Hello hello! In Peru now. Showed up late one night to Lima and was warmly greeted by some friends of my mother, who ended up being incredibly hospitable and helpful. Definitely a great first impression to the country. :) I’m lucky because many travellers don’t like Lima all that much, but I had a pleasant time, mainly due to my friendly tourguides!

I have a bit more of a love-hate relationship with the northern Quechua countryside folk, however. While it was certainly fascinating to see people dressed the same way they have for centuries, with colorful dresses and ponchos, felt hats, and sun baked wrinkles on their hands and faces… I have never seen such audacity to ask for presents, handouts, and even steal things that were loaned to them. It is disappointing and has unfortunately affected my respect and attitude toward some of the locals. I have tried very hard to overlook and/or come to terms with it, but this has proved difficult. I so wish that I felt differently. Even in Cambodia, where people were begging everywhere (and definitely needed whatever one could give), it wasn’t quite like this. It is one thing to be in need, another to stoop to dishonorable practices to get ahead. This is not begging. It is manipulation and guilt-tripping. That aside, however, the people have been pretty nice. Apologies if anyone has taken insult to these comments.

I digress…

Immediately after Lima, I cruised up to Huaraz on a cramped night bus. The guesthouse I stayed at in Huaraz (La Casa de Zarela) is awesome and I highly recommend it. It is full of climbers from all over the world who are there to climb impossible routes in the Cordillera Blanca. I get along with these people, even though I am by no means on their level of adventure-seeking. They make me look like a giant pansy. They would certainly scoff at the giant centipede story… ;) Anyways, it’s been a blast to hang out with these kinds of people again, even though I’m back to speaking English and am successfully screwing up both languages.

Alpa Mayo, a popular climb

One guy actually came across a dead body on his way to a climb. The man he found had apparently tried to paraglide off the summit, EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO, and didn’t make it. He had been frozen in a crevasse all this time. It was quite a story – the man’s sister came out from Slovenia and they were working on body recovery logistics while I was there. A bit emotional for all.

An old college buddy of mine, John,  was in Huaraz with his climbing partner, Asa. They were planning on going into the Huascarán and up an unclimbed route in the Pucajirca group, deep in the Cordillera Blanca on the Amazonian side. I decided to join them for the trip, as camp cook and caretaker (otherwise known as “camp beotch”) while they were up on the mountain. It got so cold at night that even the olive oil froze. Yes, we had olive oil! Burros (donkeys) and what I call “Ass Masters” (sketchy burro owners, see second paragraph) helped us bring all our stuff in, so we were able to throw in a few extra luxury items.

Lake near the Pucajirca

It took us a few days to reach base camp, climbing over 14,000+ foot passes and crossing valleys and rivers. We were out there for eight days in total. The boys kindly loaned me some of their cold weather gear, as I was by no means equipped for such a venture. While they made their attempts, I went on solo hikes in the area and had an absolutely lovely time. There were no other people around. Unfortunately for John and Asa, they did not summit (in my view, this was fortunate, as there were avalanches and rocks and ice coming down that mountain constantly, and the last thing I wanted was some sort of Touching the Void experience…). :)

Alpa Mayo and its moraine lake from the rarely seen "back side" taken during one of my solo hikes.

A fun self portrait, "Eaten by the Rock Ness Monster"

It would have been nice to have had more time back there, but unfortunately after about 5-6 days it was time to look for a new “Ass Master” to help us out of the valley. We walked several hours and finally happened upon an attractive young family, and the man agreed to help us carry our load out of the park to the East.

Quechua family. John in back, I am in the front center. The man to my left guided us out of the park.

We made the trip in good time, had a few items stolen, and finally capped it off with a crazy 9-hour overnight bus (if you can call it that) ride. We eagerly gorged ourselves on a giant breakfast back at the hostel in Huaraz. Overall the trip was absolutely amazing, and I would love to do it again sometime.

After just 2 days of resting sore muscles in Huaraz, John dragged me (almost literally) up a 5,780m (approx 18,900ft) mountain: Vallunaraju.  This is considered a warmup peak for the real climbers. It pretty much kicked my ass – I’ve never been so tired in my life. Not only was it the highest I’ve ever been, but I haven’t really done any alpine climbing, other than a couple little peaks here and there, in YEARS.

Climbing up the back side of Vallunaraju, the summit in the distance.

We were going to go up the “easy” glacier route, but in the dark of morning, in typical John-and-Diana fashion, we couldn’t find the trailhead. We “decided” instead to go around the mountain to the back side, ascend it’s steep rock faces, traverse to the summit and descend our original planned ascent route. Sure, let’s make it harder, why not? Oh, and also people usually do all of this in 3 days, but we did it in one, door to door of the guesthouse. So yeah… I did mention I got my ass kicked, right? ;) But in a strange masochistic way I loved it. Being on the summit was a great feeling. I guess that’s why climbers climb.

Climbing up the rock faces of Vallunaraju's back side

Climbing Vallunaraju

John on the summit of Vallunaraju

Finally, I escaped Huaraz (hard to leave, really enjoyed myself there) and am now in Cusco, getting ready to see Machu Pichu at some point. Best part is, though… when I got here, I ducked into a random bar, sat with some random people, moved with one of them to another random bar where we met a girl and her friend who will randomly be on Wheel of Fortune in a few weeks, and then a random paragliding instructor sat with us and we all decided to go paragliding the next day. Random! :)  Best part is, we were all girls! Good times. So, of all things to do after that whole body-discovery experience in Huaraz, I go PARAGLIDING the moment I get to Cusco. And you know what? IT WAS AWESOME. :)

Paragliding near Cusco