I could travel forever - part 2

(Sunday-Friday, 6-12 June 2009)

Google map:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=pt-PT&geocode=&q=el+cocuy+colombia&sll=6.948239,-75.311279&sspn=5.341858,11.206055&ie=UTF8&ll=6.399919,-72.274933&spn=0.334359,0.700378&t=h&z=11

Cocuy National Park. A 6-day hard hike in high mountain, between 4,000 and 5,000 meters, the all time. My first one.

It was an opportunity to learn from experience. Aspirins are handy, for instance. As are flip-flops, despite the cold, so that you can wear something dry to walk at the end of day. You should wear neither jeans nor cotton fabrics, as those suck your heat out when wet – synthetics are much better for that purpose. A proper rafting-like dry-bag is worth gold, instead of less reliable sealable plastic bags. Just to mention a few…

It was also an opportunity to stretch my comfort zone...

At the beginning it was the fear of getting lost at some point in the trek. But then you start getting confident about it – even if on occasions there are no rock signs to follow, the map, your instinct and your more experienced hiking companion (Micha, my partner on the trek, had a few previous high-altitude mountaineering experiences under his belt) do the job.

But then you get terrible weather – light but steady rain for hours, followed by more intense horizontal rain and snow, brought by freezing wind close to a high-mountain passage – that sucks the heat out of your body through your wet clothes, leaves you shaking, and forces you to camp sooner than planned.

Then the weather gets clearer, you no longer think of going back to the starting point and start enjoying the walk again. But then the effects of altitude start kicking in, you feel tired, you feel you’re not getting as much oxygen in your muscles as you’d like to, the high-mountain passages seem to become steeper and steeper, and you cannot believe you’ve only made less than one third of them.

Then you get back to your old self, as your body gradually gets used to the altitude, and your blood runs thinner, much with the help of the aspirins. But then the weather gets worse again and you’re afraid of freezing again too. You’re afraid of not getting the direction right amidst the fog. You’re afraid that the knee you hurt the day before starts slowing you down.

But then the rain just comes and goes, and you’re not as wet as you feared. Your knee hangs in there, you’re walking faster than ever before and you get yourself out of the mountain range after 5 long days of hard walking, and see the first sign of human presence – a small farm in the valley at far.

You feel deep tiredness, relief and happiness that you conquered your fears and overcame everything with no incidents, but also some sadness that all that beauty is behind you.

After all, it was also an opportunity for some of the landscapes of my life…

Here it is the map of the itinerary - if you can zoom in you may actually see something! Try to open the image in a new window by right-clicking on it, it will help... The spot where we spent each night is marked with an "N"

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=== DAY 1 ===

Micha in a "milk truck". That's the only means of transportation that gets you to the beginning of the high-altitude mountain range. Several milk trucks navigate the hills and valleys between 2,500 and 3,500 meters to collect the milk from several widespread farms. We left Cocuy at 6.30am and arrived at the drop off point (Hacienda Rita Cuba) only around 10.30am. A long, bumpy and smelly ride. Have you ever smelled 1 cubic meter of fresh-from-the-cow milk?

We must have stopped over 50 times, often to get as little as 5 litres at a time. A lot of potential for optimisation here, consultant!

A nice and easy walk uphill to start with...

Photo taken an hour or so before we were too cold to keep walking and were forced to camp before planned (we had liked to have slept in Laguna Grande de los Verdes - you can check it in the map)

=== DAY 2 ===

The following day woke up cloudy but fairly dry, so we decided to give it a try and keep walking ahead, instead of back to the starting point...

The high-mountain passages were starting to get punishing here...

Excitement at the first proper sight of a glacier. OK, I don't seem that excited, but, believe me, I was

Well deserved hot drink at dusk, when we finally arrived at the camping site for the second night. The weather was getting completely clear and we were amazed at the landscape around us - it got even better the next morning...

=== DAY 3 ===

Waking up early in the morning at Laguna El Avellanal. The Valle de los Cojines is behind it, and before the high-mountain passage you see at far. The landscape of my life...

The same high-mountain passage of the previous photo, now seen from a bit closer

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Waterfall at the Valle de los Cojines: impressive height and an amazing valley at far

Beautiful steep cliffs, just to the left of the valley

The same waterfall, seen from the water level. Feels like jumping, doesn't it?

Valle de los Cojines is a pretty swamped place. You need to jump from dry spot to dry spot for over an hour. And it’s good to pick the green formations, as the darker ones are already dead and don’t sustain your weight anymore. From the look of my boots, you can tell it’s not an easy task…

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=== DAY 4 ===

Back to cloudy weather... This large vegetation (cactuses?) was the only tree-like formation we could find at that altitude...

One of the rare glimpses of (almost) clear sky in Laguna de la Plaza, the camping spot for the fourth night. We kept most of the glacier to our right during the journey...

Now with me in the picture!

Laguna de la Plaza - hum... Scotland?

My sleeping gear - here, just missing two pairs of socks, a scarf and a bonnet... Very sexy, isn't it?

=== Day 5 ===

The one before last high-mountain passage (passage "A" in the map). Too windy, rainy, cloudy and cold to appreciate it, really...

Lunch already outside the high-mountain range and below the level of the clouds, in the valley of the river Laguinillas and of its five lagoons

Sunset in the last high-mountain passage (passage "J" in the map, close to "Vivero del PNN")

Here you can see "El Púlpito del Diablo", "El Diamante" and "Pan de Azúcar" at far. Funny enough, we had better views of the peaks around Laguna de la Plaza from the last camping spot than when we crossed it... Another "cherry on top of the cake" this last night was the appearance of a fox at the entrance of our tent - not more than one meter away. The fox stole my spoon (it still had some pasta from dinner) and came back twice. A special moment that definitely helped remind you that you were no longer at high altitude...

=== Day 6 ===

Back in the milk truck, and another long ride, from 8am to 11.30am, when we finally got to Guican, a small village still 45 minutes away from Cocuy. A heavenly lunch, a beer and a final bus ride were separating us from "home"

Waiting in Guican. Tired and tanned from the equatorial sun at 5,000m . Man, what a relief and deep feeling of happiness I was experiencing here...