Horse carcasses, cloud forests, barbed wire, and altitude sickness: A meditation on my near death experience in the Andes

Venusa decided to take us on a field trip on Wednesday. Without any prior information, we embarked on a 11 hour journey in the Andes. We boarded a bus at 10 am, and Bruce took us up the mountain to Laguna Negra, where we would take the Victoria trail down the mountain. Along the way I witnessed several wild horses, one dead horse in a sink hole offering a feast for maggots, 5 annoying girls who "hate wildlife," a cloud, and many other naturey things. Bruce told us we were going on a walk. What bruce didn't tell us was that the walk would be 5 hours long and take us through wild, muddy, wet and shitty (literally) terrain. Bruce also disappeared, and we thought we were going to die in the Andes.


We made several stops along the way to acclimate to the altitude. Here you can see that I acclimated well.


another stop along the way




Mucuchies










I ventured down to a cemetery and found human bones!!! It was worth almost being left behind by the bus.


A cool dude in San Rafael, otro pueblo andino.


San Rafael




Stone church in San Rafael


Laguna Negra, the beginning of of our hike


just some cows chillin


Maggots demolishing a horse carcass


Mid-hike fog/cloud




And then I conquered the mountain