The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

By the way from last time:
1 – When we were walking down from Laguna Churup and talking to the Ketchua lady, she was telling me about how many people of Huaraz work in the mountains as porters, cooks, and guides. I was happy to respond with “yo soy guida, soy portador, soy cocinador, soy escalador”.
2 – I was talking with an English speaking woman from Huaraz in the hostel about meals in Huaraz. Alex and I explained how we had been eating meals for S5 or S6 ($1.67-$2) daily. She was shocked and said that as a local she would never eat at such places – they are far too unhygenic. That brings me back to thinking about one night we went to dinner and were sketched out at first when no one else was eating there. Second, when the waiter said that they actually didn’t have most of the items on the menu. Third, when a dog sitting at the front of the restaurant walked back gingerly into the kitchen. And fourth when Alex scopped the top portion of his Jello dessert off because he thought there was mold on it.

We slept in until 7am because we had stayed up so late packing. I figure my pack weighed in at about 30kg as an underestimate (It was 23.5kg on the airplane, but I had added about half my 16kg of food, 1kg of water, less the tent pegs, poles, and the tarp.) The collectivo to Yungay was S5, and lasted from 8am-9:15am. It was a very impressive ride. I was sitting by the window and would exclaim Huascaran! to the old Peruvian man beside me when it came into view – two towering domes 6,900m high.

There were “collectivo taxis” waiting at the collectivo drop-off to take people to Cebollobampa (the trailhead for Pisco). The driver wanted S15 per person, but our book said that it should be S10. He eventually went and got an official collectivo rates document that indeed showed S15. He then said that we would have to wait for two more people, because collectivos wait until relatively full until departing. He said that we could pay the four passengers fairs: S15 x 4 = S60, but we declined. By 10am we bargained down to S50 since it was getting late and we didn’t know if anyone else would be heading to Cebollobampa. Just as we pulled out and drove around the carpark, the driver shouted “gringos!” Lo and behold, two apparent trekkers were waiting. They were headed to Pisco too, so it ended up being S15/person.

The taxi got us to Cebollobampa by 11:30am. We hiked a few hundred meters over the course of three hours until we reached base camp. Out packs were brutally heavy with ten days of food and we were both relieved upon arrival. We had been leap-frogging a group of three guided by a Peruvian named Max, the same guide who we’ve been bumping into a lot.

The camp was very pretty – a large meadow with up-sloping rock slopes on three sides and the view of the valley we had come from behind. From here we could see Pisco, Yanapaccha, and Chopicalqui – the three summits we plan to climb. There were maybe two or three groups apart from us (all guided) with over twenty animals – donkeys and horses. We also saw cows grazing in the meadow, presumably belonging to the posh refugio atop the rock slope beside us. It was unnerving seeing the cows, horses, and donkeys sharing the one water source to the whole meadow – a small spring.

Alex had a turkey freeze-dried meal and I had quinoa for dinner around 4:30pm. By 5:30pm we were tucked in in the tent, crashing after a strenuous day.

We had another 6am wakeup this morning. Our hotel person told us how to get to Pitec. Pretty soon we were on a collectivo destined for a settlement of farms called Lluna. The collectivo sat waiting for a while and we quickly jumped off to grab some fresh chicken empanadas for S1 ($0.33) each when a man walked by with a basket-full. When the collectivo seemed at capacity (about 12 people) we were off. Little did we know that many more people would be squeezing in.

Along the journey to Lluna we picked up 10 more passengers, bringing the total up to 22! It was unbelievable that so many people could fit. At one point a larger Ketchua lady sat on Alex’s lap. We had to squish with our legs not even close to straight in front of us until the lady was able to sit down on our bench beside us. To make matters even more interesting, we were on a gnarled dirt road the whole time and when we hit a rut Alex’s head would go hurling into the ceiling. We both lost circulation in our feet miles before we arrived at Lluna.

When we arrived, the driver said Pitec, and pointed up a a large trail/gnarled road too gnarly for a car. We understood that this was as far as we would get by collectivo and happily got out. We paid the driver S3 each ($1) and started up the trail. It was 1.5 hours walking up to the sign marking the entrance to Huascaran National Park. We passed traditionally dressed Ketchua ladies and a caballero walking a couple donkeys up the trail.

When we arrived at the park entrance, we knew that we would likely need to pay a park entrance fee. We heard from many sources that it would be S65 ($22) for 1 month, but the official wanted S5 for the day or S65 for 15 days. I was pretty outraged and spent a while complaining – showing him my Varsity Outdoor Club membership, since alpine club members are supposed to get a better deal. We later found out that without an alpine club membership, individuals are not allowed to go without a guide into some areas (most of the areas that we’ll be going).

It was 1.5 hours up to Llaguna Churup, with an elevation of 4450m. We were both feeling the altitude as we ascended – Alex’s breathing/heart rate and I had a small headache. We saw other tourists along the trail heading to the lake. We arrived at the lake at noon and took an hour siesta – laying out on a grassy patch beside the alpine lake, with a perfect sunny day. That’s what I call acclimatizing!

We headed back down all the way to Lluna and I talked with a Ketchua lady for 45 minutes or so from Pitec to Lluna. We then took off our boots to wait for a collectivo back to Huaraz. Soon a taxi came by with a couple British people and they got the taxi to stop and beckoned us in. They were from Redding and were in Huaraz for a couple weeks on vacation to do the Huayhuash circuit.

The driving in Peru really is crazy. Just walk into the street and you see cars passing each other with only centimeters to spare. Or in this case on this country road, passing big cows and other animals with hardly any margin for error. At one point when a flock of sheep was in the middle of the road, the taxi actually had to nudge a sheep with its front bumper before the sheep trotted off the road to let us by.

Back in Huaraz, we had a huge list of things to do. We have decided to not do the Santa Cruz Trek (we later found out that even alpine club members may not do the trek without a guide). This was in large part due to meeting a friendly guide a few times since our time in Huaraz (he was also on our Cruz Del Sur bus) and he said he was going into Llanganuco valley to do Pisco, Yanapacca, and Chopicalqui with his clients. He said that he would be flagging the routes and leaving the wands in. We figure that this could help with routefinding.

So we first went to the office of the Parque Nacional De Huascaran to see about permits. We were hoping to show our club memberships here and get the 1 month for S65 price. It turns out that the price got even worse. The women said that for climbers it would be S65 for 7 days. I was really frustrated and spent a lot of time arguing. I ended up talking to another more senior person downstairs. I explained that we were planning to be here for 3 months and that we were without a guide because we couldn’t afford it. How can we afford S65 every 7 days? I told him I wanted S65 for a month. He repeated what the woman told us that that was last year’s rate and it was different now. He had sympathy for us though and told us that he would give us last year’s price of S65/month. He gave us his name in case anyone gave us a hard time.

Then to dinner – something roja, which was really good. I asked for the menu and the man at the front said solo pollo. We sat down and I asked the waiter for 2 dinners. We soon each had a plate of a quarter chicken with fries and salad for 6S each ($2). What a deal! And this place was popular, so I had more faith in the food since there was high turnover.

While Alex headed to the supermarket to buy food, I began the arduous task of individually bagging 10 days worth of food. It’s 10:50pm at the moment and I still have to go finish packing. We have food for ten days and are hoping to climb Pisco, Yanapacca, and Chopicalqui. We have topo maps of the whole area, route descriptions, and gps tracks for Pisco and Chopicalqui.

Ps – I finally heard back from UBC law this evening and was accepted. I’m pretty happy. Though it doesn’t change my plan to do my master’s of economics at Queen’s.

Adios! Back in 10 days!

The bus was a big touristy looking double decker bus. We were thrilled to see such varied landscapes – countrysides, deserts, the impoverished outskirts of Lima. We weren’t so thrilled openning Alex’s bag to find that his laptop had been swapped with a Cruz Del Sur pillow. It’s a huge blow – not only is there the lost value of the laptop, but it will now be much more difficult to process and upload photos to the internet. We’ll have to find hostels with computers and we won’t be able to edit the photos since we don’t expect hostel computers to have photo editing software installed.

What happened was that a man got on the bus like everyone else and was behind us. He helped Alex get his daybag up onto the luggage racks above our heads. We sat down. Ten minutes later, we saw the man leave the bus, still in Lima. We later found out that he claimed to have forgot something important in Lima. 30 minutes later Alex went to get his bag and found that the laptop was gone and there was a Cruz Del Sur pillow in its place.

We arrived in Huaraz and there was a security guard who checked every passenger’s bag for the laptop as they disembarked. We had told the worker on the bus and he had called ahead to the bus station and reported the theft. No luck. Teo from Caroline’s lodging then picked us up and drove us to and helped translate first at the normal police department and then at the tourist police department. The policeman said that if we really wanted (as if he were really inconvenienced) that we could get a police report, but we would have to wait until the bank opened on monday to buy some sort of special official paper for S4 ($1.33). He said that he couldn’t help us further because he claims it is the responsibility of Lima’s police department. He then told us that if we were to go to Lima’s police department that they would claim it is the responsibility of Huaraz’s police department. I couldn’t believe he was saying this. I asked him, so.. “la policia de Peru no funciona?”. “si”.

We went to Caroline’s hostel and were happy to unpack our bags. I hadn’t wanted to unpack my big bag in Lima since I figured it would be near impossible to get everything back in. We then went for dinner – I had 1/4 chicken with fried rice, salad and fries and Alex had the special with some sort of noodles, rice, and meat. It was quite the test for me to have another chicken dinner (we were served chicken pasta for lunch on the bus). This was because as we were leaving Lima we saw a filthy pickup truck loaded with probably 100 chickens – dead… de-feathered… slimy.. and ready to be taken to restaurants for preparation. It tasted fine – it even came with some spicy salsa.

The next day we followed the GPS track to Wilkaiwan. As we left Huaraz at 7:30am, the people in the streets were already getting ready. We each bought 5 fresh and piping hot buns for S1 each ($0.33). It was a relativelty short hike, bringing us from Huaraz at 3100m to a high point at 3600m. Including stops, detours, and lunch at a restaurant when we got back to Huaraz it was about 6 hours. We were happy to get back and have hot showers.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go for a hike with a high point over 4000m. We may begin the Santa Cruz trek the following day (3-4 days).

Note: The following photos don’t look very good since they were imported by Picassa and were somehow “auto-enhanced”. I’m not sure what the palabra is for auto-enhance, so I’m not sure how to turn it off. I’m hoping to figure it out. It’s too bad I’m such a cheapskate and don’t want to pay more than S1 ($0.33) for internet. It’s more the principle of charging your own clients for internet when they’re already paying S35 per night.

Dad picked me up at 5am sharp and we headed out to the airport. I was a bit nervous about being overweight with my baggage (see list on previous post). I put the densist goods in my carry-on bag. Upon weighing them at the airport, the large bag came to 23.5kg (limit of 23kg, but the attendent let it through). My carry-on bag came to 16kg – a huge amount of weight considering it’s a 30L daybag. This was 16kg of food – 2kg of quinoa, 1kg of lentils, 1kg of oats, etc etc. I was worried that the stitching would break when I picked it up by the hang-strap. Dad and I had coffee at Starbucks while waiting for the plane. I wore my hiking boots onto the plane because they wouldn’t fit in my day bag. Though I took them off on the plane to let my feet air and appologized to the person sitting beside me.

On the leg from Toronto to Lima I was seated beside a women who spoke french and spanish, but no english. She identified as una persona regiliosa, which at first I thought just meant she was Christian, but later figured out that she was a nun. I clued in when she started talking about her “hermanas” (sisters). We talked for 3 or 4 hours of the 8 hour flight. I was happy being able to converse in Spanish.

I arrived in Lima just past midnight expecting a man from the hostel to be there waiting, holding a sign with my name on it. The man wasn’t there, so after talking to a few people, someone else called the hostel and drove me. I was gripping the door handle tightly as the driver sped and swerved through traffic, never signalling. Through the next few days I realized that there aren’t many rules for driving in Peru. Stop signs don’t mean much and there’s constant honking.

I spent the next day walking around Miraflores, the area where my hostel, Hostel Kokopelli was. I then took a collectivo for S1.50 ($0.50) 30 minutes to city center and walked around the plaza de armas and some museums. I was pretty excited about seeing the museum of the central bank of Peru.

Alex arrived the next day and we walked around Miraflores with another Canadian he had met on the plane, Rachel. She forgot her camera battery and charger so she got a cheap camera at a store not too far away. We had a cheap lunch of S7.50 ($2.50) including a mystery apple beverage. We saw the waitress go into the bag and stick a pitcher into a big open bucket filled with this beverage. Rachel was a bit sketched out. Lunch was good.

We then dropped Rachel off at her hotel, walked around a bit, and got tickets to Huaraz for S64 ($25). We then went for dinner and splurged on the meriscos menu S20 ($7). We got appetizers of white fish ceviche and then we had some seafood entrees with another mystery beverage. The waitress was very nice and explained the beverage as some sort of non-alcoholic beer-like wheat beverage with lemon. It was very good – we went through two pitchers.

We met Rachel and her hotel-mate Sandra at the bar in our hostel and had Pisco Sours – a beverage including egg white, lime juice, and some sort of liquor. They weren’t bad.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, had the free breakfast of egg, bacon, buttered toast, and freshly blended pineapple and papaya juice. We then took a taxi to and got on the Cruz Del Sur bus to Huaraz.

I have one minute of internet left, so I’ll finish later. We’re in Huaraz right now at Caroline’s Lodging, planning to do an acclimatization hike tomorrow. Alex and I are both pretty excited about starting hiking and climbing.

It’s been an all nighter this night, cleaning up the house for my 3 month absence and getting packed. I’m hoping for no trouble at check-in due to exceeding weight restrictions. Here is my poorly formatted gear list (copying and pasting from excel didn’t work so well). I’m excited to now have a Peru category on the sidebar on the right.

Left 10pm from Kara’s – full to the brim after our dinner at the A & O Trading Company. Katie caught up and some sleep and I drove through the night untill the sun came up at 6am the next day. It was pretty crazy driving through LA. Even at 4am the 4-7 lanes going my direction were very full.

We stopped for a quick bite and a switchover as I was in need of sleep after the all-nighter. I slept till around 9am – not much because the sun made it pretty stiffling in the bed, even that early in the morning.

We passed Tucson and ran into a massive storm. From brilliant sun in the morning, to clouded over, to lightening and torrential rain. We had to make a few stops because the rain made driving impossible a few times, but eventually made it to the Mexican Nogales border crossing around 4pm.

Made it through the border easily. We got a green light – meaning no check at all. Didn’t even show passports or anything. The rain continued, though not so torrential, and we headed to “Kilometer 21” – about 30 minutes out of Nogales where vehicle permits are issued. We had a huge fiasco with customs, spending ages trying to get our way, but were eventually turned around because the car is licensed to my mum and I didn’t have a birth certificate to prove that she was my mother. Even though our last names are the same…. – a nightmare!

We headed back to the US – waiting in a 1h15m lineup to get back. Got a full car search in a separate lot. My parents bailed me out and fortunately I got a scan of my birth certificate emailed from my dad. Printed it out at a Best Western and now we’re staying in the parking lot tonight – stealth style. Curtains and all.