After a long drive avoiding potholes, we arrived in Hauraz. It is 8 hours from Lima up in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range. The range is home to Peru´s highest peaks. We rushed over to a trekking company to see if there was availability to hike the next day. We ended up getting fairly lucky, the tour wasn´t full and they gave us a little discount because they wanted to fill up the tour. We filled our night with some pollo al diablo, last minute emails (wouldn´t want mom to freak out), and errands, and a new haircut to make me move faster along the trail.
The next morning we left at 6 and headed for the trail head. The drive was amazing, we climbed and climbed to the Portachuelo pass at over 16,000 ft. We arrived at the trail head to find our that we didn´t have our donkeys to carry all the gear. We waited as long as we could, until our guide decided we would go ahead and the donkeys would catch up.... so he thought. Day one was rather easy and a good chance to get to know the team. We hiked up the valley to our camp site at 3,800m. We arrived exhausted and hot. That didn´t last long, as the sun fell below the surrounding mountains, the group started to wonder where our fore mentioned donkeys where.
The hackisack came out to waste time.
When it was kicked into the river, Hamish slipped in trying to retrieve it. With no tents or any dry clothes, our guide decided that we could ignore the fire bans to try and dry off. About the time we were debating on when we would need to hike back out, our beloved donkeys showed up. Dinner was a little late. We kept the fire going to try and fight off the bitter cold. We had a great time sitting around the fire.
The group included Keiichi from Japan, David from N. Ireland, Per from Sweden, 4 Kiwis Jaz, Steve, Blair and Hamish. Ends up Steve and Blair are quite the musicians, and spent alot of time singing and playing the guitar. We also started some amazing clubs. Hamish was the founding member of the Santa Cruz Whittle Club. The club didn´t take off right away, until they started providing the members with a stick and a knife.
Hamish also had a great function on his camera to take panoramic shots, so I am sad to admit that the long pictures are not mine.
The first night we were introduced to marmite, and kind of spread from New Zealand. Jaz brings it with her whenever she travels. It is a yeast based spread that is really salty, and kind of tasted like asparagus. Pretty good though. The night was almost unbearable, but we had to get up early for the ascent. We hiked all morning, sucking wind, to Punto Union.
The pass is at 4,800m and is an amazing view. It began to hail (the soft light kind that doesn´t hurt) on our way down.
Luckily as we lost altitude it didn´t turn to rain.
We hiked down to our second campsite along the river at 4,200m. We decided to get a group stretch session in while the sun was still up. During our stretch session the sun hit the mountain just right.
I had to make a decision, photographs or stretching.
Thus I invented stretchography, taking pictures while stretching
. We hackied it up some more, and enjoyed some more harmonious tunes over dinner. The whiskey came out tonight because it was COLD!
Being a rather fit group, our guide decided the next day that we would have time to do a side hike for a couple of hours. We hiked past the mountain that is in the Paramount movie intro (imagine the circle of stars).
The side hike took us back up to a glacial melt lagoon. It was amazingly blue with minerals. Warner and Steve couldn´t resist the chance for a swim. They both took the plunge, and then tried to warm up with some whiskey.
The rest of the day was all down hill and pretty quick. We stopped for a quick soda near our campsite. This time the donkeys beat us and the whole camp site was set up when we arrived.
Dinner was great, tired we hit the sack pretty early.
The final day was a breeze. All down hill and pretty quick. We ended up in a small town, took a dip in the irrigation canal (I am going to the Olympics with that dive).
The drive back to Hauraz was horrible, but we were all so tired it didn´t matter. We all me up later that night for a little photo sharing session. After a few beers we decided to see what Hauraz had to offer. We found a cool bar with Foosball, and Warner and I were unstoppable. The owner of the bar brought us a shot for the winners of one of the games. It was no ordinary shot, it had a jungle ant in it. It was as big as the bottom of the shot glass. We won, and I don´t know why, but I volunteered. It was disgusting, crunchy and juicy. We would get revenge as we would beat Blair and Hamish and they would take the same shot. The night continued with some twister in Spanish, and eventually we hit the sack. Tomorrow we split, Laura and Warner to Iquitos, and me to Quito Ecuador (a thrilling three day drive of just me and the road)
.
The next morning we left at 6 and headed for the trail head. The drive was amazing, we climbed and climbed to the Portachuelo pass at over 16,000 ft. We arrived at the trail head to find our that we didn´t have our donkeys to carry all the gear. We waited as long as we could, until our guide decided we would go ahead and the donkeys would catch up.... so he thought. Day one was rather easy and a good chance to get to know the team. We hiked up the valley to our camp site at 3,800m. We arrived exhausted and hot. That didn´t last long, as the sun fell below the surrounding mountains, the group started to wonder where our fore mentioned donkeys where. The hackisack came out to waste time. When it was kicked into the river, Hamish slipped in trying to retrieve it. With no tents or any dry clothes, our guide decided that we could ignore the fire bans to try and dry off. About the time we were debating on when we would need to hike back out, our beloved donkeys showed up. Dinner was a little late. We kept the fire going to try and fight off the bitter cold. We had a great time sitting around the fire.
The group included Keiichi from Japan, David from N. Ireland, Per from Sweden, 4 Kiwis Jaz, Steve, Blair and Hamish. Ends up Steve and Blair are quite the musicians, and spent alot of time singing and playing the guitar. We also started some amazing clubs. Hamish was the founding member of the Santa Cruz Whittle Club. The club didn´t take off right away, until they started providing the members with a stick and a knife.
Hamish also had a great function on his camera to take panoramic shots, so I am sad to admit that the long pictures are not mine.
The first night we were introduced to marmite, and kind of spread from New Zealand. Jaz brings it with her whenever she travels. It is a yeast based spread that is really salty, and kind of tasted like asparagus. Pretty good though. The night was almost unbearable, but we had to get up early for the ascent. We hiked all morning, sucking wind, to Punto Union.
The pass is at 4,800m and is an amazing view. It began to hail (the soft light kind that doesn´t hurt) on our way down.
Luckily as we lost altitude it didn´t turn to rain.
We hiked down to our second campsite along the river at 4,200m. We decided to get a group stretch session in while the sun was still up. During our stretch session the sun hit the mountain just right.
I had to make a decision, photographs or stretching.
Thus I invented stretchography, taking pictures while stretching
. We hackied it up some more, and enjoyed some more harmonious tunes over dinner. The whiskey came out tonight because it was COLD!
Being a rather fit group, our guide decided the next day that we would have time to do a side hike for a couple of hours. We hiked past the mountain that is in the Paramount movie intro (imagine the circle of stars).
The side hike took us back up to a glacial melt lagoon. It was amazingly blue with minerals. Warner and Steve couldn´t resist the chance for a swim. They both took the plunge, and then tried to warm up with some whiskey.
The rest of the day was all down hill and pretty quick. We stopped for a quick soda near our campsite. This time the donkeys beat us and the whole camp site was set up when we arrived.
Dinner was great, tired we hit the sack pretty early.
The final day was a breeze. All down hill and pretty quick. We ended up in a small town, took a dip in the irrigation canal (I am going to the Olympics with that dive).
The drive back to Hauraz was horrible, but we were all so tired it didn´t matter. We all me up later that night for a little photo sharing session. After a few beers we decided to see what Hauraz had to offer. We found a cool bar with Foosball, and Warner and I were unstoppable. The owner of the bar brought us a shot for the winners of one of the games. It was no ordinary shot, it had a jungle ant in it. It was as big as the bottom of the shot glass. We won, and I don´t know why, but I volunteered. It was disgusting, crunchy and juicy. We would get revenge as we would beat Blair and Hamish and they would take the same shot. The night continued with some twister in Spanish, and eventually we hit the sack. Tomorrow we split, Laura and Warner to Iquitos, and me to Quito Ecuador (a thrilling three day drive of just me and the road)
.
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