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The End of the Beginning!
After a blissful couple of days in Loja in which Nick's gut was finally fixed by a highly proficient medical service, and both the boys and the horses ate far too well for their own good, we left Loja. Once again we were unwittingly following the Panamerican highway. We travelled west to Catamayo over a high pass and down a winding road which, from above, often looked like one of those mazes in kids' puzzle books. Arriving in Catamayo we became painfully aware that 1. it was extremely dry, and 2. there was nothing that even ressembled good grazing. Not for the first time on the trek an angel appeared. 'Oswaldo' pulled up in a blue pickup truck and directed us towards the road to Cariamanga... he disappeared and we thought ourselves no better off than before - the sun coming down, and nowhere remotely horse-friendly available. It turned out that something had been lost in translation - there was Oswaldo 15 minutes further down the road waiting for us. He had found a friend who would put up the horses in his yard and then drove Nick straight into town to buy 'taraija' - maize stalks - which the horses loved. A miraculously peaceful night interrupted only by a couple of rather perturbing sugarcane fires (50ft flames are nerve-racking when you're in a (highly flammable) tent).
From Catamayo we rode south, the horses having refueled with a fresh pile of taraijas courtesy of Oswaldo that morning. It was 45km to Gonzanama the next town, in which time we left the desertic valley of Catamayo and gradually ascended into lush green valleys above Gonzanama. Unable to find grazing in the campo we were fairly concerned as we reached the town itself - by now all walking to spare the horses. Thankfully we found 'Francel' who said he had a field with plenty of grass. After previous experiences we were deeply sceptical but had little choice but to follow his 10 year old son for another km or so to an excellent bit of pasture above Gonzanama. Perhaps best of all it was all fenced off so we were able to let all the horses run free for about the first time in nearly a month. This was perhaps the perfect evening, watching the sun go down over the town below us... the next morning however we packed up the horses only to realise that the one gate was too narrow for the wide load of our pack horse... Repacking takes around half an hour. D'oh.
From Gozanama the road wound west following a high ridge at the end of which we reached Cariamanga - which disappeared into thick, rain-heavy clouds as we approached. Perhaps over-optimistic after two fortunate nights grazing we were happy to follow 'Anjel' who had pulled up in a pickup and said he could help us. It was extremely kind of him and he insisted he had grazing... unfortunately beyond the banana trees in his back yard and a bit of young sugarcane there wasn't much grazing for the horses. Anjel kindly gave us a simple dinner and breakfast (the former of which we couldn't bring ourselves to eat given our experiences to date!), and we were able to sleep in his DRY chicken coup which was much-appreciated in spite of the smell. Nevertheless we opted for an early departure the next morning and hoped for a long lunch with better grazing for the horses.
Thankfully we found good grazing for lunch and eventually reached Punta de Piedra - the last high point before our descent to Macara. In the thick mist we were again sceptical about the abundance of hierba (grass) that a kind lady in a shop said she had in her field - but could the horses jump she asked? We assured her they wouldn't jump out and that we had stakes to tie them too if necessary... Again, something had been lost in translation - the horses had a good metre to jump UP off a muddy bank onto a slippery rock just to get into the field! Luckily the horses seem to sense when the day is over now and were more than happy to leap up - some with more style than others - to find what thankfully turned out to be a field full of lush grass and a dry, if rather windy, camping spot on the top of the hill. We're getting rather better at our routine now and in no time we had a typical tomato and onion sauce on the go in the tent while the rain beat down outside.
The mist the previous evening meant we had no idea of the view we were going to get the next morning. It was stunning - and included what we think was our first sighting of Peru. The excitement of this was quickly tempered when we found that three horse shoes needed replacing... We had known we were cutting it close but until this point only one had needed replacing with an easyboot so this was a bit of blow. Nick did his best to remove the bad shoes with a hammer and rasp (cursing himself for not buying pincers in Loja) and stuck on the spare pair of shoes we had with us. The third shoe was easy-booted and we eventually left; a good hour and a half later than intended. We knew we had a long day ahead if we wanted to reach the border (and start a well-earned break!). It turned about to be the longest. Another two shoes came loose on the 45km trip down to Macara making for a hastily gobbled (if frankly outstanding) lunch while shoes were removed and boots rearranged. {NB Nick reckons he has perfected the tomato, blanched onion and cheese roll this week}. We pressed on down into a humid valley east of Macara. With four hours of hard rain the smallest of landslips that rumbled down from above us had both us and the horses slightly on edge. Finally, in the dark, we walked into the by now well flooded Macara and were thankful to be greeted by Corazon Barriga and his family. Everything we had was pretty well soaked, and the grazing wasn't great, but we had made it and we were extremely thankful.
To date we have covered 687km. It has been unforgettable at times, and almost unbearable at others. The people have been fantastic, and we have been blessed with reasonably favourable weather for the horses. Astonishingly our prediction of a month from La Chima to the border was accurate - all being well we might even cross the border in the next few days, 'toco manela' (touch wood), at which point conditions could get a whole lot tougher...
ED UPDATE - All being well we hope to be reunited with Ed in Piura, Peru in about a week. He has been in Guayaquil getting his leg fixed; things now look reasonable and he should be able to move it next week though it may be a little while until he's back in the saddle.
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