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Published: November 5th 2007
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Photo 2
This photo of agriculture in the Cordillera Negra begins a selection of photos from the amazing Olleros to Chavin trek I did. For those that are in an inquisitive mood I can now report, thank jah, I am a million miles away from the desert Metropolis of Lima. While the beach neigborhoods of Miraflores where I roamed are worth a look I was awestruck as it took my bus an hour to reach the ends of town though a backdrop of continuous and mind numbing poverty. The overnight bus ride to the mountain town of Huaraz initiated my next bout of packie syndrome and I arrived with enough energy left to get a cab to a hostal and pass out for 30 hrs, minus toilet time. But hey, no worries, I awoke from my dehydrated state just in time to party through the Halls of Ween with a seriously deranged mix of kids. My memories include running down the streets of Huaraz in a toga singing and dancing as the locals cast dumbfounded looks into the night. Lobotamy beats at club Diablo kept most the mob satiated and yet another bed sheet went missing by the early hours of the morning.
With that mayhem outta the way I began my research of treks into Cordillera Blanca. Walking aimlessly around like most gringos on
the street I ran into some friends from Lima who were just booking a three day trek and was roped into a guided trek from Olleros to Chavin; Chavin a community, being the prize at the end of the tunnel, that stores the tourist nugget of a pre Inca temple, or whats left of it. WIth a group of mostly spanish speaking folks and a 25 year old Quechua kid as our guide we set off. It has been mentioned that the Cordillera Blanca (and its cousin the Huayhuash) are some of the most beautiful montanas in the world. As a born again supporter of that philosophy I can attest to more than a smattering of Glacier encrusted peaks greater than 20,000 ft, hovering over sweeping valleys dotted with the colorfully dressed local quechan campesinos eeking out a living in thatch huts with their livestock. Our group, some strong others not so strong, pushed through 27 miles over three days, that at lower altitudes would be laughable one to two day hike of gazelle-like ease. Managing to get over the big 14,100 ft pass provided a challenge to everyone on the crew with my specialty being a hangover like splitting
headache, common low-end altitude sickness. As our crew poured over the pass, the beautiful weather to that point opened up to lightning, hail and reckless wind. While I truly enjoy these moments of reality, being checked into hotel nature, many on my crew were down right unhappy. Regardless coca leaves were chewed to much satisfaction, and I winced and beared the pain of bending over low to the ground almost a hundred times to photo document almost all of the flowering flora I witnessed. For those botanists in the crowd, the composite diversity was off the freakin rail! The next day brought sunny skies again, and a relative feeling of relief to most of the crew as we walked the remaining seven miles through scenes of a national geographic issue. Its hard to describe the site of these traditionally dressed hard working women living in thatch huts, brimming with the smoke of their cooking fires, herding sheep with hordes of adorable sheep dogs, while their men were off most likely in the city. As we entered these villages little children would pop out of cobble walls, greeted us with smiles and the hopes of carmelos (candies). Well I must have
looked like the devil since I was the one asshole in the group who did not have candy, but I still took advantage of the gracious photo exposes (or is that photo exploites?) that our sweet little (devil) candies bought the groups camera wielding. These villages transformed into larger more advanced communities with larger populations, infrastructure and ridiculously colorful and beautiful people. All in all I think I took about 100 pictures. At this rate my megabytage of photos will either shutdown the travelblog server or get me kicked off so I intend to post the entiretly (yeah get ready for a shitteload of flower photos too) of my photo collection onto SNapfish. MOstly as a protective repository. THis feat will occure around the middle of November and will likely be heralded as a watershed event in the history of watershed photos (laugh now). Until then, I am planning my next trip into montains since my goal is to hike the holy mother out of this part of the world even as the weather continues to degrade. But we all know that means more solitude, yee ha!
I hope everyone out their is weathering the weather whether they want to
or not. I want to give an electronic hug and nuzzle to the woman who makes my life resonate at the the right frequency. I love you Stacy, you cant possibly get here soon enough. And of course my family and friends, I love you all and hope you enjoy the photos I will eventually post as much as I enjoyed taking them, regardless of how cliche and bad they are. Its not nessacarily a shame since professional photographers probably make about as much as botanists.
Salud!
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Stacy
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Yo Vengo Pronto!
Jah Shwa, no puedo esperar estar contigo! te amo y te quiero mas cada dia. ~estacia