Peñaliri

At least I am sleeping well given the early mornings. The breakfast buffet was the same today, and I ate the same thing as yesterday, before making my way to the meeting point by 7:20am for my scheduled 7:30am departure for Peñaliri, a full day hike spanning 9.9 miles with a max altitude of 13,160’. I filled all three of my water bottles and loaded up on snacks. Since today is a full day excursion the lodge provided options for lunch to take with, I chose the “canister” of a quinoa tuna mixture. Adrian is my guide again today and Lynn is the only other guest joining me for the hike.

Before I gave Adrian my attention, however, I went to the front desk and told them about the feather snafu in my room, reminding them that this was a medical issue and not ok to f*#% around with.

Adrian took us to the large wall map to explain the route we’d drive and the hike before confirming we had proper water and layers with us. He was taking one trekking pole for himself so I took one as well. As we were leaving, guests were starting to congregate for their 7:45am departures. It’s so smart how, in both the mornings and afternoons, they stagger departures by 15 minute increments to keep everything flowing smoothly.

Adrian introduced us to our driver, Ricardo, and it was a treat that we’d be in a Forerunner today instead of a van. Ricardo drove us about 90 minutes to the town of Machuca, stopping along the way so we could see more flamingoes. Gearing up to begin the hike I was frustrated to find that I was missing the piece to connect my GoPro to the backpack strap mount. It must have fallen out in my room as I was packing my gear for the day, so annoying.

Peñaliri is a stunning hike from the onset, beginning at the edge of Machuca and meandering along a dreamy wetland. It is also much warmer than the -2C / 37F that the guides had warned me would be the starting temperature. Within 15 minutes I asked Adrian to take a quick picture of me in my jacket I love so much since I was ready to take it off and layer down already.

After rounding the wetlands, we found ourselves at the top of a valley, taking us down steep slippery slopes till we reached the valley floor. Bushy plants of cruel thorny branches lined the trail and my war with them began early in the day. While frustrating at times, the canyon was stunningly beautiful and the sound of the babbling river that runs through the entire valley provided a calming background serenade. Adrian kept having to evaluate different routes to see where we could safely cross; in all, we crossed the river 11 times today.

In Machuca, they had warned us that there is a puma with a baby that has been spotted in the valley lately, she likes to hide in the tall reeds, the tall reeds we would have to forge our way through. Despite my “heeeeeeree kitty kitty kitty” calls we never saw her or her baby; just evidence of her domain with paw prints in the dirt and guanaco or vicuña bones along the trail. Adrian was admittedly nervous about the possibility of crossing her path while Lynn and I joked with him that we appreciated his service in sacrificing himself to save us should the need be.

The guides had been worried about Lynn’s ability to do this hike but she did just fine. We moved slowly but that was fine with me. It was hot, we were at altitude, and we are there to connect with nature, not to rush through it. Adrain is an excellent guide and was very good at helping us climb up and down steeper slopes and scrambles; showing us where and how to step, offering his hand, and never making us feel hurried. He was also good at stopping to remind us to drink water and have a snack. Some dark chocolate or dried mango is like miracle hiking crack when you’re feeling tired.

A little more than halfway through the hike we came to the abandoned village of Peñaliri, the village for which the river and hike is named after. The villagers had relocated just a couple km away to an area that is easier to access but still maintain the centuries old properties for the sake of their heritage. Someone, either a villager or another hiker, had even placed a recently deceased vicuña spine on the ledge of the old oven.

I was so hot and getting a little headachy. Adrian set up a beautiful picnic for us on a table on the patio of one of the abandoned structures and pulled out a thermos of soup to go with our meal. We had great conversation about the lodge, his plans, all of our travels. Adrian is a vegetarian and whenever he talks about an animal being slaughtered for food he uses the word, “murder.” I’m not sure if he means it to be dramatic or if its a matter of translation but it cracks me up.

By the time we finished eating I was really not feeling well; my head was pounding and I felt a little weak. Adrian offered me some coca leaves to chew, a homeopathic remedy for altitude sickness. Holy bitter disgustingness!!! I immediately spat them out. Then I got a little nauseous. I have no idea if my symptoms were from the heat, altitude, food, or coca leaves but I can tell you that I will not be messing with the coca leaves again. I excused myself around the corner to use the “Inca toilet” and change into shorts. Well, my excitement over the SheWee use yesterday was short-lived. I ended up doing about the last four miles of this hike commando….

As much as I was enjoying the company and conversation on the hike, after lunch I was feeling crappy and I would have given anything for some silence. I didn’t want to be rude so I tried to just hike ahead a tad bit and see if I could walk off feeling yucky, thinking it may have also been brought on by sitting for lunch in tucked into the patio that had no airflow.

Rounding a corner, we came to a majestic intersection of the Domeyko, Salt, and Andes mountain ranges. It took my breath away to see the three layers of mountain ranges converging together, no picture can do it justice. It also distracted me from feeling yucky.

At this point it was time for a bit of an uphill climb back out of the valley before the road leveled off again. After some more water and another piece of mango I was finally feeling more stable and within a few more minutes all my ailments had subsided. We hiked along talking about family and challenges and the importance of pushing beyond comfort zones. The three of us sharing in conversation that was deep, personal, and healing. We were the only people on the trail that day and it felt like our own little temporary piece of the universe.

Towards the end of the hike we were out of the valley and back near a road; there was a point where our driver could have picked us up a mile or two early but both Lynn and I insisted we were fine and would rather continue our hike. Adrian did have him meet us so we could at least refill our water before we continued on, Ricardo following at a distance behind us. A couple donkeys were on the side of the road and when I inquired if the donkeys I had seen so far were domesticated or wild Adrian explained that they were a bit of both. Since we are so close to the Bolivian border, drug smugglers load the donkeys with packs full of cocaine and then set them free near the Chile/Bolivia border, knowing enough about their behavior to know where they will go to find food. The smugglers then cross the border legitimately, round up the donkeys, take the drugs, and leave them free to make new donkey lives for themselves in Chile.

At the conclusion of our hike we were greeted with the usual post-hike picnic that I’m now realizing accompanies every excursion. And rarely varies in presentation.

We drove through a small rural town and stopped to admire the pride that the rural townspeople had put into creating a grand entrance to their little corner of the universe, and to use the Inca toilet. I felt intrusive passing through their village and was relieved to learn that only Explora has access to the Peñaliri trail so not much traffic passes through.

Further down, a pack of llamas were close to the road. Ricardo pulled over so we could swoon over them. The llamas were decorated with bright ribbons and bows, this is how the llama owners mark their llamas since they are left to free range. I decided I wanted to get out and see how close they’d let me get. Adrian got out beside me and we walked slowly and quietly as to not scare them. I started to make little kissy noises to get their attention so they’d look at my camera and they started to walk towards me! The more I called to them the more came to me, getting closer and closer. Adrian warned me that when they get this curious not to get scared as they might come up and try to rub their necks on me or smell me. I’m not sure who was more curious about who – me curious about them or them curious about me! This was it, I was going to get to hug a llama! My llama hugging dream was sadly shattered; feeling like she was missing out, Lynn got out of the car, quickly moving and loudly exclaiming that she wanted to see them too since they were getting close. Well, duh, this loud and quick distraction scared them and they all turned away. I was seething.

Back at the lodge around 6pm, I sat down with Adrian to review the rest of my week. I have figured out that when you are doing a schedule like mine with increases in altitude and hiking technicality each day your guide silently evaluates you at the end of each exploration to make sure that you are physically capable enough of continuing on with the explorations you have planned. I have another full day hike, though much shorter, planned for tomorrow and I am good for it so he reviewed the hike with me and had me choose my lunch. I was devastated to hear though that I wouldn’t actually be on a volcano. Apparently Volcan Blanco is a local nickname for an expansive rock covered with white sediment and no actual Volcan is involved. Poor Lynn though, it’s easy to lose track of time, and she was off an entire day. She sat down to review her next day only to find out that she’s actually leaving in the morning and this is her last night, not tomorrow night, oops! Lynn has been great company but she is a very intense, type A personality so I’m not necessarily sad to see her leaving though she is a wonderland lady.

With a couple hours before dinner I took a bath in the jetted jacuzzi tub in my room and then grabbed my iPad and headed to the lounge area to relax and write for a bit before dinner service begins.

Lynn joined me for dinner again and conversation was deep and soulful, balancing the meh food.

As I got settled into bed, I started to feel funny and itchy. I had reminded them about my feather allergy this morning and that they had messed up. When I got back this afternoon there had been a note on my bed confirming it had been de-feathered. But son of a bitch, I grabbed the corner of the comforter and could immediately tell, they had replaced the feather comforter with another f*$&ing feather comforter. I was ready to lose my shit. I tore it off the bed, rinsed off in the shower, threw the comforter outside my room and marched to the front desk. The 9:30pm stargazing group got to witness my sheer anger and perfect timing as Manager Maureen was talking with the front desk staff. I looked at her squarely and asked if this was some type of bullshit game and they were trying to kill me by purposefully triggering my allergies after I had already had a mild reaction and asked them to fix the bedding twice now. I was LIVID, I still am.

Tomorrow’s hike is even higher altitude than today so I decided to start the diamox tonight, it will be interesting to see what side effects I have and how I feel.

F*#%ing feathers