DATE:
July 19, 2006
New Photos (sorry, still pretty unorganized):
Trekking in the Peruvian Andes
Climbing Vallunaraju 5680m (18500ft)
Paragliding in Cusco
Hello hello! In Peru now. Showed up late one night to Lima, greeted by some friends of my mother who were incredibly hospitable and helpful. Definitely a great first impression. :) Iīm lucky because many travellers donīt 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 is certainly fascinating to see people dressed the same way they must 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. It is disappointing and has unfortunately affected my respect and attitude toward the locals. Iīve tried very hard to overlook and/or accept it, but this has proved difficult. Even in Cambodia, where people were begging everywhere you went (and definitely needed whatever you could give), it wasnīt quite like this. This is not begging. It is manipulation and guilt-tripping. That aside, however, the people have been pretty nice.
Quechua Family
Anyway, Iīm getting ahead of myself...
Immediately after Lima, I cruised up to Huaraz on a cramped night bus. The hostel I stayed at in Huaraz is awesome... 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... ;) One guy actually came across a dead body on his way to the climb. He apparently had tried to paraglide off the summit, EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO, and didnīt make it. Quite a story - his sister came out from Slovenia and they were working on body recovery logistics while I was there. A bit emotional for all.
Anyways... itīs been a blast to hang out with these kinds of people again, even though Iīm back to speaking English and am successfully screwing up both languages.
An old college buddy of mine, John, was there with a climbing partner, Asa. They were planning on going up an unclimbed route in the Pucajirca range, deep in the Cordillera Blanca on the Amazonian side. I decided to join them for the hike in to base camp, 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! Donkeys helped us bring all our stuff in, so we ate like kings. Anyway I was glad to have warm stuff to borrow off the boys, otherwise I would have been pretty miserable. We were out there for 8 days! Unfortunately 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...). :)
So between Burros (donkeys) and "Ass Masters" (sketchy burro owners), 8 days in the backcountry and miles and miles of walking up and down 14,000+ foot passes and through valleys and rivers, we had a grand old time. Capped it off with a hellish 9 hour overnight bus (if you can call it that) ride and a giant breakfast back at the hostel in Huaraz. We were rightfully tired, but it was worth every minute. :)
After just 2 days of resting sore muscles in Huaraz, John dragged me (almost literally) up a 5,680m (approx 18,500ft) mountain. Vallunaraju. This is considered a warmup peak for the real climbers. It pretty much kicked my ass - Iīve never been so tired in my LIFE! Not only was it the highest Iīve ever been, but I havenīt really done any alpine climbing in YEARS. Just a couple little volcanos here and there. Childīs play. Anyway we were going to go up the "easy" glacier route, but in the dark of morning couldnīt find the trailhead, so we decided to go around the mountain to the back side and go up a giant rock cliff instead. Sure, letīs make it harder, why not? Yay! ;) Oh and also people usually do all this in 3 days, but we did it in one, door to door of the hostel. 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 thatīs why climbers climb.
At 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 who will randomly be on Wheel of Fortune in a few weeks and her friend, 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. :)