The time has reached 08.30 and we are now on our way to Plaza de Mulas. Just after leaving Confluencia we cross the river on this unsteady bridge. The spring flood has earlier with an intense power pulled up the bridge with bolts and everything, so we walked carefully over one by one. Two weeks after this picture was taken the river spilled over and this bridge was then completely under the water! The day before we met Erik Bröms from Sweden, we interrupted him while he was eating and not until one of us had apologized on behalf of the whole group he could continue his meal. It is hard to think twice when you have thousands of questions, but we had time to talk later. Erik will accompany us today. A nice contribution and his positive attitude suit us perfectly on today’s long trek.

The first part from Confluencia is leading steep upwards and is hard work with our heavy backpacks, more than you can think. But when you have completed this first section it gets easier. The picture shows Olof marching with firm steps through a sunny and dry landscape. His backpack is badly fitted on him, we had to stop shortly to make some adjustments until it fits.

Ahhh, fantastic views. It is a delight to the eye, but a pain for the body as we know that we have a long walk ahead of us today. Particularly when you can see fairly far into the valley, Horcone Valley. Erik is on the picture. Here we can also see that the vegetation is reducing drastically giving room for a dry and dusty landscape.

Some times during the walk we are forced to cross the river. Because of the dry weather prior to our arrival we managed to jump over it at narrow sections using our walking sticks. Marco had to borrow walking sticks from Mattias who quikly informed him that this will cost "a home made lunch" at Plaza de Mulas. With heavy backpacks it is not easy to jump over this sections, it's a bit risky. If Marco would manage to cross the river without being wet? Yes, this time everything went well, a bit disappointing for the rest of the group who was waiting with the cameras ready for that “Kodak moment”.

The mule convoys caught up with us when we had entered Horcone Valley, they pass by as quickly as they showed up and leave a cloud of dust behind them. An advice is to step aside, otherwise you will have a close contact. As you can see we have reached that altitude where almost all the vegetation is gone, it feels a bit desolate and sterile. But the view and the feeling of being surrounded by high, exotic mountains definitely enhance the experiences.

"Hola, amigos..." a gaucho greets friendly on us. The outfit of this particular gaucho was special, who for some reason were dressed in accordance with ancient tradition. Well, almost anyway, he wore in fact a jacket of GoreTex. For those who use mules for the trip up to Plaza de Mulas does not need more than about 3 hours...sounds like a nice and relaxing trip (and then we do not refer to the poor mules but to those who are riding them).

After six glorious hours in this desert landscape we are beginning to feel tired, here we can se a plateau near Ibañes. During certain periods, when the ice from the mountains melts, it gets filled with water and almost a small lake is formed. We decide to refill our water bottles. Unfortunately, it became apparent that the water filter DO NOT work to filtrate this water, which seems a bit strange. The dirt clogged the filter making it useless. For Marco this implied lack of water and he ended up with only 1,5 litre water left and 3 hours more to walk.

As an assembled group we make the last effort to reach Plaza de Mulas, it is steep and full of gravel and stones. Here we can se Robert and Marco. The picture is lying a bit, it is not Robert who is suffering hard times here, but Marco. Marco was very dehydrated and in combination with the high altitude and the physical strain forced Marco to do his utmost. The rest of the team where there for him, but everyone had to carry their own backpack. Fortunately Olof had some water left and shared it with Marco.

At last we reach the rangers station at Plaza de Mulas and the whole team pose happily with thumbs up, except Marco who is strangely enough only thinks about water. Mattias had went in advance the last half hour when the rest of the group took a break and he had fixed two litre delicious orange juice and some Coca Cola (3 USD/each) from Campo Base. It tasted divine. Our climbing licences is checked again before we go up to find camping grounds...and to look for water, of course.