Peru!
It's long winded and probably not terribly exciting but here y'all go! Enjoy
After a lot of traveling on a decidedly low-end airline (Aerolineas Argentinas), Graham and I found ourselves at the Pay Purix Hostel near the Lima airport at about 1am, where we met up with Jack, and a 10:30 bus to catch the next morning to Huaraz. Waking up early, we gave ourselves 1.5 hours to get from the hostel to the bus terminal in downtown Lima, on the recommendation of the hostel owner. As it tunred out it took almost 2.5 hours to get there, meaning we missed our bus which we had already purchased tickets for. After having a look at possible departures we decided our best option was to go across town to a different bus company so that we would be able to leave earlier than the next morning. Unfortunately when we got there the soonest available bus was at 11pm that night, which meant 12 hours of wandering around slums in Lima!
While most of Lima seems to be extremely run down, dirty, and poor, there is a stark contrast to the predominate crumbline adobe brick buildings and the modern western fast food outlets and shopping malls.
A view of a main thoroughfare in Lima during some extremely light traffic. Most of the time it was bumper to bumper, and they put their horns to use. On the left you can see a huge modern grocery store, on the right are some old adobe brick buildings.
Finally our 11pm bus left Lima at about 1:30am. The bus ride is about 7 hours but we were all fairly exhausted and slept most of the way. We arrived in Huaraz early in the morning and were quickly shuttled to the hostel that Jack had booked for us where we all promptly fell asleep.
By about 12.30 the three of us were beginning to wake up and eventually decided we should go have a wander around Huaraz and start arranging a few of the things we would need to go into the mountains. A quick and easy visit to one of the adventure travel agencies managed to get us mostly sorted out. The agent also offered to show us a restaurant serving some good traditional Peruvian food for lunch.
That day the three of us woke up with splitting headaches due to rapidly going from sea level in Lima to 3000m in Huaraz, so the rest of the day was just spent wandering around Huaraz and exploring options for buying food. The grocery shopping in Peru is done primarily at large markets which are comprised of stalls selling everything from nudie posters to live guinea pigs. So it goes without saying that everything we would need for 17 days in the backcountry we would be able to find there!
Bag o' Gunea Pigs, at the Huaraz market
Richar, our arriero, walking the donkeys and our gear up the Santa Cruz Valley. Our basecamp was just ahead where the valley begins to rise up a bit.
Graham being a vet on the donkeys
Graham and Jack taking a rest on the slow acclimatization hike up to Punta Union
Our spectacular bivy above Punta Union; looking down over the Santa Cruz valley.
Our tent set up at the moraine camp, 4900m
Graham pausing on the glacier up to high camp, Artesonraju behind
Fading light at the Alpamayo high camp with Alpamayo behind
Graham enjoying (loosly speaking) a freeze-dried meal at high camp.
Graham at the bergschrund before gaining the couloir where the climbing starts.
Graham low on the French Direct route
Summit shot, AngusPure helped us out a bit of cash for the trip (a good chunk of it was spent on the bus tickets for the bus ride which we missed anyway but that's beside the point). This also turned out to be the best of the summit shots.
Yeah yeah deep stuff, anyway the next 4 days went as slowly as you might imagine they would, the activities being mostly eat, sleep, read, eat, read, bathe etc. with a couple of short hikes thrown in.
Taullraju from near the Taullipampa camp just up-valley from our base camp.
Camping in Cashapampa
Children posing for one of many photos
Hauripampa dance competition
As we were packing up our gear we met a guy named Patrice from Montreal just coming out of the valley. Once again we lucked out as he was fluent in english and spanish and managed to talk a taxi driver into taking us to Caraz. Caraz is a decent size town and we were finally able to have a good meal and a shower. The next day the strikes cleared up and with no problems we were able to get our ride back to Huaraz where we spent the day hanging out with Patrice and Jack before catching our bus to Lima the next morning.
In Lima our flight to Buenos Aires was delayed by several hours and as we sat in the airport I started to feel increasingly sick to my stomach. Just before boarding the plane I went to the bathroom and threw up which made for some momentary relief, but we had a full day to spend wandering around Buenos Aires and I was already feeling like a zombie from the travelling. By the time we got to Argentina I was ina complete daze but couldn't pass up the chance to see the city so in my state of delirium wandered around with Graham in what turned out to be a stunning city. Buenos Aires was a huge contrast to the dirtiness of Lima, with beautiful old architecture and clean streets. The food was also first class which I managed to force down despite the pretestations from my stomach each time.
Even the French would approve!
We finally were off to Auckland after a several hour delay in our flight. Both of us passed out on the plane pretty quickly. We were in the first row so could see them preparing dinner soon after takeoff and I remember thinking "just gotta stay awake until they bring the food around". The next thing I knew I woke up with a tray of food in front of me and everybody else done eating. I glanced at Graham and he was passed out with a bread roll in his hand with one bite taken out of it and the rest of his food untouched!
In Auckland we missed our flight because of our delayed flight from Argentina and had to purchase new tickets to Palmerston North but eventually made it back to the rain and cold of Palmy with a nasty stomach bug as a final souvinir from Peru.
note: I have 150 photos to put up online which will go up as soon as I figure out how to do the navigation of that many photos on my website.
After a lot of traveling on a decidedly low-end airline (Aerolineas Argentinas), Graham and I found ourselves at the Pay Purix Hostel near the Lima airport at about 1am, where we met up with Jack, and a 10:30 bus to catch the next morning to Huaraz. Waking up early, we gave ourselves 1.5 hours to get from the hostel to the bus terminal in downtown Lima, on the recommendation of the hostel owner. As it tunred out it took almost 2.5 hours to get there, meaning we missed our bus which we had already purchased tickets for. After having a look at possible departures we decided our best option was to go across town to a different bus company so that we would be able to leave earlier than the next morning. Unfortunately when we got there the soonest available bus was at 11pm that night, which meant 12 hours of wandering around slums in Lima!
While most of Lima seems to be extremely run down, dirty, and poor, there is a stark contrast to the predominate crumbline adobe brick buildings and the modern western fast food outlets and shopping malls.
After wandering around for a while we found a place to have lunch and our first real Peruvian meal, which naturally was chicken.
Finally our 11pm bus left Lima at about 1:30am. The bus ride is about 7 hours but we were all fairly exhausted and slept most of the way. We arrived in Huaraz early in the morning and were quickly shuttled to the hostel that Jack had booked for us where we all promptly fell asleep.
By about 12.30 the three of us were beginning to wake up and eventually decided we should go have a wander around Huaraz and start arranging a few of the things we would need to go into the mountains. A quick and easy visit to one of the adventure travel agencies managed to get us mostly sorted out. The agent also offered to show us a restaurant serving some good traditional Peruvian food for lunch.
Graham, being a different kind of vet from most, decided to order the cuy, aka guinea pig. Nothing like a large rodent plopped onto a bed of mashed potatoes to introduce you to a new country! As it turned out it wasn't that spectacular (imagine that), the meat was quite chewy and there didn't seem to be much of it. Escarlett, the tour agent wasn't impressed with Graham's effort though, claiming he had only eaten about 60% of the edible potential. She then proceeded to rip the head off and clean it like a tank of beetles.
That day the three of us woke up with splitting headaches due to rapidly going from sea level in Lima to 3000m in Huaraz, so the rest of the day was just spent wandering around Huaraz and exploring options for buying food. The grocery shopping in Peru is done primarily at large markets which are comprised of stalls selling everything from nudie posters to live guinea pigs. So it goes without saying that everything we would need for 17 days in the backcountry we would be able to find there!Bag o' Gunea Pigs, at the Huaraz marketWe spent the next day shopping for food and packing. The donkeys can only carry a limited amount of weight so we had to be somewhat conscious about what we were bringing, as we were planning on 4 of us for 17 days which ends up being a lot of food. Our taxi to Cashapampa was due to leave Huaraz at 6am and we ended up not getting to bed until about 1am after packing and repacking and repacking all of our gear and food.
The drive to Cashapampa and the hike in went pretty uneventfully. The trail starts from the high mountain town of Cashapampa with a steep climb up to about 3600 meters where it levels out and gradually climbs another 400 meters to the campsite that we decided to base ourselves.
The drive to Cashapampa and the hike in went pretty uneventfully. The trail starts from the high mountain town of Cashapampa with a steep climb up to about 3600 meters where it levels out and gradually climbs another 400 meters to the campsite that we decided to base ourselves.
Richar, our arriero, walking the donkeys and our gear up the Santa Cruz Valley. Our basecamp was just ahead where the valley begins to rise up a bit.
Graham being a vet on the donkeys
The next few days were spent working on acclimatization. A pass at the head of the Santa Cruz valley was our focus as it allowed for a reasonable gain of about 750m in a 4 hour walk from our base camp. We made a couple of trips up to the pass, including one which we camped at about 4800m. Initially we were thinking of attempting a line on one of the sub-peaks of Taulliraju but after a night camping in the rain and a couple hours the next morning making very slow progress up the glacier we decided we weren't moving fast enough and that we would shift our attention to Alpamayo first.
Graham and Jack taking a rest on the slow acclimatization hike up to Punta Union
Our spectacular bivy above Punta Union; looking down over the Santa Cruz valley.
The next day we planned a rest day before starting our effort on Alpamayo, unfortunately Jack woke up that morning with trouble breathing and a slight bubbling in his chest which is a sign of HAPE and meant he needed to go down. Toby had arrived in camp just the day before but he volunteered to descend with Jack to Caraz where they would rest a day or two and then come back up to base camp.
After a good rest day of eating and packing Graham and I began the slog towards Alpamayo. The first day was a 1000m climb to the moraine camp at 4900m. The day was long but reasonable and our previous acclimatizing seemed to be working so far since I didn't experience any headaches that night despite being at the highest elevation of the trip.
After a good rest day of eating and packing Graham and I began the slog towards Alpamayo. The first day was a 1000m climb to the moraine camp at 4900m. The day was long but reasonable and our previous acclimatizing seemed to be working so far since I didn't experience any headaches that night despite being at the highest elevation of the trip.
Our tent set up at the moraine camp, 4900m
The next day was spent following a climbers track up the glacier to the Alpamayo high camp at about 5500m. Only a 600m climb but the altitude was really beginning to take it's toll and we were moving slowly while roped together. The day was the first truly blue-bird day we had experienced though and the higher we climbed the more we could see of the surrounding Cordillera. The final 100m of the glacier involves some slightly steeper climbing up to about 60º after which you pop out on the saddle where the high camp sits.
Graham pausing on the glacier up to high camp, Artesonraju behind
Fading light at the Alpamayo high camp with Alpamayo behind
Uppon arriving at the high camp I didn't feel too bad, but soon after going to bed I started feeling sick, with a tortuous headache and an increasingly upset stomach. The few times I did manage to start drifting off my breathing would slow until suddenly I would wake up in a gasp for air. This was the first truly unpleasant night I had experienced on the trip so far and I was pretty certain I would have to descend first thing in the morning - until about 3:30am in the course of about 15 minutes all my symptoms dissapeared and I fell sound asleep.
A large group of guided climbers were planning to climb the next day and we decided an extra rest day at altitude would do us good so we decided to hold off on making an attempt. The weather was now glorious and we were a bit nervous we were missing our window though. During the day when the sun was beating down the heat was almost unbearable, we would switch between sitting outside and hiding in the tent but both tended to be too hot for comfort.
We witnessed an unfortunate display that day at high camp with the guided group. The group was composed of several foreign climbers led by a large contigent of peruvian guides, cooks, and porters. The head guide was a very cocky and arrogant peruvian guide, which is all well and good if he were to respect his clients and guide well. Coming off Alpamayo him and his crew and one client strolled into camp and promptly cooked up a good meal for themselves and started chain smoking while strutting around camp like kings. The problem is that as soon as they had reached the bottom of the technical climbing they had taken off, leaving one very slow, unfit and struggling client to stumble back accross the glacier alone. He showed up over an hour after the rest of the group and was so exhausted he couldn't stand and collapsed in his tent. So anyway, if you plan to get a guide in Huaraz watch out for this guy, he's easy to spot as he is probably the only tall Peruvian in Huaraz.
A large group of guided climbers were planning to climb the next day and we decided an extra rest day at altitude would do us good so we decided to hold off on making an attempt. The weather was now glorious and we were a bit nervous we were missing our window though. During the day when the sun was beating down the heat was almost unbearable, we would switch between sitting outside and hiding in the tent but both tended to be too hot for comfort.
We witnessed an unfortunate display that day at high camp with the guided group. The group was composed of several foreign climbers led by a large contigent of peruvian guides, cooks, and porters. The head guide was a very cocky and arrogant peruvian guide, which is all well and good if he were to respect his clients and guide well. Coming off Alpamayo him and his crew and one client strolled into camp and promptly cooked up a good meal for themselves and started chain smoking while strutting around camp like kings. The problem is that as soon as they had reached the bottom of the technical climbing they had taken off, leaving one very slow, unfit and struggling client to stumble back accross the glacier alone. He showed up over an hour after the rest of the group and was so exhausted he couldn't stand and collapsed in his tent. So anyway, if you plan to get a guide in Huaraz watch out for this guy, he's easy to spot as he is probably the only tall Peruvian in Huaraz.
Graham enjoying (loosly speaking) a freeze-dried meal at high camp.
We woke at 2 the next morning and were out of camp by 3:30. A guided group had started at midnight and we could already see the dots of the head torches high on Alpamayo. The technical climbing starts on the French Direct after crossing a bergschrund and gaining the bottom of the couloir. The first two pitches involve slightly dodgy steep snow which is difficult to protect and slow to climb before getting to solid 70º alpine ice. The climbing is very straightforward with a plentitude of v-threads already in place from previous groups climbing which are useful places to build anchors. After a few pitches in the couloir we decided to pause for a short rest while the guided group descended past us. After all of them made it by nobody remained above us which was a welcome relief from the small chunks of ice that had been raining down on us all morning.
As we climbed higher and the altitude started hitting us harder our pitches gradually got shorter since we required more respite from calf burning climbing. Our climbing slowed dramatically and by about 1pm we pulled onto the summit after 10 pitches of constant 70º ice. Directly behind us was a pair of Argentinean climbers who had left a couple hours after us but had been steadily gaining ground throughout the day. After about 20 minutes on the summit we began the long tiring descent down the route. Luckily there were enough v-threads on the route that we were able to descend easily with our 50m ropes (as most folks were using 60s). We made it back to camp at 5pm, a 15 hour day and double what the standard time is for the route.
As we climbed higher and the altitude started hitting us harder our pitches gradually got shorter since we required more respite from calf burning climbing. Our climbing slowed dramatically and by about 1pm we pulled onto the summit after 10 pitches of constant 70º ice. Directly behind us was a pair of Argentinean climbers who had left a couple hours after us but had been steadily gaining ground throughout the day. After about 20 minutes on the summit we began the long tiring descent down the route. Luckily there were enough v-threads on the route that we were able to descend easily with our 50m ropes (as most folks were using 60s). We made it back to camp at 5pm, a 15 hour day and double what the standard time is for the route.
Graham at the bergschrund before gaining the couloir where the climbing starts.
Graham low on the French Direct route
Summit shot, AngusPure helped us out a bit of cash for the trip (a good chunk of it was spent on the bus tickets for the bus ride which we missed anyway but that's beside the point). This also turned out to be the best of the summit shots.The whole time we were on Alpamayo we had been fantasizing about food in base camp. Jack and Toby had also agreed to bring a bottle of booze back from Caraz which we were looking forward to unwind from the climb. Much to grand dissapointment we arrived back to base camp to a note saying they had come back up to camp but left again for good because now Toby wasn't feeling good. And to make matters worse there was no alcohol, no coffee, and they had eaten the alfredo sauce which I had been talking about eating for 2 days!
The next portion of the trip was a bit, well, disappointing. Since the first days of acclimatizing I had begun to have a bit of a heavy feeling about Taulliraju in the sense that I felt we were generally not fast enough for the kind of climbing required on the peak. As the days went on I felt less and less confident that we could attempt these routes safely and our speed on Alpamayo I think put the nail in the coffin for me. However we decided to have a couple rest days back at camp to recover as we were pretty thrashed from Alpamayo and Graham had a bit of frostnip on his toes form the climb.
The morning that we were planning to climb we both had been having some slight stomach issues overnight and so decided to postpone another day. I had not slept that night at all due to trips to the outhouse and contemplating the climbing. The next morning I broke the news to Graham that I was done climbing for the trip. Needless to say Graham wasn't terribly happy and since Jack and Toby had left there was nobody else to climb with. I knew it would be a long 4 days but once I made the decision was the first time I felt at ease for many days. The mountain will always be there.
The morning that we were planning to climb we both had been having some slight stomach issues overnight and so decided to postpone another day. I had not slept that night at all due to trips to the outhouse and contemplating the climbing. The next morning I broke the news to Graham that I was done climbing for the trip. Needless to say Graham wasn't terribly happy and since Jack and Toby had left there was nobody else to climb with. I knew it would be a long 4 days but once I made the decision was the first time I felt at ease for many days. The mountain will always be there.
Yeah yeah deep stuff, anyway the next 4 days went as slowly as you might imagine they would, the activities being mostly eat, sleep, read, eat, read, bathe etc. with a couple of short hikes thrown in.
Taullraju from near the Taullipampa camp just up-valley from our base camp.
Graham bathing at base camp
Finally the days were through and seeing Richar come into camp with the donkeys was probably the greatest sight either of us had ever seen. After 17 days camping in the Andes we were ready for some respite and some real food. For 15 kms down the valley we discussed finding a good pizza joint in Huaraz and gorging ourselves!
Little did we know at this point that a law had been passed in Lima affecting fees that taxi drivers had to pay, of course the taxis weren't too happy with higher fees of any kind and their way to show this was to go on a 3 day strike and barricading many of the major roads - including the roads from Cashapampa to Huaraz!
We found out we were stuck in Cashapampa as we were sitting in the town square waiting for Richar to arrive when a older woman walks up to us and starts an enthusiastic barrage in spanish. Between Graham and I we can manage to order drinks and buy food in spanish but not much more than that. Of course all of the no entiendo's and no hablo español's in the world didn't seem to matter to this woman as she just kept rattling on! Luckily for us at this moment an American Peace Corps worker was walking by and picked up on the one sided conversation. She managed to calm the woman down somewhat and translated to us that the roads were blocked and we would have to stay in Cashapampa for at least one night.
Cashapampa is a small town in a remote part of a third world country. There are certain things that it has and certain things it doesn't. One thing that it most definitely does not have is Pizza. What it does have is potatoes, rice, and tuna - essentially what we had been eating for the last 17 days. Needless to say we weren't that enthused with the prospect of staying here longer than we had to. However with reports of rocks being thrown and fires along the roads we didn't have much option. The saving grace was that at least we could buy beers from pretty much anybody in town.
Our campsite ended up being in the backyard/potato patch/pig pen/chicken coup/dog kennel/sheep paddock of the woman who initially accosted us in town. After setting up our tents we got to work cooking up yet another meal of potatoes and rice in the town square. As the afternoon wore on children and villagers gradually began tricking into the square and by the time the sun went down it had gone from empty to full of people with music and a group of women practicing for a regional dance competition the next day.
Little did we know at this point that a law had been passed in Lima affecting fees that taxi drivers had to pay, of course the taxis weren't too happy with higher fees of any kind and their way to show this was to go on a 3 day strike and barricading many of the major roads - including the roads from Cashapampa to Huaraz!
We found out we were stuck in Cashapampa as we were sitting in the town square waiting for Richar to arrive when a older woman walks up to us and starts an enthusiastic barrage in spanish. Between Graham and I we can manage to order drinks and buy food in spanish but not much more than that. Of course all of the no entiendo's and no hablo español's in the world didn't seem to matter to this woman as she just kept rattling on! Luckily for us at this moment an American Peace Corps worker was walking by and picked up on the one sided conversation. She managed to calm the woman down somewhat and translated to us that the roads were blocked and we would have to stay in Cashapampa for at least one night.
Cashapampa is a small town in a remote part of a third world country. There are certain things that it has and certain things it doesn't. One thing that it most definitely does not have is Pizza. What it does have is potatoes, rice, and tuna - essentially what we had been eating for the last 17 days. Needless to say we weren't that enthused with the prospect of staying here longer than we had to. However with reports of rocks being thrown and fires along the roads we didn't have much option. The saving grace was that at least we could buy beers from pretty much anybody in town.
Our campsite ended up being in the backyard/potato patch/pig pen/chicken coup/dog kennel/sheep paddock of the woman who initially accosted us in town. After setting up our tents we got to work cooking up yet another meal of potatoes and rice in the town square. As the afternoon wore on children and villagers gradually began tricking into the square and by the time the sun went down it had gone from empty to full of people with music and a group of women practicing for a regional dance competition the next day.
Camping in Cashapampa
Children posing for one of many photos
The favourite activity of the kids was to huddle in a big group and pose for a photo then rush over and view it on the LCD as if each photo only lasted for a split second before dissapearing. The result is dozens of photos of grinning kids.
The next day we decided to walk to a town about 45 minutes away to check out the regional dance competition. All of the school in the region had their kids dressed in brightly coloured costumes and each group would perform a dance to hundreds of onlookers. We stayed and watched for a few hours before deciding that we were going to try and at least get to Caraz, half way to Huaraz, today. A shower and real food were long overdue.
The next day we decided to walk to a town about 45 minutes away to check out the regional dance competition. All of the school in the region had their kids dressed in brightly coloured costumes and each group would perform a dance to hundreds of onlookers. We stayed and watched for a few hours before deciding that we were going to try and at least get to Caraz, half way to Huaraz, today. A shower and real food were long overdue.
Hauripampa dance competition
As we were packing up our gear we met a guy named Patrice from Montreal just coming out of the valley. Once again we lucked out as he was fluent in english and spanish and managed to talk a taxi driver into taking us to Caraz. Caraz is a decent size town and we were finally able to have a good meal and a shower. The next day the strikes cleared up and with no problems we were able to get our ride back to Huaraz where we spent the day hanging out with Patrice and Jack before catching our bus to Lima the next morning.
In Lima our flight to Buenos Aires was delayed by several hours and as we sat in the airport I started to feel increasingly sick to my stomach. Just before boarding the plane I went to the bathroom and threw up which made for some momentary relief, but we had a full day to spend wandering around Buenos Aires and I was already feeling like a zombie from the travelling. By the time we got to Argentina I was ina complete daze but couldn't pass up the chance to see the city so in my state of delirium wandered around with Graham in what turned out to be a stunning city. Buenos Aires was a huge contrast to the dirtiness of Lima, with beautiful old architecture and clean streets. The food was also first class which I managed to force down despite the pretestations from my stomach each time.
Buenos Aires
Even the French would approve!
Buenos Aires airport, before leaving for Auckland. Yes, we are as miserable as we look!
We finally were off to Auckland after a several hour delay in our flight. Both of us passed out on the plane pretty quickly. We were in the first row so could see them preparing dinner soon after takeoff and I remember thinking "just gotta stay awake until they bring the food around". The next thing I knew I woke up with a tray of food in front of me and everybody else done eating. I glanced at Graham and he was passed out with a bread roll in his hand with one bite taken out of it and the rest of his food untouched!
In Auckland we missed our flight because of our delayed flight from Argentina and had to purchase new tickets to Palmerston North but eventually made it back to the rain and cold of Palmy with a nasty stomach bug as a final souvinir from Peru.
note: I have 150 photos to put up online which will go up as soon as I figure out how to do the navigation of that many photos on my website.
posted by Travis Holman at
8:03 PM
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