Decided to test my body the last 2 days, had some fun along the way, but El Misti would have to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.
El Misti is the second largest volcano in the country, but is said to be the hardest to climb. El Misti stands at 5822m, a tiny bit bigger than Australia's highest, Mt Kosciuszko at 2,228m.
I started off getting picked up at 8am from my hostel in Arequipa, there was only one other person, a French girl who was nice enough.
We needed to carry all our own gear for the hike. That meant carrying a tent, ground mat, sleeping bag, 5 litres of water and any other clothes that were needed. I would say that I was carrying at least 15kgs, which is a huge difference than the 6kgs I was carrying on the Inca trail.
The starting point of the trek is 3,300m not too far from Arequipa. The first day wasn't too hard, the base camp is at 4,500m, it was hard going lugging 15kg up shifting sand and rocks, but I didn't feel any effects of the altitude. We got to be the base camp at 3pm, I was pretty hungry but tea wasn't ready until 5pm, so I spent 2 hours talking to the French girl and dreaming of big fat chickens. Unfortunately for me, the food wasn't on the same level as the Inca Trail...tea was soup with pasta, then mains was 2 minute noodles. As you can imagine, after 6 hours for trekking through the sun with a big backpack, this wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger...but what could I do..there wasn't a 7/11 in sight.
Anyway, after dinner with nothing to do...was in bed by 6.30pm. I would of preferred staying up, but everyone was too buggered from the first day. We needed to wake up at 2.30am for day 2 anyway, so maybe this was a good thing. I got to see an amazing sun-set which was cool, so least that was something.
The breakfast at 2.30am was even worse than the dinner, it consisted of stale white bread, jam and cheese...hardly the food you need when your about to make your body really suffer.
Anyway after the hardy breakfast, we set off at 3am. There aren't too many advantages getting up at this hour, but I got to see stars for the first time in awhile...and lights of Arequipa shone brightly amongst the darkness.
The backpack was considerable lighter for this, we could leave most things behind at the base camp, and pick it up on the way out..but this didn't make it any easier. I could really feel the altitude effect me..the 6 hours to reach the top of the volcano was so bloody hard. Basically it one step, two step..over and over again..the lack of light, small rocks and the 40-50 percentage gradient didn't help matters either. Anyway, when we finally made the top, it was all worth while. Amazing views of Arequipa and other volcanoes in the area...got to see inside my first volcano.
Going down was a lot of fun as well, instead of walking down, we ran down the volcanic sand, so you do it loads quicker, not to mention the fun of bounding down the mountain.
Great to do it, but I was pretty starved by the end, we got back to Arequipa at 2pm, my last meal was the stale bread at 2.30am.
El Misti is the second largest volcano in the country, but is said to be the hardest to climb. El Misti stands at 5822m, a tiny bit bigger than Australia's highest, Mt Kosciuszko at 2,228m.
I started off getting picked up at 8am from my hostel in Arequipa, there was only one other person, a French girl who was nice enough.
We needed to carry all our own gear for the hike. That meant carrying a tent, ground mat, sleeping bag, 5 litres of water and any other clothes that were needed. I would say that I was carrying at least 15kgs, which is a huge difference than the 6kgs I was carrying on the Inca trail.
The starting point of the trek is 3,300m not too far from Arequipa. The first day wasn't too hard, the base camp is at 4,500m, it was hard going lugging 15kg up shifting sand and rocks, but I didn't feel any effects of the altitude. We got to be the base camp at 3pm, I was pretty hungry but tea wasn't ready until 5pm, so I spent 2 hours talking to the French girl and dreaming of big fat chickens. Unfortunately for me, the food wasn't on the same level as the Inca Trail...tea was soup with pasta, then mains was 2 minute noodles. As you can imagine, after 6 hours for trekking through the sun with a big backpack, this wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger...but what could I do..there wasn't a 7/11 in sight.
Anyway, after dinner with nothing to do...was in bed by 6.30pm. I would of preferred staying up, but everyone was too buggered from the first day. We needed to wake up at 2.30am for day 2 anyway, so maybe this was a good thing. I got to see an amazing sun-set which was cool, so least that was something.
The breakfast at 2.30am was even worse than the dinner, it consisted of stale white bread, jam and cheese...hardly the food you need when your about to make your body really suffer.
Anyway after the hardy breakfast, we set off at 3am. There aren't too many advantages getting up at this hour, but I got to see stars for the first time in awhile...and lights of Arequipa shone brightly amongst the darkness.
The backpack was considerable lighter for this, we could leave most things behind at the base camp, and pick it up on the way out..but this didn't make it any easier. I could really feel the altitude effect me..the 6 hours to reach the top of the volcano was so bloody hard. Basically it one step, two step..over and over again..the lack of light, small rocks and the 40-50 percentage gradient didn't help matters either. Anyway, when we finally made the top, it was all worth while. Amazing views of Arequipa and other volcanoes in the area...got to see inside my first volcano.
Going down was a lot of fun as well, instead of walking down, we ran down the volcanic sand, so you do it loads quicker, not to mention the fun of bounding down the mountain.
Great to do it, but I was pretty starved by the end, we got back to Arequipa at 2pm, my last meal was the stale bread at 2.30am.
2 comments:
Hi,
I'm from Minnesota, and have been enjoying reading about your travels. How are you able to vacation for so long? I'm so envious!! I'm looking forward to reading more.
Hello,
Cheers for that, glad that my story is getting out there. I just put travel before work, not the best for career progression!
Hopefully some more good stories from Bolivia for ya.
Cheers
Dave
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