Blogs from Ancash, Peru, South America - page 23

Well what an interesting week. After being saddened by Minstrels death, we had a BBQ party on Saturday in honour of Tristans birthday. Me and the globals (as we are now called) bought a cake under the pretense of Tristans birthday but really we just wanted to eat a big cake. Stephanie came back to Huaraz. She was in the group before us doing the programme, and she decided to come back for a few days before she went home. So we all piled in a taxi (Me Tom Lauara Jess Stephanie Liz and Ben - it was a tight squeeze!) and went up. Unfortunately when we got up there there was more bad news. There were blood stainted towels and bowls of bloody water everywhere. Blade was hit by a combi (a minivan) and ... read more

Hi everyone, hope you´re all keeping well etc, just as you like to know what we´re up to it´d be nice to hear what you´re all doing once in a while, i.e via comments. It makes the blogs a little more interesting. Cheers Well, since the Santa Cruz trek we have done a grand total of nothing. Except chilling out and reading a lot. Since our little spell of funkiness in Lima I haven´t been quite right, I know that´s the nature of travelling but it´s slightly demoralising having to spend most of your time within a few feet of a bathroom, wandering round the sights is just out of the question, smelling all that wonderful food when you´ve got to starve yourself for 24 hours, trying not to feed whatever nasties are the source of ... read more

Hi guys We returned yesterday from our 4 day trek from Santa Cruz to Vaqueria. I wont give you a blow by blow account as i'm sure reading about trekking is incredibly boring!!! It was a pretty easy going trek, and warmed us up nicely. We spent the first two days ascending slowly, passing lakes and locals, and camping in the most fantastic locations, surrounded by snowcapped peaks on every side. With only 6 hour walking days it gave us plenty of time to admire the scenery and socialise around camp. There were a number of groups doing the trek with donkeys and guides etc, both the way we were going and doing the route backwards, and although the reason we do all this crazy stuff is to get away from everybody, it was nice to ... read more

We had both been looking forward to doing some more trekking for a while. We were also dying to try ice climbing ever since we missed the chance while we were in Patagonia. So we made our way to Huaraz, the mountaineering capital of Peru (some would say of South America). Huaraz is a functional little town in the heart of the Peruvian Andes. It sits at 3091m in the Cordillera Blanca range which contains 50 peaks over 5700m! Huascaran, Peru´s highest mountain at 6768m is just down the road….. The area around Huaraz has a dramatic and heartbreaking history. It was here on May 31st 1970 that the worst natural disaster in Peruvian history took place. A huge earthquake (7.7 on richter scale) devasted central Peru, killing 70,000 people. Huaraz was flattened, with half the ... read more

Servus Amigos! Nach zwei Wochen wirds jetzt mal Zeit fuer ein Lebenszeichen meinerseits. Die Details der Odysee Muenchen - Limadreckcity erspar ich euch. Fakt ist, dass ich nach anregenden Gespraechen mit Schiggimiggi-Golftouristen auf dem Weg nach Tampa, dann Fachsimpelei ueber die Zucht von Longhornrindern im mittleren Westen, einer sehr kurzen Nacht in Lima, einer weiteren Odysee im Taxi durch das absolut verstopfte und kontaminierte Lima, mehreren verpassten Bussen und einer abschliesenden (sorry, hier gibts kein scharfes S) Nachtfahrt im vollgefurzten Ueberlandbus letztendlich in Huaraz, quasi direkt vor der Cordillera Blanca angekommen bin. Die ersten Tage habe ich damit verbracht, mein Kontingent an dreckigen Ausdruecken in Quechua aufzufrischen, gut zu essen und mehrere Kaesten Bier mit einem total gestoerten Franzosen (1,60m, grosse Nase - Napoleon) zu vernichten. Abgesehe... read more