19th September

Surprisingly not an early start! The bus picked us up at 8am and we me our tour guide and the rest of our group. There was myself, Lara, Katie, and Serena plus 3 couples in their 50's from Canada and one guy from Australia in his 40's. Our leader was Sergio and his assistant was Joseph, plus 4 horsemen, 2 cooks and a waiter. All local men from Lares town or the mountains!

We stopped half way in a small town to buy some bread for the children in the mountains and then arrived in Lares town at 11. The bus dropped us off and we hiked uphill along a dirt track, without much scenery, for an hour to our lunch spot, where the cooks and horsemen had gone ahead to set up camp and lunch. Lara and I expected the camping to be very basic so we were very surprised to have a 3 course meal for lunch and dinner every day, plus afternoon tea!
At lunch I made friends with the mules and adopted a favourite; Salvador (Bruno). After lunch we hiked uphill for an hour, then easier terrain for second hour along the grass next to the river.

We arrived at a campsite (3,800m), shared with two other g-adventures groups, where all our tents were already set up, with our mattress and sleeping bags in! After dinner we played spoons then went to bed early ready for the next day's hike.