One final time on the Trocha

The Trocha is still not my favourite place, and walking it in 2 days with a full backpack was once again hard work. However, with my team , Guido, Payden, Liz and Sally we set off from Paucartambo at 3:30am to watch a stormy sunrise at Tres Cruces before heading into the forest. It took exactly 1 minute of walking to discover my wellies had developed a large split at the base, and had filled up with frozen water! Having changed back into my boots we headed down the rocky upper part of the trail to work in the 2750m plot, before walking down into the rain for camping the night in the 2500m plot. The 2500m plot has space on for 2 tents so 5 of us fitted into 2 x 2 person tents, digging trenches round the outside to re-direct the flow of water away from the tent. I think it was mostly fatigue which meant we all had a reasonable sleep.

We woke up already in the plot so I was able to start work quickly and before long we were hiking again. The afternoon was spent working in the 2000m plot, with the rain once again arriving to add to the challenge. With a team of 5 we were finished quickly and set off on the final walk down, arriving at the mirador at 4:30pm, greeted by an armed police guard!!! A group of bird-watchers were kind enough to take our bags the remaining 5km to the hostel so we ran the short-cut down through the river. My final day was spent working in the San Pedro plot for the morning followed by a river adventure in the afternoon. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect was that after 5 months in the field, I finally saw a snake on my very last day! A small coral snake (the most poisonous) made its way across the road infront of us!!! Later a second snake also made an appearance! Two in one day after 5 months of nothing was quite something!

Now its a crazy rush to get everything ready in time to leave on Wednesday...