Donkey Camping > Car Camping?

I apologize for doing 2 posts in 1 week. A lot has been happening lately and a lot more is coming up. My site neighbor is leaving, two new volunteers are coming in, I'm helping Mike fix a solar installation in the bosque, I'm trying to organize a wind turbine installation, and I will be constructing my mini-tree nursery next week. Thus, I'm trying to get caught up on everything that has happened recently.

Last week, during Fiestas Patrias (Peruvian Independence Day), Mike and I hiked 56 km in 4 days. We were originally supposed to hike 56 km over 5 days but we were "peru'd" when our guide ditched us in the mountains. We started off our trip "acclimatizing" to 3600m or ~12,000 feet with an "easy" trek known as Laguna Seisenta y Nueve. The agency lied to us and the trek is actually rated at medium to hard. We ended up being very sore for the beginning of our 4 day trek (the Santa Cruz trek.) The hike was beautiful and I do not regret doing it but the first day of Santa Cruz probably would've been a little more enjoyable if I had not been so sore. Santa Cruz was beautiful. The nice thing about Santa Cruz is that you only have to hike with your water. The rest of your gear (clothes, tent, cooking supplies etc.) is carried by donkeys to your campsite. Also, you don't have to cook for yourself because you have an awesome cook. (Our cook cooked us delicious soups, stirfrys, pancakes, and more.) You also travel with a guide, and a donkey driver. Everything was great for the first two days. On the second day of the trek we hiked up to 4750m  or ~15584 feet to go over the mountain pass. It was a hard hike but incredibly beautiful. After our hike, our guide asked us if we wouldn't mind hiking an extra hour the next day so we could finish our trek 1 day early and so the donkey driver could go home. We confirmed it was only an extra hour, and agreed. We were told we would only be hiking about 16km. At 4AM the guide ditched our campsite to go home. We were without a guide for the 3rd and 4th day of our trek. We ended having to hike an extra 4 hours (1 being in the dark while we hiked down a cliff with no guide) and we hiked 27km, NOT 16! The trek in the dark was SO dangerous and we definitely could've been seriously hurt or died.  Fortunately, we did not and we were able to get back half of our money because the other people in our group were also furious with the agency. While this definitely ruined the end of Santa Cruz for me, the overall experience was a beautiful adventure. I apologize for the number of photos but there is just so much to see from those few days.

Before our trek in, we got to enjoy amazing American food in Huaraz! I got to eat french toast!!!!

Hiking to the Laguna

The incredibly beautiful Laguna

Us in front of the Laguna

Mike loves this picture so I thought I'd post it

Leaving the Laguna

Ending the Laguna Hike

Before beginning the Santa Cruz Trek, we drove up to this beautiful look out point.

Some sheep, goats, lambs running past us on the trail

Day 1 was spectacularly beautiful

We did some extra hikes to some lagoons

The heart shaped lagoon!

This flower only grows above 4500m!

Just absolutely stunning

More lagoons

The pass!

Our look down to where we had to hike

Taking a pause

Tequeños! One of my favorite unhealthy foods here. Cannot believe our cook made them for us

He made some crazy food for camping

Our views while  camping were amazing

We had REAL pancakes!!! Normally the pancakes we get are tortilla/crepe/pancakes and not good. These were delicious!

Eating lunch by a lagoon on day 3

Our "cars" for the Santa Cruz hike

Some more beauty

Just truly spectacular

This reminds me of Sound of Music!