Waking up on day 3 of our trek was one of the best moments I've had. I'd slept well, stayed warm, and the sun was shining! The cherry on top of the cake, of course, was the fact that I crawled out of our tent to look up at 19,130-ft (5830 m) Tauliraju, the impressive mountain presiding over our campsite. We had first seen it the day before as we came up and over Punta Union, and the more we saw of it, the more Travis and I decided it was one of our favorite peaks. You'll have to see a picture of it to understand why it was so impressive.
After a tasty breakfast of oatmeal, apples, and brown sugar, we packed our things up and headed off down the trail. Going was slow at first, because the trail was somewhat steep and my knee was still achy, but we were infected by an easy-breezy attitude and didn't feel the need to rush through the day. By the time we got down to the valley floor, clouds had covered up the sun and a cool wind has once again stirred up, so we quickened our pace across the flat floodplain to try to get to a more sheltered part of the trail. This valley was similar to the others in that it was lined with high rock walls strung with lacy waterfalls, and at various lucky times we could glimpse yet another snow-covered mass peeking over the canyon walls. One of these that graced our day was Alpamayo, a mountain that measures 19,511 ft (5947 m) and has been called the most beautiful peak in the world for its almost-symmetrical pyramidal shape. Its taller neighbor, Quitaraju (19,803 ft or 6036 m), was also impressive, and the view of the two, towering over the valley and its turquoise lagoon, made a great backdrop for the day's trek.
We hiked on for a ways, through intermittent sun, clouds, and wind, past Laguna Jaluncocha. This large expanse of deep turquoise water extends across the entire valley floor, and a small river stems from it. On the other side of the lagoon, the trail began to descend again into the next valley, and the winds picked up. Hungry but tired of the breeze, we lucked out and found a large boulder that served as a perfect windblock and lunch spot. I was feeling pretty tired by this point, since we'd been hiking for 5 hours already, but the food helped revitalize me, as did a visit from an adorable little golden cattle dog. He came looking for food, of course, and was happy to dispose of the rinds of cheese we didn't eat in our sandwiches, but he was also pretty partial to human attention, so he sat with us for a while and let us pet him. Once he'd had his fill, he left as quickly as he had come, but we saw him again further down the trail keeping some pesky cattle in line.
Not far from our lunch site, we passed through Llamacorral, the first campsite that most trekkers use if they start their journey in Cashapampa. It was still early in the afternoon and we had more walking in us, so we continued on for a bit longer, aiming for a campsite another 2 miles away. We never saw the actual camping area, but we did come across a beautiful flat clearing right by the river, and decided to make camp there (at 12, 470 ft or 3800 m). The sun was still strong in the western sky, and we relished the early departure from the trail by lazing about, reading and enjoying the rare rays of vitamin D. We were all pretty sore from 3 days of trekking and carrying packs, so we had a little massage train until the sun went down, which left us feeling nice and relaxed. As the sky lit up with another wonderful pink and purple sunset, we set about cooking more quinoa and vegetables, taking turns to prepare the food and take pictures of the colors. Since the clouds had been more intermittent throughout the day, we caught some glimpses of stars above us, although we weren't able to make out any familiar constellations (as expected, since the southern hemisphere sees different skies that we're used to).
We crawled into our sleeping bags content and tired, lulled to sleep by the Avett Brothers and a light rain. Since they'd seen the rain coming earlier in the afternoon, Travis and Forrest suggested that we cover our packs with our rain jackets so as to keep them dry through the night, which turned out to be a brilliant idea. That night I slept hard, and awoke before the others to a dewy morning, a beautiful start to the last day of our trek (the final push told in Part 4).
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