9th – Back to civilization

Not having to mess around with any tents when getting up we had a gentle morning. After packing the rest of the bags and readying them for the mules, we departed BC at around 1030. The plan for the day was simple; to get all the way down, past Camp Confluencia and down to the bus that hopefully would be waiting for us. It would be a walk of almost 25km, but fortunately having mules at our disposal meant that we would only be carrying daypacks, and the route would either be going downwards or just be flat.

The walk was rather uneventful as we just wanted to get down as fast as possible. The only thing out of the ordinary and worth mentioning was the high winds, winds we luckily had in our backs. Quite fortunate, as the dry conditions enabled the wind to raise quite a lot of dust in the air. I did feel a bit bad for those going upwards, though, as they were having quite a struggle against the wind and dust. We just ended up having different colors on the front and backs.

A group of mules coming up with equipment to BC.

At the end of the walk that only took us 6:40 we arrived at the parking lot, and as if it had been planned the bus came around the corner just at the same time. The good timing didn’t last much longer, though, as the mules didn’t arrive for another 2-3 hours. We spent the time partially at a non-wind proof café having a drink and partially in the bus sleeping.

When we finally received our bags we were off and on the almost 3 hour drive back to the hotel we had dinner at the same place as when we were outbound; large steaks should never be missed should the opportunity rise!

The wine storage area at the restaurant.