Sunday, January 28, 2007

More pictures...

I have posted more pictures from this trip here. Some are duplicated in this blog.

My last night in Peru: Zero Drama

This was an epic night. Simone and I went hopping from bar to bar in Huaraz until we (completely randomly) stumbled into a bar called 'Zero Drama'. This turned out to be one the my best nights I've ever had at a bar. It is hard to explain how good it was.

We met the barman, Javier, and his girlfriend, Angie, plus others. Good people, good music, good drinks. We sang, danced and drank all night. At one point Javier tried to teach me how to salsa so that I could impress the ladies. I had too many of a drink called the "8000", which is named after the height of the highest mountains on the planet. It contains coca alcohol (if you recall, coca is that stuff that I chewed while trekking and is illegal in most of the planet). Potent stuff. At one piont

We partied there until daylight. I think we enventually left at 7am. I was dancing on the chairs and benches. It seems that at some point during the night I took off my shoes, as I remember having problems finding them at 7am. I think (but am not sure) that we were there for 8 hours, but I never checked my watch until we left. That is a sign of a good time.


The crew at Zero Drama. This is one of my favourite pics of the whole trip.

This is the stuff that did me in. The subtitle translates to something like "Nothing else is required". No shit.
From left to right: yours truly, Javier, Simone, and Angie

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After getting about 2h sleep, I packed my bag, and took an 8h bus ride, still a bit drunk, to Lima. From there, I took a red-eye flight back to Seattle, all the while hungover. I was back at my desk the next morning

That's the end of the story.

Keep your stick on the ice,

Shawn

Skiing the Pastoruri Glacier


This may have been my best day in Peru.

The day after I got back to Huaraz from the trek I arranged for a guide (his name was Oscar, great dude) to take me snow skiing. This is somewhat odd, as people in Peru don't ski -- there are no ski resorts and no chairlifts. But, Peru has mountains and snow, which is all you really need (plus some gear). I think there are about 2 skis to rent in all of Huaraz. We drove 3h to a glacier called Pastoruri. We parked the car at 4800m and climbed/boot-packed up to the top of the Pastoruri Glacier, 5200m (17,060 feet).

From there, we skied a line the end of the glacier, carefully avoiding the crevasses. It was such a good time, we did it again. To be honest, the ski conditions weren't great -- the snow was wet and heavy. But, these were my first turns of the winter season (this was late November), I was making them in Peru, and I was earning them by climbing up. So, these turns felt great.

The interesting thing about the Pastoruri glacier is that it is actually considered a tourist attratction for people who have never seen snow before. It is the most accessible snow from the city of Huaraz. Thus, bus loads of people would come from the city and the coast to walk on the snow, touch it, make snow men. All day we skied on the opposite side of the glacier, far away.

Oscar and I decided that for our last run down we would ski right past the tourists. Since these people had never seen snow before, they surely have not seen a skier (live, at least). As we were about to ski our last line, Oscar said "This one is for the girls".

And so we ripped turns right past the tourists. I saw their eyes go wide and their jaws drop. Awesome. I was stoped countless times because people (who did not speak english) wanted to have their pictures taken with me. There are pictures out there with me (skis on, or strapped to my pack) and women on each of my arms. Nice. I was a rock star that afternoon. I have no doubt, to this day, those people are still talking about "the snow skiers they saw on Pastoruri". I think I am now a legend in many Peruvian households.




Oscar and I before climbing up. Pastoruri is in the background


I let Oscar break trail most of the way up. I felt I little bad about it, but I was paying him :)


Me leaving my mark on the Pastoruri Glacier


For the tourists in the background, Oscar and I are about to put on a show they will never forget :)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Day 4: Llamacorral to Huaraz

On this we hiked out of the valley and to the nearest town. It was a short hike, only about 3h. A car was waiting to dive us to the nearest big city. In this tiny car (into which we crammed 7 people plus an infant) we got a ride to a bigger city. From here, we got in a a collectivo (essentially just a big van that transports people from one place to another). As far as I could see, it was a 12-person van. At one time I counted 19 people in it. Very tight. I wish I had a picture of it, but I was jammed in my seat so tightly I could not really manage to get my camera out.

That night I had dinner with Simone. I had the guinea pig. We exchanged stories about the Santa Cruz trek and had a few pisco sours. Good fun.

That evening, I also managed to arrange a ski trip for the next day. That story is next
We drove this rode along the edge of the mountain for quite a while. No guard-rail. Nice. By the way, whose finger is that in the picture? Couldn't be mine, that would never happen to me...

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Day 3: Taullipampa to Llamacorral (3800m)

The hike on this day was downhill and pretty smooth. I chewed coca leaves just for fun. They taste awful, but apparently help with altitude sickness. I was informed they are also an ingredient in cocaine and are illegal in much of the world. Good to know.

One of the most beautiful sights in the valleys of the Corillera Blanca are the horses that roam free in them. They just live there, doing what horses do (which, as far as I could see, is eat grass). Lili said that a few have owners down in the villages, but many do not. That is a great thing.

On this day we hiked past the base of Alpamayo, which, in 1966 was declared the most beautiful mountain in the world. I have seen only a few mountains in my life, but that is saying something. However, it was too cloudy, and Alpamayo would not reveal herself. Even then I was not on the side of the mountain that was its "famous face". I will have to see that another time.

This was my last night on the trek. During high season, there can be as many as 60 tents at this camp, from all the people doing this trek. But, on this night, our group had it to ourselves.

I tried to stitch together 3 different pictures of the valley we were hiking through

Great waterfall. Note the horses roaming free. No saddle, no stable, no fence. Awesome

Day 2: Paria to Taullipampa (4200m)

The second day was the most difficult one. We hiked over the Punta Union pass (4750m/15,583m). The trek was all downhill from there. But, the weather was horrible. We got hit with rain, snow, and hail. We got soaked and clouds prevented us from seeing a thing.

But, when we arrived to camp, the sun broke free and we saw some great views. Our gear dryed in the sun. I ran around the grassy valley bare-foot as my boots dried. Edgar caught trout in the stream, and Liki cooked them for dinner. Peruvian trout tastes great. It was truly a great day.

This was the only camp where we shared the camp with another group: a German woman named Simone (pronounced "Simona") who was doing the same trek, by herself, unsupported (but in the opposite direction). No guide, no donkeys. No donkey driver. Needless to say, this was very embarrassing for me :)

It' s windy way up there.


Dinner

A great mountain whose name I can't remember :(

Edgar is a tough dude. No matter what the weather, he doesn't wear shoes. I don't think he has any.

Day 1: Huaraz to Paria Camp (3800m)

Finally, I'm back. Unfortunately, my memories from the Cordillera Blanca are no longer fresh in my head. But, I will make my best effort to do them justice.

Where to begin? Ok, on my second day in Peru, I began my 4-day trek in the Cordillera Blanca, called the Santa Cruz trek. We drove over the top of Portachuelo pass which was 4700m (15,420 feet) on a very sketchy, gravel road with no guard rails. Exciting.

I met my guide, Lili, and my donkey driver, Edgar. Yes, I had two donkeys to support my on my trek. They carried all my stuff. Very embarrassing, but enjoyable. We hiked for about 4 hours through a very green, lush valley with a river running through it, surrounded by huge mountains.

What amazed me was how green things were so close to huge mountains (the biggest on the planet, outside the Himalayas). Apparently the Cordillera Blanca is the highest tropical mountain range in the world. I don't know the technical significance of that, but I can tell you that there is lush green grass and trees all the way up to the glacier snow, nothing in between, which was odd to see.

During this day we saw only one other group of trekkers, and we were the only group at our camp that night. For your amusement, here is a video of camp 1:
http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=275ded1a-c5d4-4e2a-9f49-6bc889bb0ce9


Not much they let you do at this camp but relax, enjoy the view, and use the out-houses.


This is the view from the top of Portacuelo Pass. You can see the road we drove up.

Through the clouds you can see Huascaran, the highest mountain in Peru. 22133 ft / 6746 m. This is huge.


Lili, my fearless guide. Born and raised in the Andes, I don't think she has ever had altitude sickness in her life. Lucky :)

Saturday, December 09, 2006

I have vowed to finish this blog

I think blogs typically work best when you update them during your trip (or, as your experiences happen). To my understanding, that is their intended usage. As you can see, I have failed to do that here. Almost one month has passed since my memberable trip to the Cordillera Blanca. Horrible.

But, I have heard that it is never too late to do the right thing, so I vow to finish it. I expect to do it before the of 2006. Stay tuned...

Saturday, November 25, 2006

I´m back

Hey all. Not too much time right now, but here is what has been happening lately:
- finished my trek on Friday. Awesome. I saw the biggest mountains of my life. Also, possibly the most magnificent valleys.
- today I skied the Andes. Nice! My guide assures me that we were the only guys skiing the Cordillera Blanca today, and most probably the only guys skiing in Peru today. By the way, there are no ski resorts or chairlifts in Peru, so we climbed up to 5200m with skis on our back and skied from there.

more on all of this coming up...

Monday, November 20, 2006

Hello Huaraz


Hey all. I got to Huaraz, Peru yesterday evening. This is a city at the base of the Peruvian Andes. It is apparently the climbing/trekking/hiking meca of Peru. I did some hiking around town today to get my legs under me and shake the jet lag. Great fun.

But, why am I here, of all places. How did I get here? let me start from the beginning:

About a month ago the VP of my division at work gave us this week off as a reward for finishing our product. That means 9 days off in row... travel time! I explored several options: Inca trail, Galapagos Islands, etc. My old travel buddy Bart Kunowski pointed me to the "Cordillera Blanca" range of the Andes in Peru. "Cordillera Blanca" means "the white range" in Spanish. Apparently this range has some of the best hiking/trekking/climbing in South America. I checked it out on the web (if you are bored, you should too) and was sold.

So, on Saturday I flew Seattle to Atlanta. I was supposed to get to Lima, Peru that night, but the flight was delayed for 5 hours for mechanical problems. Nice. So, that flight turned into a red-eye (no problem, I am expert at these) and I arrived in Lima Sunday morning. A couple hours later I had found bus station and was shortly on a bus to Huaraz.

This city is at an elevation of 3,000m (about 10,000 feet for those who prefer that unit). The road getting up here was really something, switch-backing like crazy up into the moutains. i could not see 20 feet outside my window because the fog was so thick. I am impressed the bus driver kept it on the road :)

My hostel in Huaraz is awesome. It has a roof-top patio from which you can see the BIG Cordillera Blanca mountains. Today I did a short hike about 4h out of town, through some villages. I love these little villages -- chickens, pigs, cows and donkeys are all over the small, unpaved road. Little kids stare at me like some kind of foreign creature. they say "hello" and run away giggling.

Tomorrow I am going on a 4-day trek, called the Santa Cruz Trek. I will be in the thick of some of the Andes´ biggest mountains. I have a guide. Apparently he will be able to speak english, which is good because my Spanish is limited to "Two beers, please" and "You are very beautiful" :) Anyway, for those of you keeping track at home, i will be offline until friday night

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

testing

test 1, 2, 3...