and the trek goes about 1000m higher. I was a bit nervous because of the altitude and I'd just realised I was the most unfit I've been in years (bloody finals), but it was still fun! We had three girls along, as well as Patrick, a Bolivian guide called Henry and another Bolivian called Hugo, who was just coming because Randall had promised him he could be a guide when he's qualified (but there are still 5 years of high school to go first).
The trek was a 2 day one, going to the Maragua crater along part of the Inca trail (link below, check out www.condortrekkers.org for a full description of the trek). Beautiful scenery (unsurprisingly) but a lot of busing to get there - there was a micro then a big flatbed truck, then we had to wait at some road works until the workers buggered off for their lunch (which is one thing you can guarantee Bolivians will be on time for!), then a dust shower (excellent sun block!) because we were following traffic. The walking started off with loads of downhill, then lunch, then loads more downhill, before a little swim/paddle (depending on personal taste) in the river. It got dark just before we started climbing into the crater, but with a full Moon there was really no need for torches, so about half of us didn't bother with them.
When we arrived I was pretty knackered, the altitude had really taken it out of me and everyone else was at least acclimatised to Sucre. I could barely eat my dinner, but then I had some coca tea just as the cheese and crackers came out so I didn't starve. Helen decided we should play a dice game with the rum she'd brought after that, but oddly enough no-one felt like drinking, so because I won I had half a bottle of rum to take down the mountain the next day.
The way down wasn't exactly simple. There was a fair bit of climbing to get out of the crater (which is probably a bit too big to actually feel like a crater when you're in it - try it out on Google Earth) and we had to rush all the way because there's only one bus a day out to Sucre. Henry had to run on ahead to make it wait for us (it was earlier than expected), leaving me as the most qualified guide to try to make sure we ended up on the right path down. The bus was absolutely packed, so in the end I had to stand up and hang on for dear life round two of the girls. It was better than having old women mocking me in Quechua!
The afternoon and evening were relatively relaxed, with a game of The Settlers of Catan to accompany the opening of the beautiful bottle of Ledaig I'd brought in the Stilts pipe bomb case. We're playing again tonight while I write this, and I'm hoping my beginner's luck (it probably wasn't just from calculating odds) doesn't run out!
Today has actually been alcohol free (so far - probably soon to change now we've realised this), but it has been fairly productive. Patrick taught me to make guacamole, we did loads of post-trek stuff, I got my visa extended thanks to a note from Zero and some fabby Spanish (which improved a bit on the trek, especially the understanding), and the highlight of the day is the new shorts! Some people will remember the scabby shorts that were made from jeans with great pockets that got chucked out on Tuesday because of the huge holes in the bum. I've decided to make new ones out of some trousers I found in the market with at least 12 pockets in them (with the help of my trusty Swiss army knife), and they fit perfectly! That might change if I lose weight out here though.
Anyway, while I could very easily talk about the shorts all day, I won't bore everyone. Happy holidays!
P.S. Link for the trek - crater is obvious at left hand side, Sucre's at the right. Henry reckoned there was about 43km of walking involved, I doubt it was more than 30.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=sucre,+bolivia&sll=-3.337954,-65.039062&sspn=73.946681,158.027344&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sucre,+Oropeza,+Chuquisaca,+Bolivia&ll=-19.055628,-65.330544&spn=0.147327,0.308647&t=h&z=12
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