Today it feels like we came back to civilization, I am in a tent in the village of La playa (no beach there, though), hearing American music coming from the convenience store / restaurant where we are having our meals. There are so many things on sale (sodas, detergent, beer, flip flops...) that I am almost overwhelmed. What a change from the alpine landscape yesterday where we could hear the same repetitive Peruvian folk music in the background, or the quaint Cachora town where locals would cross the street to greet us and see what a gringo looks like! It is also much warmer as we are on the jungle side of the Andes, at 2000m.
This morning our muleteers found a car to transport our luggage so they seized the opportunity and returned home early. This means that there was a dirt road in good enough condition to take us to La playa.
The hike was very easy, just of few hours of flat, gently downhill dirt road, on a side of the river that didn't have any recent mudslides. We could see the old unused path across the river, it was not in very good condition.
With such a sunny day, we all did laundry at the camp and dried all our wet clothes and shoes. This was the first day that it didn't rain at all!
In the afternoon we played football with the guides, cook and some local kids. It was fun, exhausting, and a good way to get motivated for a cold shower. Even though we are at 2000m (only) i could feel the effect of altitude running like a madman after the ball... Nonna fully recovered from her sickness and watched us play and took photos.
The path is good to llactapata, so tomorrow we will take the interesting hiking option, instead of just busing to Santa teresa.
JN