Last Days in the Beautiful Cordillera Blanca and Huaraz

6-25

Today I took a tour to Pastoruri Glacier.  We drove up to 5000m (16,400ft) where the glaciers used to be located 10 years ago.  Now it is a 45 minute walk (for me) up to the foot of the glacier at 5220m (17,122ft).  It was a nice view with a huge glacial face that dropped straight into a frozen lake.  Behind us there were also very nice views of some glaciated peaks.  Next  weekend there will be an ice festival up here complete with ski and snowboard races.  I really wish I could be there for that!  Maybe I would join with my old junky rental skis...  I had a lot of time to explore up at the glacier as it took most people a long time to make it up to the foot of the glacier at that altitude and several were holding their heads in pain.

On the way back down we made a couple of stops.  The first stop was at an overhanging wall that had some ancient wall paintings.  We then stopped at a soda spring where water was bubbling up and the water in the lake it fed was water with gas.  Our last stop was to check out some Puya Raimondi plants.  They were incredibly cool!  They look like a giant yucca and have a flower that grows straight up over 30 feet!! in the air.  It is apparently the largest non-tree plant according to our guide.  They are endangered and only found in a couple places in Peru and a couple places in Bolivia.  They live at a range of 3200m to 4800m..

Back in Huaraz I went to the market to load up on cheap food as soon I will not have that option as I will be in the US before I know it.  On the streets the locals had set up volleyball nets and were playing.  Volleyball is pretty big here and you often see people playing it, even in the small villages.

There has been a sort of festival thing happening in Huaraz the last couple of days.  A few days ago there was a fashion show, then a parade.  Tonight there was some good live music at the Plaza de Armas, so I went to my favorite burger joint and also got a couple of churros and went to listen to the lively music.

In the night I made this tasty cinammon chocolate where you melt a big Inca bar in a liter of milk and watched a movie with my everlasting hot drink

6-26

I got up early to take a collective to Campo Santo.   Elisha and I had visited this place before.  It is the memorial for the 20,000 people that died when an avalanche from Huascaran (Peru's highest peak) came rushing down to the town of Yungay.  When we had visited before, Huascuran was obscured by clouds, so that is why I visited today.   Today I had a very clear view of Huascaran as well as a cool view of the nearly full moon rising over the giant statue of Jesus that is looking over the area where the avalanche ocurred.

From the memorial, I could see a little mountain that I knew would have awesome views of Huascaran and Huandoy.  I could see agricultural fields up there, so I figured there was a road going up and thus likely collectivos.  I asked around and found out that the little village on top was called Atma and that indeed they had some collectivo cars that would go up.  So I piled into a car: we had 9 people and goods in the car the size of my subaru.  It was all local women besides me and the driver.  I am pretty sure tourists don't really ever go up to Atma bc it is not on any map nor advertised.  The women certainly got a kick out of me there and were laughing and chattering away.  They all speak Quechua (the Incan language) amongst themselves; however, the word Gringo is used both in Quechua and Castellano (what they call spanish here), and they were saying it a lot and laughing.
Myself and a young girl were squeezed into the front seat and she started talking to me in Spanish.  At the top at Atma (which indeed had great views of giant Huascuran and crazy looking pointed Huandoy) she wanted to show me her house.  It was perched on the edge of the mountain and had amazing views of the mountains and down a valley.  Sorry mom and dad, but I think her view beats yours.  She then showed me all her fat and healthy pigs, her burros, her cuys (guinea pigs), and her fields of kiwicha and maiz, and then she asked if I would marry her!!  All of her farm animals and her views and her sweetness were very tempting, but I had to tell her that I had a very nice novia (girlfriend) back home and it wouldn't be right to marry her.  But I told her that I have a very handsome single brother who also loves the mountains.  I didn't think of it then, but since Peru is so big in volleyball, maybe her and Elisha should have had a volleyball-off.

After checking out the views, I took another crowded car full of laughing, gringo intrigued women, back down to Yungay.  Yungay was happening as Wednesday is market day in Yungay when the villagers living way up high in the mountains come down to buy and sell their wares.

I had to be back to Huaraz by noon to check out from my hostel.  After packing and checking out, I headed out to the main square where the festivities were still happening.  There was a demonstration type parade stopping all traffic on the main street and in the main square they were having some sort of agricultural expo highlighting foods and products from the Ancash Region, of which Huaraz is a part.  It was a whole lot of Quinua, Kiwicha, Maiz, Miel (honey), and Potato products.  It is amazing all the different ways they use Quinua: chinese rice type things, quinua balls, quinua soups, quinua icecream, quinua drinks, etc.  One of the funniest parts of the day was when I bought a potato dish with a nice spicy sauce, the lady dropped my change into the sauce bowl.  It didn't phase her,she gave me new change and then just kept dishing out sauce from the bowl.

The best part of the expo was the cuy area.  There were cuys from all over the country.  Different breeds and different sizes.  Some even with long and curly hair.  Of course people were eating cuy all over just like fried chicken.  And the best part was that they had a cuy fashion show.  I saw the best dressed cuy in a cute costume with a gold medal around its neck.

I also stopped by the public library where they had an exhibit on the deglaciation of the glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca.  It was pretty shocking to see the extent of it and the before and current pictures.  Even to see how much it has changed since photos in 1995 and 2000.  I have heard that glaciers in the tropics are receeding the fastest of all.

Tonight I will go have my last meal in Peru (likely chifa) and then I have a night bus to Lima.  I will arrive around 5:30 am and then I have a 8:45 flight to Toronto.  A bit of a layover there and then a flight on to Seattle where I will get to hang out with the Jovial Bison and company as well as my aunt Dianne for 4 or 5 days before my flight to Spokane so that I can be back in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho and then more or less officially kind of home.

6-28  I arrived into Seattle last night after a couple long flights.  Was picked up by the Jovial Bison at the airport!  Great to see him.  Looking forward to hanging out with him and his family for the next couple of days.

Skiing in the Tropics!! And moonlit ascent of 18,650ft high Vallunaraju

By the way, I looked up how long the Huayhuash trek was and I read that it is approximately 165km ( 102 miles).  During the trek there wasn't tons of food.  Partly bc it is even hard for the burros to carry everything.  In truth, the amount of food we got each day was less than how much I would eat if I was doing nothing.  So when you combine this with all that hard trekking and your body working to keep itself warm, you definitely lose a lot of weight.  People on are trek were guessing we lost 5 to 10 pounds.  I did notice that none of my pants, my money belt, and even my underwear sagged when I got back.  Not to worry, as I am spending a lot of my free time in Huaraz filling up on greasy street food and icecream.

6-22

I had been expecting to re-do the Santa Cruz trek after I got back from the Huayhuash.  I was going to take one day "off" by visiting Pastoriri glacier then go on the the 24th, 25th, and 26th to arrive back on the 26th in time to take the 10:30pm night bus to Lima to catch my 8:30 am flight the next day.  I was wanting to have another go at the Santa Cruz trek bc it is supposed to be uber pretty, one of the supposed best treks in the world (according to Nat Geo).  When Elisha, Dacre, Kimmy, and I did it, we had so much snow and rain that we really didn't see much sadly.  Before the Huayhuash trek, I had actually gone out and bought all the food I would need for the trek, my fuel for the stove, etc. so that I wouldn't have to do all that when I returned.

However, things change...

During the Huayhuash trek, Scott and Leo started talking about maybe climbing a peak in the Cordillera Blanca.  I thought this was an excellent idea and I hadn't known there were some 2 and 3 day peak climbs one could do.  Considering my amazing amount of acclimitization after doing Santa Cruz, several day trips above 4500m and a 10 day trek where everynight we slept above 4000m and almost everyday when above 4700m,  I felt that I shouldn't "waste" this acclimitization by not climbing a peak.

So Scott, Leo, and I decided we would try for a 2 or 3 day peak.  The guy at the agency we had done the Huayhuash trek with said there were about 3 or 4 decent ones.  The two highlights being Pisco and Vallunaraju.  Pisco takes 3 days usually, though he thought Leo and I could do it in 2.  The issue we had was that Scott and Leo only had 3 days left before flying home, so with a rest day, that meant we could only do a 2 day peak.  We were going to meet at dinner to decide which peak to do, but when we reconveined over Chifa, we found out that Leo only had 2 days left as he had not remembered his actual flight date.  So that pretty much meant he couldn't go unless he left the next day, without a rest, for the climb.  So it was going to be me and Scott deciding on it.  But then Scott was being kind of iffy, saying he was tired and his feet hurt and maybe he didn't want to do it.  Well, you need two people to form a group and I really wanted to climb a peak now, but now it looked like I didn't have a second person.  When we went back to the agency to say this and for me to ask if there were any other solo people (which generally isn't the best thing bc you kind of want to know and trust your partner on the glacier, plus you want to make sure you have one that you know is in shape and can do it bc often if one turns back, both have to turn back), the guy was like "Leo, why not skip the rest day and just leave tomorrow as we have a group of 2 leaving tomorrow".  Keep in mind this was about 9:30pm.  Well if Leo was going to go, then I sure in heck was going to go, bc I trusted Leo and knew for sure he could make the summit.  So at 9:30pm that night, Leo and I decided to leave tomorrow to go to base camp of 5686m/18650ft. Vallunaraju for an attempt of the summit early that next morning.  So long Santa Cruz Trek, hello big mountain climb.  Plus this mountain had the added bonus that I would be able to SKI down it!

6-23

I went early in the morning to the agency to get all my equipment.  As per usual, they had no ski boots close to my size.  They actually had a couple decent pairs of skis, but no ski boots to go with them.  Instead I went with a short and skinny pair of skis from the 70s that had a type of AT binding on them that could fit the plastic mountaineering boots that I would be wearing.  We had to do some adjustments on the bindings to make my plastic boots fit in them, and I was a bit apprehensive about how they would hold doing sharp turns, but they were my only choice, so I went with them.

We started the day by driving up Cocuy canyon to the trailhead for the high camp.  We got dropped off at about 4300m (14,104ft).  The trailhead was near Laguna Llaca which we would see as we gained elevation on the hike.  We had stunning views of an incredible steep snow peak the whole hike up to high camp.  The trail, if you could call it that, was super steep, and it was definitely a huff carrying up our packs.  We didn't have donkeys for this trip and with all the warm clothes, tents, 4 liters of water, food, crampons, harnesses, plastic boots, ice ax, skis, etc, I would guess my pack weighed about 70 pounds.  There were two other people in the group: a japanese guy and an israeli.  Leo and I arrived up to Moraine High Camp (4960m/16,269ft) about an hour before the other 2.  The japanese guy, who was going to try and snowboard, had to have one of the guides go back down and carry his pack up.  The view from our camp was stunning with that same peak.  In fact, from my tent, all I had to do was unzip the door and the mountain was right in front of me!  We had a filling dinner in the rocks of the camp and then watched the sunset glow on the peak.  As it was a full moon, at night you could still see the peak illuminated beautifully by the full moon.

6-24.

Leo and I got up at 2:30 and left at 3:30am for the summit bid.  Our guide had wanted to wake up at 1:30am, but I convinced him that Leo and I would reach the summit far before sunrise if that was the case.  The other 2 with their guide did leave early as planned.  It was a 30 minute scramble over rocks to reach the glacier where we donned our crampons, mountaineering boots, and harnesses.  The japanese guy had already turned back having only gone about 200 meters up the glacier and the cook was there to take him back down to camp.

We didn't need to use headlamps because the full moon was so bright.  You could have read the paper with the moon way up at that altitude in the clear air.  And of course the glacial snow increased the luminescence.  In fact, as I told Leo, I thought I would need by sunglasses!  But it was just gorgeous how it lit up the glacier and surrounding mountains!  It was only our group of 4 that was attempting the mountain this night, so that was cool.

After what we thought was a fairly easy climb (we were well acclimated--I think we could easily scale at 6500m peak in our current state-- and we didn't even huff and puff or really need to rest), Leo and reached the summit of Nevado Vallunaraju (5686m/18,650 feet) at 5:45am, still well before sunrise.  Leo and I stayed up on the summit for over an hour enjoying the incredible views and waiting for the sunrise that we knew would light up the peaks.  The Israeli guy made it up around 6:30am.

On the way back down, after descending the tricky summit ridge and initial crevasse field, I skied down on my old skies.  I skied conservatively and tentatively because I didn't know about how the bindings would hold up, but it was quite fun!  The guides got a huge kick out of it and both wanted to video and take pictures of me.  They thought it was so cool.

I spent the afternoon doing some internetting and also sitting on the rooftop terrace of my hostel reading and journalling where I had a very nice view of the peak I had just climbed and skied down.  It is crazy to see this huge mountain way up there that I had just been on top of earlier that morning

In the evening Leo and I met up for celebratory Pisco Sours and then our favorite street hamburger joint which serves a burger with an egg with hot dog mixed into it and french fries in the burger for about 85 cents.  And it is truly amazing how this guy is able to get so many fries, so many hot dog pieces and the burger and egg into between the buns.  He has about 7 condiments to choose from (from mustard to mayo to catsup to chili sauce to spicy sauce to plus sauce) and you have to choose one I think or he won't be able to glue it all together.

10 Day Cordillera Huayhuash Trek

I have been wanting to do the Cordillera Huayhuash trek for a long time.  It is listed as being the best mountain trek outside of Nepal.  Last year I had hoped to do it, but I ran out of time because I got a WinFly contract for Antarctica..

6-13  Day 1.

Left in the mornin by van to the Village of Llamac.  I was a 4 hour drive.  For the first 2 hours, we drove parallel with the Cordillera Blanca which afforded nice views of some huge white peaks.  We then left the Cordillera Blanca and descended down a crazy deep and beautiful canyo.  It was an extremely windy road with snowcapped peaks (mostly covered in clouds) in the distance.  When we got into the canyon, we drove upstream on a very narrow road.  We were definitely in the boonies.  We had trouble passing a group of cows because the road was so narrow.  We also had trouble passing a bulldozer that was clearing a landslide.  Once we reached Llamac, we continued going up for a bit.  The van dropped us off and we just had a little bit of a hike to get to camp.  From the camp we did a short huke up a ridge (4510m/14,793) which had really nice views of two sharp snow-capped peaks and the green valley where we were camping in that was covered in little sheep and cow rock corrals.

I have done 10 day treks before where I have carried all of my equipment and been self-sufficient.  However, here, because of the low price and the fact that the agencies knew some good unmarked routes, I chose to go with a group.  This means that I would have a burro (donkey) carrying my sleeping bag, tent, and clothes, which would lighten my load a lot.  With the group, you get a guide, usually a cook (we didn´t have one, so the guide was a cook), and a donkey driver.  They wake you up in the morning in your tent with coca tea.  They then cook you breakfast, give you a sack lunch, and you set out.  When you arrive at camp, your tent is already set up and you have tea and a snack.  They then cook dinner at night.  They also set up a little dining tent which is nice because it can be quite cold and windy.

I had a nice little group and we all got a long really well and had a lot of fun.  Our guide´s name was Eric.  The Donkey driver, well Eric never knew his name (which we laughed a lot about bc they worked closely together for 10 days) and we hadn´t caught it, but everyone called him Primo (means cousin in Español).  On the trip was Scott who attended Princeton and lives in NY; however, he is living in Sao Paulo for a year because his girlfriend got a one year gig there.  There was Leo from Holland (who couldn´t believe Elisha and I had summited cotopaxi bc everyone he had met (including himself) had failed to reach the summit).  There was Asaf from Israel and EV from Bulgaria though she moved shortly to California, so for all intensive purposes she is American.  EV and Asaf met in Brazil and are now in love.

6-14  Day 2.

The morning was nice and clear and we had good views of the same 2 snowcapped peaks.  We hiked up to Cacanong Pass (4695m/15,399ft) where we some condors and had nice views from the valley that we had come up as well as nice views to the valley that we would be going.  There was lots of giant granite faces and mountains here...very similar to parts of the high Rockies.  This also happened to be the continental divide with one side flowing to the Pacific and one side flowing to the Amazon.  From the pass we hiked down with some nice views of the very folded granite mountains.  We also had some views of 4 snowcapped peaks, one of which was Yurapaja grande, the tallest peak in the Huayhuash range, though its summit was mostly covered.  We eventually arrived down at a lake: Mitucocha (4270m/14,006ft) with nice views of those glaciated peaks.  Very beautiful!.  We camped at a nice place called Janca (4240m/13,07ft) with a little stream running right through it.

6-15  Day 3.

I woke up before everyone else and walked back to Mitucocha lake.  The clouds had all cleared overnight, so all the peaks, including Yurapaja were shimmering gloriously in the morning sun!  As there was no wind yet, the peaks were also reflecting nicely in the still water.  I then headed back to camp to meet the others for breakfast.

On this day, we went off the trail and hiked up a big ridge (4770m/15,645ft) where there were absolutely stunning views of some big snowy mountains, the valley below, lake Mitucocha and another lake.  We could also see some really cool geologic formations including some sweet folds and huge granite spines.  We then hiked over a pass (4860m/15,941ft) where there were a couple of tarns.  In the shale (I think) around the tarns, we found some seashell fossils. We then descended a bit down to Laugna Alcaycocha (4670m/15,318ft) which sits at the foot of a red mountaint with a bit of snow on it.  We then descended into a deep valley, past some thatched roof buildings, went around a corner, and BOOM!  Right in front of us were 4 huge peaks with huge glaciers that had created a giant cirque in which a large turqoise lake (Carhuacocha) sat shimmering in the bottom.  That afternoon the clouds obscured the tops of the peaks, but the view was still stunning.  Our camp (Incahuain  4138m/13,572ft) was in a gorgeous spot overlooking the lake and with views of the big mountains.  Around sunset, the clouds cleared a bit and the light on the peaks from our camp was magnificent.  In the evening as we sat reading in our wamr sleeping bags in our tents, we could hear lots of avalanches roaring down the peaks.  One of the peaks we could see was Nevado Siula Grande which is the mountain the climbers were scaling in the book Touching the Void.  If you are not a reader, there is now a movie out about this crazy climbing survival story.  I have read the book, but not seen the movie, so I don´t know if the movie is good.

6-16  Day 4  Dia de los Padres

I woke up early to a beautiful sunrise and a clear day!  The views of the mountains and lake with the sunrise was awe-inspiring.  The rising sun set fire to the giant snow-capped peaks (Yerupaja grande, Yerupaja chico, Jirishanca, Siula Grande) that overlooked us and Laguna Carhuacocha.  I set out early before everyone else and went at a very fast pace up the pass as I knew the clouds would be coming in.  I first stopped at the outlet of Carhuacocha where I could see the big peaks reflected nicely in the water.  From the lake, the hike was through a steep valley with towering peaks and glaciers tumbling down.  Along the way, I passed by 3 glacial lakes: Laugna Gangrajanca (4245m/13,924ft), Laguna Siula (4290m/14,071ft), and Laguna Quesillococha (4332m/14,209ft).  After passing by the lakes, the trail climbed steeply so that I had a spectacular view down the valley of the 3 turquoise lakes and the towering snow-draped peaks.  I enjoyed the views for a while from a viewpoint (one of the classice Huayhuash viewpoints), then I hiked up to Siula Pass (4910m/16,105ft) from where there was pretty decent views of the big mountains; however, they were mostly covered in clouds by then.  From the ridge on the pass, you could look down and see Laguna Cojoncocha on the left and Laguna Pucacocha on the right.  I waited a couple of hours on the pass until the group arrived, and then we descended down to Laguna Quesillococha (4435m/14,547ft) that had some nice mountains views with fairly low glaciers.  From here we walked for a bit on an old Inca Trail that connected this portion of the mountains with the coast.  We took the Inca Trail as it descended to our campsite (called Huayhuash, 4350m/14,268) in a nice little valley.  That night it rained pretty hard.

Today was father´s day and as I was in the middle of the Andes, I had no way to get in touch with him.  However, as I was hiking up the pass,  I was thinking of him and thinking how he was one of the big influences on me that caused me to develop a love of the mountains, the outdoors, and hiking.  I am also reading James Michener´s "Centennial" right now, which he gave me, and everytime I open it up, it reminds me of him because he loves the wild west and the cowboys and open country and all that.

6-17  Day 5

It was quite foggy in the morning as we climbed up Ararag pass (4750m/ 15,580 ft.).  Going up in the fog had a unique mystifying feel to it and at times we would catch a glimpse of the the snowcapped peaks through a break in the fog.  It was cold on the top of the pass with even a bit of residual snow on top from the night before.  As we headed down the other side, the fog cleared and we could see some of the heavily glaciated peaks of the Cordillera Raura.  There was also nice views down the valley to Laguna Viconga.  On the walk from the lake to camp, there was a little range of beautiful jagged peaks.  We then arrived at our campsite--Guñog (4360m/14,301ft)--which had hot springs!!  Very nice enjoyable soak as we were of course very dirty and we had spent a lot of time in the cold high altitude air.  It was Asaf´s birthday, so we had boxed Gato wine that they had brought.  At dinner EV brought out a cake with firework candles that she had carried and we all sang happy birthday.

6-18  Day 6

We woke up in the morning to a hard frost but clear skies.  We hiked up to Cuyoc Pass (5070m/16,630ft), which had really nice views of some jagged peaks as we went up and to our backs were nice and clear views of the pretty Cordillera Raura.  From the top where nearly 360 degree views.  Sweepoing views of the Cordillera Raura and the valley and a couple of lakes from which we had just come from.  To the front right were the impossibly steep and incredibly big mountains of the Cordillera Huayhuash.  To the front was a huge valley with snowcapped peaks in the back.  To the left were some dry peaks and to the right was a glacieated mountain with a large glacier descending to a lower point than where we were standing on the pass.  While I waited for the others (I had to wait over 2 hours), I climbed up to a ridge (about 5120m/16,794ft) which afforded even better views of the Huayhuahs mountains and some beautiful emerals lakes shimmering below.  I also saw two Vicuñas (wild relative to the llama) grazing up there.  From the pass it was downhill to a big valley where we camped at Cuyoc Pampa (4492m/14,734ft)

Sometimes I guess I am a little crazy when it comes to seeing the mountains.  Tomorrow we would be going up San Antonio Pass which is supposed to be one of the top views of the trek.  Since it was a good weather day and you never know about the weather the next day, I thought about going up the pass and then back down to camp.  The donkey driver said (the guide wasn't down yet as he was still with Asaf and EV) it would take 3 hours to go up and a bit over an hour to come down, so I would just be coming back in the dark.  I was able to convince Leo to go with me.  In the end, I was able to do the pass in 50 minutes (I was cruising in case the afternoon weather changed) and Leo in 1 hr 10 mins.  The view from San Antonio Pas (5085m/16,679ft. was indeed stunning.  The very high, super steep and snow plastered Huayhuash towered straight ahead with a couple of glowing turquoise lakes (Lagunas Juraucocha and Sarapococha) at their base which huge glaciers flowed into.  We hiked up to a higher viewpoint from where we could see the village where we would be hiking to on the next day.  The Huayhuash was in front and behind us was the pretty valley with red and yellow mountains behind it.  After soaking up the view, we were able to descend back to camp in time to make the afternoon snack.

6-19 Day 7

We woke up to another hard frost and the exciting news (for Leo and me) that we would be taking an adjacent pass (off the main trail) to the one Leo and I had done before; thus, we would be getting different views.  I speedily made it up to this pass (5086m/16,682ft), so that I had lots of time to sit and enjoy the incredible views.  The giant white mountains stood out against the blue sky with a surreal turquoise lake sparkling below: Laguna Juraucocha.  We could also see Laguna Sarapococha at the base of a huge glacier.  We hung around for a while enjoying the views before descending quite steeply down to gorgeous turquoise Laguna Juraucocha (4343m/14,245ft).  On the way down we also passed a glacial green lake.  The views from Juraucocha were stunning with the completely snowcovered peaks behind and the beautifully colored water in front.  We had lunch at the lake, and I soaked my feet in the icy waters.

From there we had a long walk down a gentle valley that was covered by purple flowers that were head high with a sprinkling of yellow flowers interspersed between them.  Before the valley curved too much, we could see the big peaks behind us.  At one point we passed a waterfall with 10 different tiers. 

Eventually we came to the village of Huayllapa (3490m/11,447ft), a very small traditional villagle where we camped.  The villages was composed of about 300 families all wearing traditional dress.  There were lots of women knitting and also making yarn from sheep wool.  We loaded up on snacks (Sublime bars..yum!) at the little store, checkd out the center plaza, watched a gym class learn volleyball, and were asked some English questions by kids doing their English homework.  The village was very traditional with some houses having thatched roofs and most being made out of mud bricks.  There were no cars and the streets were very narrow. 

Today Leo told me "I am always the fastest in the mountains, but you are much faster th an me!.  Have you ever met anyone faster than you?"  My answer was, "no, except for my brother, especially when he has mono".  I later overheard Leo telling the rest of the group about how he had never seen anyone so fast.  This made me feel pretty good, especially being that I was the oldest in our trekking group. 

6-20  Day 8

We slept in at the village bc the guide and the donkey driver had gone out and there wasn't supposed to be any spectacular views to beat the clouds to.  Our campsite was on a soccer field.  When we had arrived the night before, kids were playing soccer.  In the morning as we were packing up, there was a gym class playing hula hoop games. 

Today was a big uphill day in terms of elevation gain.  We walked up a beautiful canyon with flowers and a nice river.  It eventually opened up to some broader valleys with views of a couple of glaciated peaks and back towards the red canyon and dry mountains behind.  At the top of Tapush Pass (4796m/15,731ft), I waited 30 minutes for Leo and then over and hour more for Scott so that Leo and I were pretty cold on top of the chilly and windy pass by the time Scott arrived.  But we had bought "summit beers" in the village, so we pulled them out, toasted to a good trek and then downed our ice cold beers.  Then it was a s hort walk, passed a small lake, down to our camp: Angocancha (4480m/14,694 ft).  At the camp there were some trees; the first we had seen since we left Huaraz.  In the evening we had a bit of hail.

6-21 Day 9

Hiked up over Llaucha pass (4853m/15,918ft).  Then leo and I hiked up a small peak (5007m/16,423 ft) to try and get a more panoramic view.  It didn't do too much good, unfortunately, because the high mountains were all shrouded in clouds, including the highest mountain in the Cordillera Huayhuash: Nevado Yerupaja (6617m/21,704ft).  Once the rest of the group joined, guide Eric took us off the trail.  We walked along a ridge that would have provided spectacular views if the skies had been cloud free.  On the left you could see some mountains of the Cordillera Blanca in the far distance.  In front of us was a nice looking red mountain.  Behind us was the pass and a few smaller snowcapped peaks.  To our right stood towering some of the highest peaks in the Huayhuash-- Yerupaja, Jirishanca, Yerupaja chico, and Rondoy-- their peaks shrouded by clouds.  But we could still see their steep faces and the glaciers tumbling down.  We reached the end of the ridge where we climbed to the top of Cerro Huacrish (4750m/15,580ft) from where we could see two lakes (Lagunas Jahuacocha and Solteracocha)--Laguna Solteracocah having a stunning turquoise color--at the foot of these mountains.  From there, we walked straight (and I mean straight) dowhnill with views all the time and tons of purple flowers until we reached Laguna Jahuacocha (4050m/13,284) where we would camp.  After lunch and a rest, the mountains towering over the lake and camp cleared quite a bit, and we could even see a few summits.  In the afternoon we hiked to the turquoise Laguna Solteracocha (4120m/13,513ft) which had a glacier tumbling right into it.  Back at camp, we saw some nice glows on the mountains as the sun set; however, the best part was seeing the near full moon rise over one of the glowing peaks!  Quite the incredible sights to see!

6-22 Day 10

I got up before the sun was up with plans to go hike back up to the viewpoint for sunrise and see the whole range cloud free, but sadly, it was cloudy.

On this day, we hiked from the camp to the village of Llamac (3250m/ 10,660 ft).  The first 10km were a flat grade.  The trail was high up on a steep and deep canyon with desert type vegetation.  Very scenic.  And as we looked back, the mountains started to clear up, and we had some very nice view of Yerupaja.  We then descended steeply down to Llamac where I had a couple of celebratory icecreams (Leo and I explored the whole town before the others arrived, walking every street before we could find an open store with icecream as we had arrived during siesta time on a Saturday). 

We then had the same scenic ride back to Huaraz.  First the beautiful canyon and then the road roading parallel to the Cordillera Blanca.

Back in Huaraz I made sure to have lots of icecream and a big serving of tasty Chifa!

Cordillera Blanca and "on my own"...

6/10

Elisha and I took a bus bright and early to Caraz wher we took a taxi up to Laguna Peron which is at about 4500 (14,760ft).  When we arrived at the lake, we took a hike along this huge and beautiful shimmering turquoise lake.  From the lake there were staggering  views of Nevados Pisco, Piramide, Huandoy, and Peron.  These mountains rise straight up and tower over the lake and valley and are of course plastered in sparkling white snow.

After our hike, we took the taxi back down the bumpy and windy mountain road (where we got a flat on the guy's super bald tires) to Caraz.  At Caraz, a cool little Andean mountain town, we hung out, had lunch, and visited the market.  We then took a collectivo just passed Yungay where we visited the memorial to the more than 20,000 people who died from a giant avalanche that was caused by an earthquake.  There was a cemetary there as well as a huge statue of Jesus overlooking the mountain (Mt. Huascaran, Peru's highest) where the avalanche roared down from as well as another big mountain right next to it.  Unfortunately, while we were there, the mountain tops were obscured, but it was interesting to look at the pictures from the avalanche.
You can see on the mountain the huge rock face that used to be covered in ice before the earthquake and  then you can imagine how the avalanche could have been so big and fast (280 to 330 km per hour).  If you want to know a bit more about it, check out the wikipedia site  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Ancash_earthquake
The interesting thing is the guy who wrote about an avalanche like this happening in a book he wrote in 1960, and he supposedly got his info from extraterrestrials.

When we got back to town, Elisha worked on packing and then Kim, Elisha, and I went out for a bit of a fancier dinner as a goodbye to the two of them.  Elisha is leaving from Lima tomorrow and Kim from Lima on the 13th.  So we went to a nicer restaurant run by a french guy.  We had llama burgers there.  Yum!  When we got back to the hostel we had a little music party where we made hot coco from the special Inca Sol chocolate bars where you melt them in milk.

6-11

Said a very sad goodbye to Elisha (and Kim) as they boarded their fancy bus to Lima.  Spent the rest of the day getting prepared a bit for my trek, walking through the market and the town, and finishing my novel while reading in the warm sun on top of the hostel roof which also has spectacular views of a large portion of the Cordillera Blanca

In case you didn't get the Josh Ritter reference from one of the last posts, perhaps you got the one from the the title of this post since it is now a major motion picture.  On my own from Les Miserables

6-12

I took a collectivo early in the morning up to Llupa where I hiked past Andean villages for a bit over an hour until I arrived at the trailhead for Churup Lake.  I then hiked up to Churup Lake (4465m/14,645ft).  It was a pretty and steep hike with some mountain views, waterfalls, and even a bit of required rock climbing (though they had rope in place in case you got nervous).  The lake is pretty, sitting belwo glaciate Nevado Churup and some big cliffs.  After having a cheese and palta (quechua for avocado) sando, I hiked up to Laguna Churupita (4580m/15,022ft) a tarn at bit higher up in the same glacial basin.  I then climbed up a pass (about 4800m/15,745 ft) that had nice views down to Churup Lake as well as some other small tarns and gave some views of some huge completely snowcovered peaks.  On the way back down through the villages all of the colorfully dressed women and men were bringing their burros, sheep, and cows back in from the field and carrying bundles on their back.  As I did a lot of extra hiking, I was arriving quite late back down the hill.  Most tourists actually take a taxi up to the trailhead or are on a tour and the rest that walk through the village are usually doing it earlier, so I think they were surprised to see a foreigner walking through when they were back from the fields.  They all gave me big smiles and big hellos.  Especially the cute old ladies who were sitting on the rocks and in front of the doors to watch the procession of animals coming through.

When I got to the main road, a guide who spoke English, but lived up in the village picked me up.  It was nice to talk with him and ask him some questions that we had.  One that Elisha and I had been wondering was what was the green plant the ladies were always carried bundled up on their backs?  He said it was a plant used to feed the cuys (guinea pigs).  He said everyone in the village had cuys, but they mainly ate them for special occasions like birthdays.  He also told me he was confused about the current weather.  He said it was supposed to be the dry season, but the mountains are hidden and there is snow and rain.  I am hoping and praying that it clears up for my big treks of the Huayhuash as it is supposed to be just absolutely magnificent and my re-do of the Santa Cruz.

Tomorrow I leave bright and early for the 10 day Huayhuash trek.  No need to worry as I am doing it with a group.  It is a bit more expensive than doing it on my own; however, the trail isn't too well marked and the guides know of special places to go, plus it will be nice to not have to carry 10 days worth of food.  We will have burros doing that!

Snowstorm in the Tropics: Snowy/Rainy Santa Cruz Trek

6/6

Dacre, Kim, Elisha, and I took the bus from Huaraz to Vaqueria.  The bus rides goes over a pretty wild and crazy dirt pass that has tons of switchbacks and goes up above 15,000ft.   As we approached the summit of the pass, the mountain views were stunning.  We were surrounded on all sides by big glaciers and mountains.  And down towards the valley where we had come from were two lakes like diamonds in the valley's hand.  Hats off to whoever of you got that lyrical reference from an awesome Idaho singer-song writer.

We arrived in Vaqueria (3700m/12,135ft(  which is a tiny Andean town along the road.  From here we donned our packs and began the trek.  After a bit of walking we passed through the village of Huaripampa which was full of andean color with all it's fields, brightly dressed women, and different species of corn drying on the rooves.  This town had a place called "centro de producción de cuyes" (center for guinea pig production).  We had imagined some big place where they are making guinea pigs reproduce, but instead, it was actually just some tiny little cages adjacent to a house.  From Huaripampa, we continued on passed some nice valley scenery to our Paria (3870m/12,694ft).  This campsite had lots of curious cows that would come right up to us while we were cooking and even try to steal some food from us.

6/7
 We got up before the sun was up to begin our hike up the pass of Punta Union.  We started out in the mist and eventually it turned to rain.  We seeked out shelter under some some huge glacial erratics where we cooked breakfast, but then had to continue up into the rain which soon turned to snow.  When we reached the top of Punta Union (4750m/15,580 ft) it was snowing quite hard and we sadly had no views of the surrounding views of the mountains.  We spent just a little bit of time in the snow storm on top of the pass before heading down.  As we descended a bit, we could see a little turquoise lake sitting in a glacial cirque below.  We were all feeling kind of bummed because the views from the pass were supposed to be amazing.  Elisha, Dacre and I decided to not descend all the way to the next campsite and instead camp near the pass because our plan was that if it was clear in the morning, we would hike back up to the pass.  Kim and a french guy (Nikoli) continued down to the campsite as it was lower down and they figured it would be warmer.  We set up our tents around noon and we stayed inside them reading the rest of the day as it continued to rain and snow.  The campsite would have been absolutely stunning as we set up our tents on a little bluff overlooking the glacial cirque, the valley, and where some big mountains would be.  We camped likely around 4450m/14,596ft  (a bit higher than the tallest mountain in Colorado).

6/8  In the morning it was still snowing, so we hiked down to Taullipampa (4250m/13,940 to pick up Kim where she was camping. It was blowing and raining pretty hard, so we found a pretty sweet cave where we cooked up breakfast and hung out and till the weather calmed down a bit.  We then hiked up to the Alpamayo base camp at 4330m/14,202ft).  Alpamayo (the May mountain) is listed by some as the prettiest mountain in the world.  It is also the mountain that the mountain from Paramount pictures is copied after.  The "paramount" view is actually from the other side of the mountain than we were on.  At the base camp, we did get a few fleeting glimpses of some big, steep, and pointed glaciated peaks.  After setting up our camp in a beautiful campsite, we hiked up to Arhuaycocha lake at 4400m/14,432.  It was a pretty little turqoise lake at the foot of Alpamayo and had a glacier running right into it.  In the late evening as we were cooking dinner and fending off burros and cows from our food, the peaks cleared up pretty good, which was very cool!

6/9
 Snowing again in the morning (nothing like those tropical snowstorms...the Cordillera Blanca is the highest mountain range within the Tropics), but as we walked out, we did get a clearing view of Alpamayo.  We also got a sweet view of this amazingly towering peak!  But still snowing up the valley from where we had come down the pass, so we couldn't see any mountains up there.  With some rain blowing at our backs, we descended into a valley that was filled with debris from a mudslide.  We continued walking and passed the pretty emerald lake of Jatuncocha.  We arrived at a campsite called llamacorral where we had lunch.  At this point, we were far enough away from the storm on the high peaks that we could relax in some sunshine and play with a friendly burro who even let us ride him especially after we let him eat some peanut butter sandwiches (but he had to steal them from our lips in a sort of burro kiss).  From Llamacorral, the 4 of us continued down an impressive canyon to Cashapampa (2900m/9,512ft) where we took a taxi to Caraz and then a collectivo back to Huaraz.  

Kim was still feeling sick, so just Elisha, Dacre, and I went out on the town.  Since it was Dacre's last night in South America (well he would be sleeping in the Lima airport the next night), we enjoyed some traditional peruvian specialties with our meal: Cuy (guinea pig) and Pisco sour (a drink made from pisco (a hard alcohol made from grapes), sour mix, and egg whites).

We have to admit that we felt quite a bit bummed about the weather that we had on the trip.  May starts the dry season and by June it is supposed to mostly be sunny days.  Definitely not 4 days of rain and snow.  The Santa Cruz trek is supposed to be completely gorgeous too.  It was sad to say goodbye to Dacre (I can't remember if I mentioned that Dacre is Elisha and my friend from Antarctica and that he lives in Boulder now and works for University Bikes), and he said he would be back so that he could re-do this trek and also to the 10 day Huayhuash trek.  Believe it or not, after I do the huayhuash trek, I think I have enough time to re-do the Santa Cruz trek, so I think I will.  Pray that I have good weather on the Huayhuash and the Santa Cruz Redux treks!!

The Beautiful Cordillera Blanca and a lake made out of gatorade

6/3

Today Dacre, Elisha, and I hiked up to Wilcacocha Lake.  The lake was not too impressive, but the view from the lake were absolutely amazing!  You could see the entire stretch of the Cordillera Blanca.  These mountains are gorgeous as they are massive, tall, and completely covered in glaciers.  They are also extremely steep and many of the peaks form the sort of "perfect peak" being that they have a pointed summit.  We could see mount Huascaran which is the tallest peak in Peru (22,205ft) and is just monstrous.  We also had nice views down to Huaraz.

We spent the afternoon hanging out  in the square eating icecream.  There are lots of cheap Chifa (chinese) restuarants here and we have been enjoying a break from traditional south american set meals.  We also just love to say the word Chifa.  And our favorite Chifa restaurant is called Chifa Chifa Chifa Hifa!  We have also noticed that Chifa restaurants tend to give us something we have termed Chifa as well which can be characterized in a similar way you would characterize agua con gas (water with gas): bubbly with gas.

6-4

Took a bus to Yungay and then up into a mountain valley where we had a quick stop at the two Llanganuco lakes which are a pretty glacial turquoise color.  We then hiked up to Laguna 69 which sits at 4600m/15,100ft).  The hike had stunning views of glaciated peaks all around including monstrous Huascuran.  Along the trail there were several waterfalls and purple and yellow flowers all around.  When we rounded the bend and saw Laguna 69, Dacre exclaimed " What the %&$# !  I have never seen anything that blue!"  And indeed it was true, I had never seen a lake that bright of a blue.  It was Incredible!!  The lake looked like the color of one of those glacier gatorades.  If someone had said the lake was a fake, we would have believed them.  It was crazy.  So beautiful.  And to top it all off, it was surrounded by beautiful glaciated peaks that were incredibly steep and very pointed.  Just an amazingly stunning sight.

Of course at night we went out for Chifa and then we watched a movie at the hostel and had beers mixed with sprite which is a drink that Dacre had picked up along his travels.  You would think it is not very manly, but he learned about it from some tough beer drinking Germans.

6-5
Today Dacre was sick with a fever and Kim sick with a cold, so we just hung out around town and did some things we needed to do to get ready for the trek like shopping for food and renting equipment we needed.

Long Journey to Peru and Meeting back up with Elisha

5-31

I took a bus early in the morning from Puerta Ayora to the north of Santa Cruz, then the ferry to  Baltra Island  and then a bus to the airport where I caught my flight to Guayaquil.  The flight wasn't too bad on the ears until we started to descend and then the pain was pretty excruciating.  But the ears were feeling better after having been at the airport for a bit.  From the airport, I took a taxi to the terminal terrestre where I caught a bus to Huaquillas which is an Ecuadorian town on the border with Peru.  Elisha and I had worked out how to try and meet up.  She had suggested a couple of Hostals, and the first one that I tried, I found her there.  I told the people at the front desk "Estoy buscano para mi novia" (I am looking for my girlfriend).  They didn't seem to know.  Then I said "La Chica muy alta" (The very tall girl).  And then they knew right away and happily showed me where she was.

6-1

In the morning, Elisha and I walked across the border, which was a bridge, into Peru and into the town of Agua Verde.  Unfortunately the immigration offices are located on the Panamerican Hwy, so we had to take a taxi out to the Panamerican where we could get officially stamped out of Ecuador and stamped into Peru.  We then took a taxi to Tumbes.  We wanted to go to Trujillo from here, but they only had night buses, so we took a busfrom  Tumbes to Piura.  They also only had night buses to Trujillo, so we killed a bunch of time getting some food, eating icecream, and hitting up some internet before taking a nice luxury overnight bus to Trujillo.  Trujillo is a bit of a dangerous city, which is part of the reason we took a luxury bus.  The bus had x-ray security like at the airport and also took each passengers fingerprints.  When we arrived at 5:30am into Trujillo we took one fo the bus companies taxis (regular taxis can kidnap you and take you to an ATM where they force you to withdraw money) to another bus company where we took a bus to Chimbote.  Chimbote smelled terribly bad of fish as it was an area with major fish processing.  We had to wait there a couple of hours until taking a bus to Huaraz up in the mountains.  The ride up was interesting. First we went along the coast where we could see the ocean and where there were some large sand dunes.  Then we turned inland where we wenth through incredibly dry desert; no plants, just dirt and sand.  As we drove higher up there started to be cacti and then eventually it turned into high andean agriculture.  As we descended into Huaraz, there were beautiful views of the high snowcapped Andes of the Cordillera Blanca (white mountain range).  Huaraz sits at 10,013ft above sea level.  In Huaraz, we checked into our hostel, went out for food, and when we arrived back at the hostel our Antarctic friend Dacre and his friend Kim (from Australia) were there.

Diving in the Galapagos with Hammerheads and Manta Rays: Perfect Birthday Gift

5-26

3 Dives at Darwin Island where there is a very cool above ground arch called "Darwin's Arch".  Lots and lots and lots of Hammerheads!!  Swimming all over..above us...below us...through us.  Lots of sea turtles as well.  Then we did 1 dive at Wolf island where there was more hammerheads as well as galapagos sharks.

I enjoyed my last night of being in the 20's by soaking in the hot tub as we sailed towards the sunset..

5-27-2013
My Birthday!!  In the morning we saw dolphins out the window during breakfast.  By the way, breakfast every morning included fresh fruit, granola, cereal, yoghurt, and milk, then there was a choice of 10 different things for hot breakfast.  I usually had an omellette with meat, cheese, and mushrroms, with a side of bacon and toast.
We had sailed overnight to Cabo Douglas on Isabella.  On my first dive, I saw 3 mantas!  We did 3 other dives today at Cabo Douglas where some of the highlights were a spotted eagle ray. some sharks, turtles, and the ever friendly sea lions.  We took a boat excursion where we saw galapagos fur sealions and flightless commorants.  In the evening the boat sailed on, and I sat in the hot tub where I watched lots and lots of rays (most likely spotted eagle rays or manta rays) jumping up to 8 feet out of the water and then splashing down (they do this to remove parasites from their body).  While sitting in the hot tub, I also saw a whale spouting off in the distance!

One of the other divers, Karen from the UK, also was having her birthday (her 50th).  So for dinner, they decorated the inside of the boat with balloons and streamers.  After dinner, they brought out a cake with candles where they had written happy birthday Karen and Travis on it.  They sang for us, and then of course the bubbly was passed out and there was a champagne toast.

5-28

Overnight we moved to Isla Fernandina in the heart of the humboldt current.  So today we had 3 very cold dives (17C = 62F).  On the first two dives off of Fernandina, we saw lots and lots of Marine Iguanas feeding and swimming in the water.  This was a pretty cool and special thing to see.  Not many people get to witness it bc it is mainly on Fernandina and the sun has to be hot and strong for the iguanas to go into the water.  Of course we also so sea lions.  We did a snorkelling excursion into a bay on Fernandina where we snorkelled with baby sea lions, marine iguanas, flightless comorants, and a penguin.  While we were snorkelling, the iguanas were marching from the beach down to the sea to jump in for swimming.  It reminded me of some sort of army beach invasion bc there was just masses of them coming down to the water.

After the first 2 dives, we sailed back to Isabella to Punta Vicente Roca.  Other than the dives with the hammerheads and galapagos sharks at Wolf and Darwin, this was my favorite dive site.  On the dive we saw a Mola mola! Mola mola, which is also known as a sunfish is a giant fish that is very flat and appears to be 1/2 of a fish.  It s one of those species that divers are always hoping to see.   We also saw 3 cute little seahorses and an octopus.  And of course lots of turtles and some sea lions.

After this dive, everyone voted to do a dinghy ride instead of a night dive since it was so cold in the water.  On the dinghy ride we saw lots of baby sea lions playing, blue footed boobies, masked boobies, and 2 penguins.

For dinner we a whole giant turkey feast, like thanksgiving.  Apparently it is only in the West where people eat drumsticks bc I was the subject of many photos from the east coasters and the europeans as I ate the huge drumsticks.  We then had a champagne toast after the meal to celebrate a good trip.

5-29

This morning we did 1 dive off of cousins rock.  We saw 3 white-tipped reef sharks and of course plenty of turtles and sea lions.  Because it is dangerous to fly within 24 hours of your last dive due to the increas of nitrogen bubbling when you lose pressure, and most people were flying the next day, the rest of the day we did land excursions on Santa Cruz.  We visited a place called the gemelos (the twins) which are two giant sinkholes.  We then visited the lava tunnels and el Chato tortoise reserve where we got to watch the wild tortoises.  From there we went to the charles darwin research station to check out the tortoise nursery.

Today both of my ears had just been killing me and both of my jaws hurting as well.  My dive guide thought that perhaps I had an ear infection because this is commong among divers because of the nutrient rich waters and plankton that we dive in and the fact that we dive so much that our ears hardly have time to dry.  So I picked up some ear drops for my ears.

We went back to the boat for showers and such and everyone disembarked again to go back to Puerto Ayora for dinner and to party.  I wasn't feeling much like going out, so I stayed on board and watched a couple of movies.  The crew was nice and made me dinner, and I just chilled on the boat.  The party was apparently pretty wild though bc Vladamir didn't make it back until 1am and some of the other people until 4am.

5-30
We sailed in the morning to Baltra where we disembarked.  I took the bus back to Puerto Ayora.  I arrived early in the morning, so I hiked to Tortuga Bay which is a beautiful white sand beach with also gorgeous turquoise water.  I walked out to a rocky area where I sat amongst the marine iguanas and sally lightfoot crabs and watched them go about their business.  It is funny bc sometimes the crabs crawl right over the iguanas, and they don't seem to care.  From there I walked to another beach and then through a cool opuntia cactus forest.  They cactus are pretty sweet because they have trunk like trees (with bark) and leaves like prickly pear cacti. 

After my hike to the beach, I took a water taxi across the bay and then hiked to Las Grietas (the grottos) which are collapsed water tubes filled with pretty colored and very clear water.

My ears were still hurting a lot, and I was worried about whether it may be something else.  Not wanting to take any risks with my precious hearing, I went back to the ER (the private clinic and regular hospital were closed at these hours).  The guy looked at my throat (same flashlight into the mouth!) and found nothing.  He then looked into my ears and said there was no infection but that there were small lesions on the membrane which can be caused by doing a lot of diving (you have to constantly be equalizing your ears while diving) which I was (averaging 4 dives a day on ears that hadn't been diving for years).  He said it would heal up and just take Ibuprofen for the pain.  And yes, after about 3 more days they did heal and are now (as of 6/5) feeling pretty good.

Galapagos Liveaboard Dive Cruise!

5-23

As a treat for an Antarctic season with a more stressful job, a 30th birthday (dirty thirty as Cassa would call it) present, and a last fling before the grind of grad school, I had reserved a space on a liveaboard dive cruise.  I had actually found a deal on one of the luxury boats that made it cheaper than even the more budget boats (not that dive liveaboards are ever budget).  I had booked myself onto the Aggressor I with an itinerary that reached the far far northwest of the Galapagos (Darwin and Wolf Islands) which has some of the best diving in the entire world.

In the morning, I said a sad goodbye to Elisha.  She would have one more day in the Galapagos before flying to Guayaquil and then heading onto Cuenca and Vilcabamba.  I know that she had an amazing time there and did some cool stuff, so maybe she will comment onto this blog a bit about what she did...

Took a taxi to Baltra Airport with one of the other divers, Tatiana.  At the airport, we met the 12 other divers and the 2 dive guides (Richard and Rubin), and then boarded the boat.  The boat was indeed luxury!!  Super fancy!  Especially for this backpacker.  They gave us hot towels to freshen up upon arrival.  The boat had unlimited and bottomless bowls of snacks, candies, and chocolate bars as well as fruit (which I filled up a pretty good bag to give to Elisha upon meeting up with her later as she loves S. American snacks).  They had a refrigerator in the main lounge as well as on the top deck filled with wine, beer, and soft drinks which were free and unlimited.  They had a fancy lounge area with nice and comfy couches, a flat screen tv with surround sound, and a DVD and book library.  Right away we had an amazing lunch and then did our checkout dive to check our equipment and bouyancy (It would be the first time I would be diving with a 7mm wetsuit, gloves, and hood).  After the dive (and of course each dive) they had scorching hot deck showers (which we also used before diving to warm up our wetsuits and fill them with hot water).  After rinsing off, a member of the crew then gave you a steaming towel straight from their towel oven, a cup of hot coco, and a snack.  The boat also had a hot tub up near the bow, which I often used at the end of the diving day.  The ship also had satellite email, so I was able to let my parents and Elisha know during the dive trip that I was feeling 100% better and having a good time.

I was rooming with Vladimir (from NYC, originally from Bulgaria).  Our room was really nice complete with a huge bathroom, nice beds, lots of storage space, and a flatscreen tv with dvd player.  There was chocolate on our pillows and towels on our bed folded up to look like manta rays.  Everyday they made a different design out of the pillows including turtles, sharks, and flowers, and of course added chocolate everyday and made our beds and such.

Before dinner, we all gathered at the back outside lounge areas where we met the entire crew who all came out dressed in the "Navy Whites" (like Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men) for a champagne toast.  Then we went to the top deck for a a bbq with steak, chicken, and fish.  The waiter was dressed in tuxedo, just like he would be everynight and he kept everyone's glasses full of wine (though I stayed with the milk and juice and pepsi on account of recovering from being sick and being extra conservative about being bent...OH leads to dehydration which can cause the bends.  Though at the end of the trip when I was fully recovered I joined in a bit with the rest of the group.)

5-24.

1st real day of diving in the Galapagos!  3 dives.  Still not to the good stuff yet, but saw some turtles, a shark, and some barracudas as well as diving with sea lions.  I have a more detailed dive log that I keep, but on this blog I will mainly be sharing the big and cool stuff that I see while diving.  Though I won't be mentioning it, you can assume that I saw lots and lots of tropical, pelagic, and other fish as the galapagos just has tons and tons of fish and some huge schools.  Sometimes, the fish would be so thick that as you were trying to see something big like a shark, you couldn't hardly see it on account of so many fish being in the way!  Incredible!

For lunch, we had a huge, huge fish with a tomatoe in its mouth.  Everyday for lunch they made an animal out of food.  Today, they made a frigate bird out of eggplant, with a tomatoe as the puffed red balloon part of their neck.  For other lunches they made orcas, turtles, penguins, and manta rays.

In the late afternoon, we took a land excursion on Bartolome Island where we hiked to the peak for sunset and the most iconic view of the galapagos--the double beach peninsula with the pinnacle rock.  I was stoked that our boat went hear as from Puerto Ayora, this was a $140 day trip, but it is one of the most famous views of the Galapagos.    And it definitely was a sweet, sweet view! especially with the other islands and little volcanic cones around.  We saw the sunset on one side and then to the other side, we saw the fullmoon rise!  A stunning landcape for sure.

12 hours overnight sailing to Wolf Island.

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5 dives at wolf island including a night dive.  Lots and lots of hammerhead sharks!!  as well as the large Galapagos sharks.  Plenty of turtles and sea lions as well.

The Island of wolf was beautiful with sheer cliffs where we saw Nazca boobies and red footed boobies nesting.  We saw a huge pod of dolphins on 2 ocassions from our dinghy, but when I jumped in to swim with them, they had quickly moved on.  Lunch was kebabs on the deck where we enjoyed the island scenery and watched the sea lions playing below the boat.  Dinner was lobstertail!!  (early birthday dinner?)  We then had a soak in the hot tub during sunset with cocktails.  Quite the experience to be in a hot tub while bobbing on the sea in a boat!

Isla San Cristobol: Sea Lion Paradise

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With the new meds and feeling a bit more comfortable after talking to the doctor at the private clinic and my own parents, we took the boat from Santa Cruz to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on Isla San Cristobol.  It was a long and rough ride with the waves, but I began feeling better already on the boat.  At the port as we were sitting looking at our guidebooks of where to look for a place to stay, a man with a NY accent came up to us and said he had a nice apartment for rent for cheap.  He offered to drive us up for a look.  So we piled in his little car and he drove us up to his place.  It was very nice with a couple of beds, aircon, a tv, and a full kitchen with fridge, and very cheap.  So we took it.  The guy was extremely nice and helped us out a lot.  He drove us around and even let us use his washing machine for free.  It turns out he was born in Puerto Rico, lived in NYC for a while, and was now living in the Galapagos. 

In the late afternoon, we walked along the waterfront where there were tons of sea lions everywhere: lyoing on benches, lying in old boats, under cars, on the walking path, on the rocks, and of course on the beach.  We stayed watching all the activity of the sea lion colony (or city..?) until after the beautiful sunset was over.

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We took a aboat trip that first visited Isla de los Lobos (Sea lion Island).  Here there were more sea lions everywhere!  I didn't snorkel as this trip had two snorkel sites and I didn't want to tax my body as I was recovering from my throat infection.  But Elisha snorkeled and sad that the sea lions were everywhere in the water and super friendly.  They would come right up to her face.

The next place we stopped at was Leon Dormido (sleeping lion, aka Kicker Rock).  This place was impressive because it was 3 giant rocks jutting several hundred meters out above the sea.  From a distance, the rock formation looks like a sleeping lion.  The two biggest rocks are extremely close together and there is a very narrow channel (5ish feet wide), so they actually look like they are one rock from a distance.  The other rock is separated by a narrow channel as well; however, it is a bit wider at about 25ish feet.  It was through this channel that we snorkelled.  As we snorkelled through the channel, we could see black tipped sharks and white tipped sharks by the 100's below us.  We also likely saw a few Galapagos sharks.  Additionally we saw some turtles and 6 spotted eagle rays, which I think are just beautiful, especially with the way that they "fly" through the water.  I started to get cold by the time I reached the end of the long channel, and not wanting to push myself, I headed for the boat.  But if you had continued along the cliffs and looked deep down, it was possible to get a glimpse of hammerhead sharks. 

After the snorkel, we circumnavigated the rock where we saw lots of Nazca (masked) boobies.  We finished the day at a nice beach. 

Elisha and my original plan had been to head back to Puerto Ayora the next day on the 3pm boat so that we could spend most of the day on San Cristobol and visit the Loberia (sea lion colony beach) and climb the Frigate Hill that has nesting frigate birds and good views; however, I was feeling still not too great that night.  The next day I was beginning my dive trip, which was going to be one of my highlights of the whole South America trip and which wasn't cheap, so I wanted to head back to PA to see the doctor again just to see how things were progressing or if I should get a doctor's note that I would be unable to dive so that I could get fully refunded for the trip from my dive medical insurance DAN.  So I bought a ticket for the 7am boat, said that I would miss out on the day at San Cristobol, but feeling the dive trip was too important.

5-22.  I took the 7am boack back to Santa Cruz Island.  Visited the doctor, though in the morning I was feeling much better.  He had said I had such a bad infection, I may need some amoxicillin as well to help finish it off and just to prevent anything from coming back while diving as diving is a stress on the body.  I spent the rest of the day just hanging out watching some TV and napping until Elisha arrived around 5:30pm.  She had a good day exploring San Cristobol and hiking up to Frigate hill.

Sick in the Galapagos...some ENDEMIC bacteria no doubt

My fever felt extremely high and my main symptoms were muscle aches and just the feverish feeling, along with a touch of diahrea.  I knew that these were pretty much the exact symptoms of both dengue and malaria (as well as of course common influenza and common viruses), I decided I best head to the hospital especially in case it was dengue.  There are 3 strains of Dengue, and I had been sick by one in Thailand.  Once you have had one strain, your body recognizes the other strains, but does not have immediate immunity against them, so instead puts up such a big fight, that your autoimmune response can actually be quite dangerous too you without good medical care.  I didn't think it was dengue as it was the dry season in the galapagos and dengue carrying mosquitos mostly die out during this time (this is why there have been major dengue outbreaks in thailand, malaysia, and singapore because for some reason they have stopped having complete dry seasons which has allowed these species of mosquitos to persist and breed all year round.), but I figured it was best to be on the safe side.  Unfortunately it was Sunday, so the hospital was closed, and I had to go to the ER. 

I saw someone in the hospital...not sure if it was a doctor, nurse practioner, or something else, but she diagnosed me with an infection of the throat (which was interesting as I only had a slight sore throat).  Of course in order to diagnose me with such she shoved a flashlight into my mouth, which touched the inside of my mouth.  I couldn't help but think of how many sick people's mouths that flashlight had been in!  Gotta love third world hospital standards (right Lucas Stringfield with those rusty tongs on that island in the Philippines).  I also had a fever of 39.5C =103.1F.  As a result of all of this, she gave me 3 shots.  One was a shot to make sure I wasn't allergic to penicillin, even though I had told her I wasn't.  I got another in my arm for the fever and then she pulled down my pants and gave me the penicillin right on a butt cheek (much to the amusement of the mom and little girl sharing the room with me I am sure).  I then had to lie on the bed for a couple hours with a wet towel on my head until my fever dropped down to 38 degrees.  The good thing is that in Ecuador, public hospitals and doctors are free as I was worried what an over 2 hour visit to the ER would cost. 

5-20.  I was still feeling quite bad the next day.  Usually you feel better pretty quickly with antibiotics if it is a bacterial infection you have.  As my hospital spanish lingo is not super great, I was still feeling a bit uneasy that maybe I was mis diagnosed or that the lady who helped me didn't understand my fear of having malaria or dengue as I had been in malarial zones as well.  So I decided to visit a private clinic run by a couple of doctors specializing in SCUBA dive medicine but trained in the USA and France.  He looked at me and was aghast at how bad my infection was in my throat.  He told me he wasn't concerned about malaria bc of how my throat looked nor dengue.  Plus he said the last case of Dengue in the galapagos had been back in January during the wet season.  He just said I had a bad infection and that penicillin was the wrong drug to have given me.  He couldn't test me for strept or anything since I did already have an antibiotic in me.  He said they should have given me Azithromyacin (known back home as the Z-pack).  So I got this prescribed for me and continued on with our galapagos trip.

Sailing through the Galapagos Islands on the Encantada

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In the a.m., w visited Punta Moreno on Isabella Island.  While we were on shore, a couple curious sea lions swam right up to us and seemed to want to be petted.  They would swim right up to the land and then hop up and walk right up to us with their necks craned towards us and their noses up.  After having some fun with the sea lions, we walked inland across Pa Hoi Hoi lava to some brackish lagoons where we encountered some pink flamingos.  The landscape here is really cool!!  It is almost entirely composed of  black lava with just a couple typs of plants--two cactus species.  Two giant volcanoes surrounded us with 3 other volcanoes in the distance. 

After our land excursion, we went for a snorkel.  We saw lots of nice colorful fish, but the highlights were swimming with turtles, flightless commorants (endemic to Isabella and Fernandina...they have lost their ability to fly  because of a lack of predators), playful sea lions and a galapagos penguin! 

After a tasty fish lunch (all meals here are 3 course and amazing with almost always fresh fish and salad.  They also give us mid-morning and afternoon snacks), we sailed to Elizabeth Bay.  Along the way we saw lots of sea lions, frigate birds, and boobies following the ship.  At Elizabeth Bay, we took a zodiac cruise into the mangroves which are growing on the edge of the beautiful volcanic landscape.  On the zodiac safari, we get to watch some frigates, blue-footed boobies, flightless commorants (drying their poor tiny little wings), marine iguanas, and 2 cute little penguins swimming around.  In a little shallow mangrove bay, we saw at least 10 sea turtles swimming around in the crystal clear water. 

Back on board we had some tasty snacks and then sailed into the sunset on the way towards Bolivar Channel.

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We woke up early to see the view around Tagus Cove where the boat had anchored overnight.  The scenery was nice, and I also watched some penguins fishing just below the boats.  And of course sea lions and turtles were swimming around as well.  On the cliffs of Tagus Cove, we could see lots of graffiti from whalers and pirates dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. 

After sunrise, we sailed on to Punta Espinoza on Isla Fernandina (the youngest island of the group with a very active volcano).  We take the zodiac into a rocky landing area where sea lions greet us and a nursery of baby sea lions put on a wrestling/diving/jumping show for us.  Along the path, we get within 6 inches of a mother nursing a cute little pup.

After landing, we walked to a little beach area where there were hundreds of sally lightfoot crabs (brilliant red and blue colors) and hundreds and hundreds of marine iguanas all piled up together and sneezing salt.  A real mess...(a mess is actually the scientific name given to a large group of iguanas just as a pack is given to a group of coyotes).  It was a rather funny scene.  We saw more sea lions lounging on the around the beach and more youngsters nursing.  We got up really close (less than a feet) for pictures with them where we pretended to lounge just like the sea lions.  Up in the trees near the beach, we saw a galapagos hawk, which is basically the only terrestrial predator in all of the galapagos, as it can eat baby sea lions, baby iguanas, and baby tortoises.  On the beach there was also a nearly complate whale skeleton.

After a snack and a siesta, we snorkelled off of Punta Espinoza where we saw lots of sea turtles, marine fish, and we played around for quite a while with some very relaxed sea lions who were eager to come up very close to us.

After the snorkel, we sailed to Punta Vicente Roca where we saw a small pod of dolphins along the way.  This little cove had a dramatic landscape beneath Volcan Ecuador.  The cliffs full of bird life were quite stunning in the afternoon light.  There was also a giant sea cave, not far from where the boat anchored. 

We went for a snorkel here, and it was one of the best snorkel places on the trip for sure!  In this one bay, there were literally hundreds of turtles!!  You could hardly swim anywhere without bumping into them.  This was because it was a turtle resting place that they went to after breeding season to recover their strength.  The snorkel transitioned from black sand to a "wall" tuype snorkel with a huge drop off.  Here we snorkelled with sea lions.  There were also flightless comorants fishing and one came right up to me and tried to take a bite out of my camera.  I also got to swim with a penguin!  It was fun watching him "fly" around underwater hunting for little fish.  We also saw a couple of marine iguanas feeding on algae as the surf washed them around.  We snorkeled into the cave, where se saw lots of stingrays resting on the bottom.  The water was very cold (18C = 64F) caused by the humboldt current that comes through the area.  It is this cold humboldt current that brings all the super nutrient rich water which is what brings the huge variety of large sea life (from whale sharks to orcas to humpbacks to blue whales to the turtles to hammerhead sharks to huge pods of dolphins and even the little penguins).  But we are always shivering after every snorkel as we went without wetsuits.

After the snorkel, we went for a boat safari where we saw lots of turtles, boobies, and frigates.  As the sun is setting, we set sail towards the north of Isabella.  We enjoyed watching the setting sun set fire to the beautiful and rugged landscape (which included a cute, tiny volcano).  The sunset today was absolutely gorgeous.  As we are sailing, we turned our head in time to sea a whale footprint (the flat water left when a whale dives), but just missed seeing the whale.  Just after sunset, we crossed the Equator line, and we all went into the bridge where the captain let us snap pictures of the GPS that said 000.000. 

I had been feeling a bit feverish during the day, but not too bad, but at night after dinner, my fever got pretty bad, and I also had a bad case of achy muscles.  It felt like I was getting some sort of influenza type thing. 

During the night, we sailed to Punta Egas on Santiago (James) Island.

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In the morning, we visited Punta Egas.  On the beach we saw a couple of sea lion babies on the beach including one that our guide said was 1 or 2 days old.  It was quite cute.  We walked to the other side of the point, where we saw several galapagos fur sealions (a different species than the galapagos sea lion, which is most closely related to the Californian sea lion).  From there we headed back to the black sand beach to snorkel.  B/c of the fever and because I was feeling quite bad, I didn't snorkel, but instead watched crabs and marine iguanas feed on algae in the intertidal zone. 

After lunch, we sailed past some cool landscapes including a huge tower called the monk.  In the afternoon we visited Espumilla beach which was a gorgeous chocolate colored (not to be confused with covered which was how it had sounded in our guide's accent).  We took a walk inland for some nice views and past some brackish laggons.  I didn't swim at the beach (again the fever) but watched boobies dive bombing for fish, which was very entertaining.  I also watched the thousands of ghost crabs on the beach scuttle about.

At night we sailed to Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island.

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In the morning, we circumnavigated  Daphne Island where we saw lots of blue footed boobies, masked (aka Nazca) boobies, and frigates as well as sea lions.  Daphne Island was of special interest to me because in Dr. Walser's Population and Ecosystem Bio class, he had us read Beak of the Finch for our discussion group which was about Dr. Grant and his group's over 30 years of research on Daphne Island where they were studying natural selection of finches as relating to their beak size as seed sizes and food availibility changed due to the dramatic weather changes caused by El Ninos and La Nina weather patterns and the Humboldt vs Panama currents.  An interesting read if you are interested in Ecology.  The Galapagos are of course like Disneyworld for anyone instersted in ecology, marine biology, or zoology or just like cute, unafraid animals in general.  Also geologists would find it quite interesting as well as it is quite volcanically active.  Beak of the Finch of course made me interested in the Galapagos, but it was actuall Ms. Nelson in 5th grade who first piqued my interest in the Galapagos, and it was there in 5th grade, that I said I would visit the Galapagos someday!  Actually Ms. Nelson is to blame for much of my travel desires and she was very interested in traveling and geography and showed our class amazing slideshows of her travels and had guest speakers come in as well.

In late morning, we arrived to Baltra (South Seymour) island where we disembarked and all said goodbye.  It had been a really fun group with some real characters (like Mark from England and Danielle from Australia), so it was sad to say goodbye.  At this point I was feeling quite bad and just ready to get back to Puerto Ayora and lie in the bed.  So we took the bus back to Puerta Ayora.

Enchanted Galapagos Cruise!!

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Today Elisha and I were all set and excited for the start of our 6 day Galapagos cruise, but first we had the morning to do something before meeting up with our guide and ship.  So we took a taxi up to the highlands of Santa Cruz island near the pueblo of Santa Rosa.  Near Santa Rosa is El Chato tortoise reserve, home to wild tortoises.  But before we headed out to search for giant tortoises, we visted a laval tunnel.  The tunnel was huge!  As big (and in the same perfect and smooth shape) as a NYC subway tube!  The tunnel was lit up by little strings of light.  The tunnel likely went on for miles, but we just walked about 1km (the part that was lit)

After walking through the tunnel, we went in search of the wild giant tortoises.  We found several and noticed that they seemed to like to hang out around guava trees.  The tortoises are huge.  Some of the older ones (120 years old) have shells over three feet long.  You can get really close to them bc of course they don't run away, but also they don't mind human presence too much it seems.  They have very wise-looking faces, and it is amusing to just watch them eat and go about their business.

Once we arrived back to Puerta Ayora, we met our guide (Juan) and the 10 other backpackers on our boat.  The first thing that we all did was to tour the Charles Darwin Research Station where they are breeding and raising  all the subspecies of giant tortoises (each turtle group on each island and each isolated volcano are a separate subspecies). 

In the evening, we boarded our boat.  Our boat was a red sailboat named the Encantada (the enchanted).  It was about 80 feet long, and a very beautiful boat.  On board we had dinner in the fancy dining boat and met the crew of the boat where we all made a toast with white russians that the bartender had made for us.  The hull of the boat had 6 bunked cabins.  They were small, but cozy, and even had ensuite bathrooms.  That night, we sailed from Santa Cruz Island to Isla Isabella.

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In the morning, we boarded the little dinghy and landed on Isla Tintoreras.  On this island, we saw lots of marine iguanas, including a whole bunch of baby marine iguanas.  We also saw penguins swimming on the coast as well as lots of sea turtles coming up to breathe.  Additionally, on land we saw lots of cute little lava lizards (busing doing their push up moves) and some blue footed boobies.    On the island, there was a little lava tube channel where white-tipped reef sharks liked to rest.  The channel was about 100 meters long, and we saw about 30 white-tips swimming around and resting in it. 

From there we walked to a beautiful beach where we saw baby sea lions jumping and playing.    After our hike, we went back to the boat, donned our snorkelling equipment for a morning snorkel.  On the snorkel, I saw the biggest stingray that I have ever seen.  Curious and playful sea lions joined us on the snorkel.  As they were this time and always would be, the sea lions are tons of fun to swim with bc they are so curious and playful and love to swim right up to you and around you and even blow bubbles at you at times. 

In the afternoon, we took a boat ride to puerto villamil, the only town on Isabella Island.  ALong the way we saw lots of cute little Galapagos Penguins!  (the only penguins in the world to live on and even a bit above the equator).  On the boat ride over, we also saw lots of diving boobies, some sea turtles, sea lions, and even an eagle ray. 

Once on Isabella, we visited a little brackish pond, where we some some pink flamingos.  From there, we went to the Isabella tortoise breeding center where we got to see some very cute baby hatchlings.  After visiting the center, we hung out at the beach for a while before heading back to the boat.