The Yunga Cruz Trek

Langston, Roberto and I decided to do one of the treks in Bolivia that follow Incan and pre-Incan trails.  We settled on the Yunga Cruz which, at 70 kilometers plus some hefty driving time to and from La Paz, typically takes five days.  We opted to do it in two days.

Approaching the apacheta at the crest of the Andes:

We get a nice mountain view just to the east of the apacheta:

The trek starts in the small village of Chunavi:

The weather isn't too promising but at least it started dry:

Roberto and tree:

By running back and forth, Moonshine covered the trek at least three times over:

Too bad that clouds obscured the fantastic views:

We spent half of the first day wandering through mist:

And then it started to rain hard.  Soaking rain at 12,000' - 14,000' is a drag but eventually we found a tolerable camp site and settled in for the night.  Moonshine spent the entire night curled up in the foot of my sleeping bag but emerged dry and warm in the morning:

Just in time to get thoroughly soaked again as it rained hard all night and was still raining hard in the morning.  The trail had turned into an icy river and we had to carry the dog over many of the deep spots:

Normally trivial stream crossings were pretty sketchy:

Happy to get across that in one piece:

It was hard to imagine this place was ever dry:

Roberto looking a little soggy:

Me too:

Ocobaya, our destination:

Not so bad (heh.):