Cable cars, Mules and Jeeps

We had a spontaneous adventure this past weekend in the Andes mountains. We had tickets to ride the Teleferico, the worlds highest cable car, Saturday. The day was a bit cloudy but clouds do tend to hang out around 15 to 18 thousand feet. It was a beautiful ride in a huge cable car that seats about 40 people. The car stops at 4 different landings and you can get out and walk around. when I got to the top, I burst into tears. Its hard to explain. It could be the rapid altitude and lack of oxygen but I think its the awe of such majesty. It is stunning, I was shook to tears.
I have not felt this emotional since election day in Caracas. Also, seeing the local Venezuelans throwing snowballs at 18 thousand feet was very moving. We were only a hands length from pico Bolivar the highest peak in Venezuela maybe south American I am not sure, and it was incredible. Sorry I can not find better descriptive words to help you visual this and the photos can never express the emotion, but I try. Before this the highest I had been was about 13,500 feet when Andy and I hiked in Colorado and that was 14 years ago.
During the day zarha Andy and I had been talking about our adventurous spirits. We were talking about how we all like adventure but how I tend to lead them into adventure by making fast spontaneous decisions. Ironically 5 minutes later we ran into a friend from our Spanish class who was planning on riding mules from the teleferico station at about 13 thousand feet to a small little town tucked into the mountains. Of course I decided that moment we had to do it too! It took 1 second for Zarha to get on board and about 5 minutes to convince Andy. We were not fully prepared for the 4 hour ride up and into and around the mountain, through snow and hail. We had no provisions for sleeping over in the town. I have now had my taste of winter this year for thirty minutes. It was about 40 degrees and my fingers were frozen and numb trying to hold the reins of the mule. We descended to about 8 thousand feet and as we descended the weather warmed up. It was clear, sunny and pristine mountain ranges I thought I would fall off my mule from gazing around in astonishment. I was so impressed not to find a speck of garbage along the way. That alone almost made me cry! we had a guide and we had two mules and zarha rode the horse. This four hour trip with guide and mules cost 20$ for all of us. I couldn't get over how cheap it was and we tipped the guide and he seemed really confused by that. Tipping is not a big part of the culture here, but we were compelled to give him more money. Things can be so cheap that sometimes we feel we should pay more.
We arrived to the village of about 100 people around 5pm. We had not planned on this trip so we did not have enough money for the jeep ride back the next morning (which cost more than the mules, almost double.) like the hotel California you can get in but you can never leave. luckily our friend from the states lent us some money. we slept in a beautiful posada at the top of the town looking at the vista of the mountains. Dinner and Breakfast included for $5 per person! Their were tons of animals at the pasada and they all had babies. A puppy, kittens, bunnies, Chic's, and baby pigs of course Zarha was thrilled and I am trying to work out a forgeign exchange program for her to return there. haha.
The jeep ride back was ripe with material for a sitcom. We had to cram 12 of us into a jeep that seats 8. We rode along small narrow, rocky dirt roads that made the roads on the way to the World Social Forum last year seem well established. The roads only fit one vehicle so it was an exhilarating feeling when the driver had to back up against sheer mountain cliff to let others pass. The deep sighs and anxiety of our female traveling campanions made it all the more nerve wracking. We had a very international mix of folks, Germans, Swiss, US, Venezuelan. Half of the riders had motion sickness and were taking meds to curb the urge to puke. I was amazed not to get puked on! We took amazing photos from the windows and had a great political conversations with the Swiss women.

as we have been saying a lot here, a once in a life time experience, even if we do it again!

oh yeah, I saw an all purple bird. This may excite my friend Wilma, it startled me. What was it??