peru 2007.1

finally some time to write some long due things about our trip to huaraz!
to make reading amenable for you, I will hurry through the last few days and spare the details.
due to uploading problems with michaels digicam, pictures have to wait until the problem is fixed.

day 1: depature from frankfurt airport brings us in a meager 8 eventless hours to atlanta, where we have a coffee for the next 5 hours. the only hassle there is the HOME SECURITY desk. although we are only in transit, we have to undergo the complete fingerprint here, look at camera there-procedure. the officer at my desk knows no hello and yawns and farts in my presence.
behind him a poster reminds him that "you represent our country". that black trash moron of a home security slave did his best to do just that...

the flight to lima takes another 6 hours.
at our arrival we are welcome by a taxi driver who we booked in advance via a friend of ours (oesi) who lives in huaraz and is befriended to a bavarian peruvian (rudi) who runs a private hostel.

day 2: lima is hazy from the nearby pacific sea and dusty from too many cars that still smell like cars used to.
after a brief visit to a seaside promenade and no iews at all we decide to visit st. franzisko and its catacombes. afetr a tour through the history of the church we are finally taken to a tour in the basement, where the franziskan monks did their best to store the bones of the deceised by in the most correct way: legs to legs. skulls to skulls. the hole that keeps the skulls is about 10 meters deep...
after that we visit the remains of a pyramide that the lima people once erected and lived around it. funny enough they never touched that ground to built their houses on. respect.

our bus to huaraz leaves at 10:30 pm and we sleepily pack our belongings and greet the taxi driver who takes us to CRUZ DEL SUR bus station.
the bus ride is a whole trance with shitty elevator music and a too cold aircon and will go on for the next 8 hours before we can collect our limbs and are spat out at the huaraz bus station, 6oclock in the morning at plus 2 degrees.
luckily we only have to shy away the taxi locusts for 20 minutes before oesi arrives and takes us to his place, where we unpack and afterwards head to the CALIFORNIA CAFE. a reallz nice place with home made cake and good coffee and good views to HUASCARAN, one of the biggest 6000ers in the range.
after breakfast, oesi takes us around town and soon enough we are ready for bed.

day 3: takes us to the hot wells of MONTERREY. swimming in warm, brown (iron!) water on 3000m is the best you can do after such a ride.
behind the bath is a small crag and the peruvian military from the nearby base is training absailing.
after they are finished they leave the place in a proud march, guns before their chests, a funny song on their lips and...orange petzl helmets still on their heads. sometimes I ask myself whats all the camouflage for...

day 4: we drive up to PITEC, to visit the beautiful settled THEWAYINN.com. its a hostel run by brits. from there one can do many things including bouldering (what we do) on the hills around, trekking and sport climbing in the LLACA valley and getting high from cacti juice...

day 5: we arrange a trip to a volcanic sport climbing crag, HATUN MACHAY at 4000m to acclimatize and visit this beautiful bosco de pietra. It resembles a bit new zealands CASTLE HILL. we stay there over night. the second day sees me trying an 8a, which proves quite exhausting at that elevation. sad enough, chipping and glueing has also invaded this remote place.
at our return we go out to dine in huaraz and I have my first cuy (guinea pig). Its not more than chicken with claws and tastes nearly the same.
after that we get pissed in the VAGAMUNDO bar with one too many PISCO SOUR and end up in a bar next to the bus station chatting to some nurses from lima.

day 6: we take a rest day and arrange our next climatizing destination, ISHINKA VALLEY and LAKE ISHINKA at 5000m. we take our first walk into HUASCARAN NATIONAL PARK, where we walk up to the lake and sleep low at about 4600m. the walk back take us along HATUN ULLOC mountain, where an american team (and rumor has it some spaniards too) put up a prominent route (KARMA). as we are also primed for a new route, we walk uphill to scan for new route potencial. so far we discovered a possible line of fissures in the east face. but thats only for now. ESFINGEs neighbor, the TORRE PARRON is said to have endless new route potencial and is so far untouched...

tommorrow, another team member, HANS-MARTIN from duesseldorf, whose climbing partners bailed after reaching base camp of some 6000er, will join us for ESFINGE.