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Published: November 24th 2007
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Hatun Machay
The start on the trip, spirits look good. As always I seem to meet people as I go and so continues Peru, from Cusco I took a very long bus to Lima, stopped, wandered and found my ticket to Huaraz. Proceeded to eat a nice seafood lunch and met a local with just enough time to visit and get on my bus to Huaraz. I arrived in Huaraz at first light more or less, and again followed the trend of finding lodging through a tourist agent at the bus stop. This time I struck gold with Hostel El Tambo I found very friendly staff, good clean rooms, and a very affordable price. I also found myself heading for a half day of rock climbing, which I set up the same morning through the travel agent roamer.
At the rocks I found another guide with his ropes already to go, and as I climbed with my guide I also visited with the other. At the end of the day I found myself happily tired and with plans to go climbing with my new guide friend Amilcar. We meet up in the night to buy food for the three day two night trek/climb and made an agreement on how much
Hatun Machay
Wall Painting I would pay per a day. I must admit at first I was more confused than I thought, as I thought is was a trip only on a friend level, but it hit both levels as the guy does have a family to provide for.
So we started the next day typical of South America, late, as Amilcar showed an hour and a half late and then we had to finsh our shopping pick up his other friend and "cook" Felix. Next was the problem of transportation, we left Huaraz easy enough in a "Convey" or mini van, but this only went half way. We then had to get a cab for the last leg, which took some extra time as it was a holiday "Dia de los Muertos" and the cabbies were wanting an unfair price due to the high demand of the day. But we settled on a cab and away we went. The cabbie took us from the highway down a long dirt road and we got dropped off in what seemed like the middle of no where in order to start our hike to "Hatun Machay" or the forest of rocks. This was exceptional as
Hatun Machay
Gotta love old stuff. there where some caves with paintings and acient carving (petroglyphs) to look at, as well as some amazing scenery. We hiked through the rock and around to our camp spot by a small stream and lots of sport climbing routes. Then it was a matter of lunch, some climbing and a nice clear night, one of those where the stars shine extra bright, plus the factor of 5000 meters helps.
The thing about this climbing trip is that I found myself as the leader, sure I had a guide, but I mean the routes that I was climbing I had to climb first or in "leader", so I learned and climbed a lot. The first night I warmed up nicely by leading two routes and climbing four. The next day was much more vigorous starting with a hearty breakfast and lots more climbing. In total I led seven different routes ranging from 6a to 6c and having 15 to 25 meters. Nothing really to brag about when it comes to hardcore climbers, but I must say it´s a start and I plan on improving. Oh yeah and I was tired, to the bones tired, but content. Otherwise just good
practice for my Spanish and another nice meal and night. Oh the other funny thing is that out here there is not much for fire wood, so you find yourself cooking with fire from a camp stove, small firewood, and cow dung, nothing like cow dung tea.
The last day I had another battle with my stomach (which I finally fixed woohoo) and was empty when it came to usable energy. So I managed one good route, and it kicked my butt, then we proceeded to prepare lunch. The other funny thing is that the locals would keep coming by camp to ask if we had paid. My guides had talked to a guy in charge and he said since they were locals it was ok, but I think after they saw the white guy the locals got him to change his mind. Or maybe not, they had them believing that I was from Lima and I couldn´t help, but laugh. Finally what ended up happening was us packing up and trucking it down the mountain, and this was an adventour. Why? Because when I was given the option I didn´t realize that the guides had never walked this
way out, so we found ourselves asking all the locals and hiking very hard (at times running), so we could make good time. Oh but the country side we saw, unbelievable mountians, crazy plantlife, locals and some wildlife as well. When it came to it we made it to the highway right as the last day bus was passing by. Perfect timing, luck maybe, I like to think there was someone up there watching out for us, but no matter what you think it was beautiful.
The rest of my time in Huaraz was a mixture of time with Amilcar and his family, and time with my friends at the hostal. The next day I went with Amilcar and his family to eat Pachmanca, a traditional Peruvian dish cooked naturally by heated rocks under dirt, and herbs, and more herbs, which included three types of meat, potatoes (sweet and normal), and tamales. It was awesome, if you find a place where you can try it don´t miss out. This same day was also the first day that I met my new friends from Spain. The next day found us all heading out to climb, I again led the first
route which was an easy 5 plus that was a bit much for the Spanairds. I then led a nice multipitch, (easy but a little scary as the bolts where far and the rock not always stable) and one more route before the rain started. In Huaraz this time of year it rains and rains hard pretty much everyday in the afternoon. The next day was pizza day as we made from scratch a pizza in the wood stove ( I can´t take much credit, the Spaniards did most of it, but I did help) and it was fantastic, we need to learn to enjoy these old ways of cooking more often. Then ofcourse another day of climbing with Amilcar and running from the rain, pushing my limits on the rocks and loving it.
For my last trip I did a 1 night trek with my Spanish friends and our local friend Claudia, near a small village and some ruins. We hiked some waterfalls, camped out, bullshited, played games, and I mainly got a lot of practice with the language and of course the adventour of trekking without a guide. This pretty much highlights my first experience in Huaraz
Hatun Machay
And we´re spent. but not my last. Thing is I am looking at returning in the high season to work as a guide with Amilcar and I must say I am excited. So as long as everything goes well I should be working as a guide in Huaraz from April until August, maybe September. So if anybody fancies a mountian adventour, and wants to check out Peru, give me a buzz and I´ll see what I can do.
Everyday is an adventour and this is the spice of the life of travel.
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