We checked out of the hotel about 6:50 and were picked up by our guide Antoinette and our driver in a luxury minibus for our transfer to Chivay ( pronounced Chev-i ). The transfer was much more fun then we expected. Antoinette was an engaging and knowledgable guide explaining much about the countryside and people but also the wildlife. The terrain we passed through was amazing and we had chances to see Vicuna which are the third of the four South American camelids. They are not domesticated thus unlike the llamas and alpachas and are much smaller and faster animals. Once endangered with a population of about 5000 there are now believed to be around 170,000 of them in the National Reserve which we drove through. Although wild the local people are allowed once every 2 years to catch and shear them for their incredibly fine wool. She also stopped to show us wild raddits which are very similar to ours but with long tails! And the Yareta plant, incredibly slow growing, and only grows at altituteds of over 3200 metres. We also saw flamingoes and Great Coots.
The endangered vicuna
The Andean Wild Rabbit with its long tail!
Yareta plant
On the drive we saw some amazing peaks including 3 active volcanoes. Sabancaya is close to our hotel location and is currently smoking away.
As we climbed towards our eventual peak height of the trip I began to suffer from altitude sickness as a severe headache developed. A stop for Mata Inka, a local tea of coca leaves, mint, chachacoma, an aromatic herb and tola, a local white bush didn't help. It was good though!
I also took some Ibuprofen but by the time we got to 4872m our peak altitude I wasn’t great. For some reason it didn't affect Howard and He even had a little jog just to see how the reduced oxygen felt (which actually was OK). I hate to think how we would have felt if we had come straight to this altitude on arrival without the 6 days of acclimatisation in Urubamba, Aguas Calientes and Puno.
From the high point we rapidly descended to Chivay for lunch, altitude here was 3350m and I was soon feeling better. The lunch was a buffet but of much higher quality than the previous two buffets we have had. Antoinette joined us and explained each of the dishes which was nice. After lunch we had a quick tour of Chivay centre and Antoinette found a shop which would change dollars for soles and, more importantly, would change a couple of our $100 dollar notes into smaller denominations. She also took us around the market, and explained much of what we saw there - the dried potates which will keep for 2 years (they leave them to dry at altitutde) and the local dress, which is very ornate. Everywhere we have been the people wear their traditional dress daily. It is nit for the tourists - they even do manual work in their dress.
A special occassion hat costing about 100 sol..
..sewn on this treadle sewing machine
We were then delivered to our hotel, the Aranwa, and said farewell to Antoinette. Our guiding in Chivay will now be done by Victor who was the guide for Scott and Carol on their transfer and who didn't seem to be as good as Antoinette. We were delivered to the hill above the hotel as our minibus wouls simply not be able to get down the road. It was washed out in heavy rains this year and is still under repair. A vehicle came up from the hotel to collect us.
Our hotel down by the river
We checked in and were shown to our room which is another huge room and bed (American influnce?) After a quick chill we walked out to explore the hotel grounds (not enormous) and then sat in the sun with a coffee and then repaired to the bar for a drink. We were joined by Scott and Carol, who are staying in the same hotel as us for once, and had a good chat. We went back to the room, had a sandwich, and were very early to bed.
