September 18, 2000 � Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada � Laguna Mucubají
� 3,600 meters - temp in mid 40s � will fall below freezing tonight
- we are at 11,808 feet.
We left the Chama Valley this morning about 8 heading up to Mucuchies
and Apartaderos. We wind up and up past potato farms some of them being
harvested looking for a good place to have breakfast. Just beyond Mucuchies,
we walk out into a field and talk to a man driving oxen where potatoes
had just been harvested. He told us he was plowing to plant garlic and
after that they would plant carrots and after that the rotation to potatoes
would start again. At the other end of the field, there were about 10
men using machetes to cut off the potato vines that still had purple
flowers on them. We walked to the other field and talked to them.
They told us that for every sack of potatoes they plant, they harvest
20 sacks. Will says a sack weighs 100 pounds. We talked to them some
about potato harvest in the Pennsylvania. I told them that the frost
which comes in late September or October there kills the vines so they
don't have to be cut off even though sometimes Will says they are sprayed
and killed. I explained as best I could that potatoes were harvested
by machine there but when I told them that the harvester worked by 4
people could harvest 18,000 pounds in half an hour they couldn't believe
it. They told me that it took 20 people to harvest the field we were
standing in which was I would guess about 4 or 5 acres.
Then we drove on up and up and came upon Kai and Les waiting. They
said they had been there only a short time even though we had spent
a good 40 minutes in the potato field. Before Apartaderos, I saw a small
restaurant on the right so I stopped and asked if they had desayuno
which the fellow there said they had. We all ate tortillas (omelette)
and café con leche plus I had a good pisca Andina in addition
to arepas made with wheat flour.
Then Valeria said there was a road further up beyond Apartaderos to
Llano del Hato which is the highest pueblo in Venezuela served by road.
Just above Apartaderos, the road from Pico del Aguila and Valera meets
the Barinas road so we had to take the Valera road back a few kilometers
to get to the turnoff to the observatory. That road snaked up and around
the side of the mountain to the observatory which we could see in the
distance. It was about as steep as the VW could handle. The drop-offs
to the left were hundreds of feet straight down. There were small farms
along the way with old mud buildings with tile roofs - extremely picturesque.
We made it up the steep slope to the observatory 3,650meters (11,975
feet) only to find out it was only open to the public on Saturday at
3PM. We did take a few pictures in the adjacent pueblo. Les asked some
campesinos if he could take their picture and they said no.
We head out and Les has to back off the first slope out of the pueblo
since it is too steep. He will have to get a run at it. We pass him
going up as he backs down. As we head back around the mountain, I take
a few pictures off the road of some houses, a red house leek in bloom
and some rock walls. At one point I look back up the slope to where
I parked the VW still in the road and it looks impossibly straight up.
Will is taking a picture of me as I video him in the van.
Back down to the Valera road and on to the pass at Pico del Aguila
which at 4,007m (13,146 feet) is the highest road pass in Venezuela.
We were fogged in most of the time although the sun did break through
on occasion. We ate lunch at the Páramo Aguila restaurant which
has excellent food at reasonable prices. I had the hervido which is
a vegetable soup with meat in it, a spinach casserole with cheese and
ham and a wheat arepa - all good. A little boy with his father in the
line in front of me asked his father who in turn asked me why I was
eating comido criollo (the food country people eat) and I told him it
was the most nutritious food there. They enjoyed that. Valeria is with
a headache and very cold and Will and I are still in shorts. All the
Venezuelans have on mittens and some even have on baklava which I believe
are those wool head coverings that leave only your eyes showing. The
UV rays here are fierce as my glasses which have photogray lenses are
black.
After a few pictures there, Will talks with a fellow from California
who is headed to Cartagena and then we leave headed back toward Apartaderos
the way we came. We take pictures of Kai and Les who are in front of
us on their way down the switchbacks on down the mountain to Apartaderos.
Then we take the Barinas road after gassing up above Apartaderos.
After a few miles we come to the other section of the Parque Nacional
Sierra Nevada at the Laguna Mucubají where we decide to stay
the night. What a beautiful place. I'll describe where I am right at
this moment. I am facing east and on my right and left and behind me
are the jagged rocky peaks of the Andes. Clouds come and go so sometimes
we are in the fog and sometimes the clouds just blow through across
the lake. The Laguna Mucubají is behind me. There are horses
and cattle grazing around its pristine waters which leave the lake via
a clear rushing stream.
Gray-green Frailejón plants (great friar) with felt covered
leaves and yellow flowers cover the landscape. Their buds are encased
in a wooly substance to protect them from the freezing temperatures
at night. They are pollenized by at least one bird and one small insect
that I saw. There are at least a dozen other plants in bloom around
me - some small and hugging the ground like a small violet and a small
red flowered plant that blooms beside the stream and another plant with
yellow flowers that blooms on a sedge like bush.
I take a walk along one of the streams that feed the lake and take
some of the best picture of the trip. It is certainly beautiful here.
A small sparrow-like bird with orange in its plumage leads me on a tour
as it flits from plant to plant sometimes flying into the frailejón
flowers. We think it is Pitajo ahumado or Brown-Backed Chat-Tyrant.
There are at least two other birds here. One is also sparrow-like with
stripes on its head and a small top knot. This one is the Correporsuelo
or the Rufous-collared sparrow. The other is quite large (larger than
a robin) gray with a yellow eye circle. In our bird book, we think this
one is the Great Thrush - a member of the Turdus or Robin family. On
most of my walk I am sitting on the spongy earth beside the stream which
is alive with fish (I assume trout or trucha) pushing the camera through
the grass taking pictures of the tiny flowers that are everywhere.
Above me on my walk loom steep black rocky slopes holding at least
two more lakes drained by two waterfalls that I can see. They can be
reached by two 1-hour hikes which we may attempt tomorrow. Right now
there is a cow lapping up the water from beneath the van since it probably
contains some bits of food from when we washed dishes.
As the sun lowers and the fog rather clouds rush around us, the scenery
becomes ethereal. The sun lights up the fog from behind and everything
becomes too other-worldly. This could easily be another planet - one
that you might come across on Star Trek. Someone takes a silhouette
of me posed as the Thinker against the cloud which has rolled in over
the lake. The temperature drops into the 40s and promises to get much
colder.
We heat our water up to 99 degrees and take a shower. We should have
heated it up to 110 degrees since the wind is by now really cold! Jozey
is outside in her mittens and head scarf while I am showering behind
my flimsy shower curtain. Some Venezuelans bound up like Eskimos laugh
as they drive by. But, it's good to know we can be clean anytime we
want. Will discovers one of our water leaks by the shower tank and fixes
it in no time flat.
We pass a cold night with the top down to conserve heat and sleep
fairly well till about 2AM when we both wake up for an hour and then
back to sleep. We awaken with the temp inside at 36 degrees. On a Jeep
Wagoneer in the parking lot above us there is frost on the windows.
