Blogs from Ancash, Peru, South America - page 22

A week before we leave and we´ve had out first ´cuy´ (guinea pig) fantastically prepared for us by our Peruvian friend at La Luna cafe, who makes the best Mexican food, and has been a very great man in allowing us to experience the various potent liquors of the South Americas! Unfortunately it wasn´t to our taste. The physical presentation of it didn´t put us off at all (guinea pig arrives complete with head, teeth, and feet - ´hands´ included) There´s not much meat on it, and it...well...to coin the cliche, tastes like chicken. It really did. Ah well, the potato fries, salad and mango and jalepeño chille sause was amazing. A true testament to Tony´s cooking!!! We´ve ummed and ahhed about what to to for the last week - tackle a couple of ´little´ mountains, ... read more

I decided to do it - climb a high mountain, up to some god awful altitude and see what all the fuss is about. And Peru seemed to be the perfect place (whilst perusing a guide book for Alaska where I´ll be going later with my friend Richard, I noted that similar activities there cost $1000 per day, whereas here I arranged a two-day climb including everything for the princely sum of $110). Lukas, alas, had had it with mountains... was it being beaten by a Scot up Punto Union, one too many tins of tuna in the backpack, or that last skinny dip that had brought on a bit of a fever? Well, whichever, he made plans to head off the next day to the beach near Trujillo, after a day trip to nearby Chavin, ... read more

The Santa Cruz circuit is one of the main trekking routes in the Cordillera Blanca and a mighty fine one at that. Along with my trusty sidekick, Lukas, who´d actually beaten me to Huaráz despite me leaving him behind in Cusco, I headed down the valley from Huaráz to Caraz, then on to Cashapampa by colectivo. The night before we´d stocked up on sufficient chocolate, quinua chicken surprise, and in Lukas´s case tuna, enough to feed the japanese army for a week, to get us safely through the 4 day trek. The market in itself was an interesting experience: though i got a photo of the chickens hanging up, I was too chicken to get a photo of the platters of disected guinea pigs, the local delicacy. Caraz seemed a nice place and there we stocked ... read more

Hey guys, got my very own Toching the Void right here, and I´ll start from the very beginning. As I said in the last journal, Martin, Matt and I planned to climb Mount Pisco (5,752masl) without a guide and we were going to do it Monday. We spent a lot of time doing a lot of prep work for it, this is serious business, we were venturing into the realm of mountaineering for the first time and it´s no easy step to take. We spent two days sat in Cafe Andino poring over topographical maps, sketches, route descriptions and humorous stories of a dinner party at the summit. We needed to rent a fair few bits, get some food in and a bigger pot to cook in!!! Friday/ Saturday - We decided we´d do the trip ... read more

Ein ganz besonderes Erlebnis (mittlerer Weile in Peru) war der 5 taegige Ausflug in die Cordilliera Blanca. Georg, noch etwas mitgenommen von der Kaelte im Ecuadorianischen Hochland, ist weiter nach Lima - ich aber nach Huaraz, der groessten Stadt in mitten der weissen Gipfel. Wie meistens bin ich mit dem Uebernachtbus abends los und frueh morgens am Ziel angekommen, einziger Unterschied zu sonst: Huaraz liegt auf 3100 Meter und morgens um 6.30 Uhr sind´s nur 2 Grad ueber null, autsch!! Schnell eine Unterkunft gesucht, heissen Tee in rauhen Mengen getrunken und alle warmen Sachen die man mit hat, angezogen. Auch meine neue Akpaca-jacke in Zumbahua erstanden kam hier gleich zum Einsatz. Dann hab ich eine 4 taegigen Treck klargemacht mit einem weiteren Tag dazwischen zur Akklimatisierung. Nach meinem 5000er Erlebnis is das sicher machbar, schliesslich ... read more