Saturday June 21st, 2014, The Winter Solstice (or Summer Solstice if you're South of the equator like us)
Yesterday, like I mentioned in yesterday's post, Simon and I went out on our grand adventure of the week. I'll start from where I left off..
After packing our essentials, Simon and I embarked on our journey to Canchacalla, but first Simon had to get his last shot. He chose to get it in the left cheek this time, to save his right one from the compounded soreness of 3 consecutive shots. Then we hit up the local supermarket and bought all the food and water we needed for the night and the following day. Our transportation consisted of a taxi ride to Lima Central, then a two hour long bus ride through thick traffic to Chosica. Once in Chosica, we had to find a cab that would take us up into the mountains to the remote village of Canchacalla. We split a fare with with 4 other passengers and we were on our way. The road to Chosica, once we got of the Carraterra Central, became a precarious one-lane dirt path that wound its way up through the switchbacks. Whenever we came head first at a vehicle going the opposite direction, either us or them would have to back up into a small pull off to let the other one through. As the sun began to set and darkness settled in the valley, more often than not I feared that the driver might accidentally take us tumbling off the cliff. Luckily, that never happened. Our stop was the last in a long string of tiny pueblos located further and further back into the mountains. Along the way, we picked up a 7th passenger, a small woman dressed in traditional clothing, and she and her large bags of produce were put into the hatchback of the cab. After about an hour of this, we finally reached our destination: Canchacalla, a small village of about 30 or so tin-roofed houses built into a terrace on the side of a mountain.
We exited our coach, payed our fair, and began to walk a ways more down the road past the village. We crosses a bridge that went over the raging river that cut its way through the valley, and decided to set up camp for our first time in Peru. We put up our tent, made our sleeping arrangements, lit a small fire, and ate our gourmet meal of salami and cheese sandwiches with apples and granadillas. We talked a bit about home and how we missed our friends and families, but also how lucky we felt to be living our lives in such an amazing place on such a fantastic adventure. We concluded our night by gazing up at the stars. It was our first night in Peru that we had a clear sky due to Lima's fogginess, and the view was amazing. With no light pollution to spoil our view, we were able to see a dazzling quantity of brilliant objects in the sky, including the Milky Way! Satisfied with our day, we decided to retire early and get a surprisingly excellent night's sleep for our big upcoming day.
We woke up today with the sun, at about 7. We quickly packed down our tent and gear, and began our hike up to the summit of a mountain where the rock lay. I have to mention the the view in the day light was startling. We were able to look down into the valley from where we had came, out upon the various mountain peaks of the Andes that finally led into the Pacific Ocean. It's always a great experience coming to a place during the night, and waking up to see you surrounding for what it truly is. We began our hike at around 7:45, making our way up and up on extremely thin trails. I'm not sure whether it was it was the altitude or the strenuous nature of the approach, but my stomach was not able to handle it. About a quarter of the way up I told Simon I needed a break, and then promptly regurgitated all the contents of my breakfast (which at the time was only water). After taking a moment to relax and catch my breathe, we continued onwards. We came to a point where the trail flattened out and ran along the aqueducts that were built into the side of the mountain carrying water from the glacial springs down the villages and farms below. We followed it for a ways, a hundred foot drop on our other side, until we came to its source: a cascading waterfall spewing from a whole in the mountain side. Afterwards, the trail began to thin out even more and the going became extra sketchy.
Somewhere along the way we must have taken a wrong turn, because after walking many miles and several hundred vertical feet we realized we were getting no closer to our destination. In fact, we seemed to be walking further and further into the heart of the valley. We soon had an important decision to make: Continue and try to scramble/bushwhack up the mountain to our climbing destination and be completely exhausted by the time we get there, turn back and head down the sketchy path we came up, or go a little further and descend through a nearby farmstead. We chose the ladder because the other two seemed like to much effort with two high of a risk of getting hurt/dying. We made our way down to the farm and encountered a young girl who was kind enough to lead through the maze of barbed wire and crops, and to the road that would take us back to the village of Canchacalla.
We made it there after another several miles of walking, only to learn that the village is so small it neither had a restaurant nor a bus service to take us back to Chosica. We ended up walking another two mile down to the next closest village. At this point, we were both very exhausted from all the walking with our large packs full of heavy gear, but we kept in mind that the people who lived their did that sort of thing on a daily basis. We finally reached a spot were we could get a good meal of fish, rice, and salad. For dessert, we split a giant chirimoya that was as big as one of our heads. watch the world cup game between Argentina and Iran, and wait for a taxi. We didn't have to wait long. The ride back to Chosica went smoothly, relatively speaking, and we had no trouble getting back into Lima, and then into Surco. We are glad to be home from our adventure, and we just enjoyed a meal of some hamburgers while we put our clothes through the wash. There was a bit of disappointment for not being able to climb yet again, but not nearly as much as our previous mission. All in all, we made it to where we wanted to go, had a good night camping, and got a very strenuous work out from all the hiking we did. Perhaps we bit off more than we could chew or perhaps we were poorly informed, but it was a good experience nonetheless.
Tomorrow we plan on going to see a friend named Csaba Rojas play baseball for his first time on the Peruvian team, and then hang out with him afterwards. Our days in Lima are drawing to a close as we prepare to embark on our journey to Cuzco to meet up with Rebecca and have some real adventures in the Sierra! Hope all my readers our doing well, and know that I think about you a lot!
Miss y'all, Chao!
P.S. if any of you out there want some Skype time with me and Simon, shoot me a request! My user is Jamilhendrix, and it would be best to do so before Tuesday, when we head out to Cuzco. If you are unable to before then, some other time may work as long as we have some solid internet connection.
Yesterday, like I mentioned in yesterday's post, Simon and I went out on our grand adventure of the week. I'll start from where I left off..
After packing our essentials, Simon and I embarked on our journey to Canchacalla, but first Simon had to get his last shot. He chose to get it in the left cheek this time, to save his right one from the compounded soreness of 3 consecutive shots. Then we hit up the local supermarket and bought all the food and water we needed for the night and the following day. Our transportation consisted of a taxi ride to Lima Central, then a two hour long bus ride through thick traffic to Chosica. Once in Chosica, we had to find a cab that would take us up into the mountains to the remote village of Canchacalla. We split a fare with with 4 other passengers and we were on our way. The road to Chosica, once we got of the Carraterra Central, became a precarious one-lane dirt path that wound its way up through the switchbacks. Whenever we came head first at a vehicle going the opposite direction, either us or them would have to back up into a small pull off to let the other one through. As the sun began to set and darkness settled in the valley, more often than not I feared that the driver might accidentally take us tumbling off the cliff. Luckily, that never happened. Our stop was the last in a long string of tiny pueblos located further and further back into the mountains. Along the way, we picked up a 7th passenger, a small woman dressed in traditional clothing, and she and her large bags of produce were put into the hatchback of the cab. After about an hour of this, we finally reached our destination: Canchacalla, a small village of about 30 or so tin-roofed houses built into a terrace on the side of a mountain.
We exited our coach, payed our fair, and began to walk a ways more down the road past the village. We crosses a bridge that went over the raging river that cut its way through the valley, and decided to set up camp for our first time in Peru. We put up our tent, made our sleeping arrangements, lit a small fire, and ate our gourmet meal of salami and cheese sandwiches with apples and granadillas. We talked a bit about home and how we missed our friends and families, but also how lucky we felt to be living our lives in such an amazing place on such a fantastic adventure. We concluded our night by gazing up at the stars. It was our first night in Peru that we had a clear sky due to Lima's fogginess, and the view was amazing. With no light pollution to spoil our view, we were able to see a dazzling quantity of brilliant objects in the sky, including the Milky Way! Satisfied with our day, we decided to retire early and get a surprisingly excellent night's sleep for our big upcoming day.
We woke up today with the sun, at about 7. We quickly packed down our tent and gear, and began our hike up to the summit of a mountain where the rock lay. I have to mention the the view in the day light was startling. We were able to look down into the valley from where we had came, out upon the various mountain peaks of the Andes that finally led into the Pacific Ocean. It's always a great experience coming to a place during the night, and waking up to see you surrounding for what it truly is. We began our hike at around 7:45, making our way up and up on extremely thin trails. I'm not sure whether it was it was the altitude or the strenuous nature of the approach, but my stomach was not able to handle it. About a quarter of the way up I told Simon I needed a break, and then promptly regurgitated all the contents of my breakfast (which at the time was only water). After taking a moment to relax and catch my breathe, we continued onwards. We came to a point where the trail flattened out and ran along the aqueducts that were built into the side of the mountain carrying water from the glacial springs down the villages and farms below. We followed it for a ways, a hundred foot drop on our other side, until we came to its source: a cascading waterfall spewing from a whole in the mountain side. Afterwards, the trail began to thin out even more and the going became extra sketchy.
Somewhere along the way we must have taken a wrong turn, because after walking many miles and several hundred vertical feet we realized we were getting no closer to our destination. In fact, we seemed to be walking further and further into the heart of the valley. We soon had an important decision to make: Continue and try to scramble/bushwhack up the mountain to our climbing destination and be completely exhausted by the time we get there, turn back and head down the sketchy path we came up, or go a little further and descend through a nearby farmstead. We chose the ladder because the other two seemed like to much effort with two high of a risk of getting hurt/dying. We made our way down to the farm and encountered a young girl who was kind enough to lead through the maze of barbed wire and crops, and to the road that would take us back to the village of Canchacalla.
We made it there after another several miles of walking, only to learn that the village is so small it neither had a restaurant nor a bus service to take us back to Chosica. We ended up walking another two mile down to the next closest village. At this point, we were both very exhausted from all the walking with our large packs full of heavy gear, but we kept in mind that the people who lived their did that sort of thing on a daily basis. We finally reached a spot were we could get a good meal of fish, rice, and salad. For dessert, we split a giant chirimoya that was as big as one of our heads. watch the world cup game between Argentina and Iran, and wait for a taxi. We didn't have to wait long. The ride back to Chosica went smoothly, relatively speaking, and we had no trouble getting back into Lima, and then into Surco. We are glad to be home from our adventure, and we just enjoyed a meal of some hamburgers while we put our clothes through the wash. There was a bit of disappointment for not being able to climb yet again, but not nearly as much as our previous mission. All in all, we made it to where we wanted to go, had a good night camping, and got a very strenuous work out from all the hiking we did. Perhaps we bit off more than we could chew or perhaps we were poorly informed, but it was a good experience nonetheless.
Tomorrow we plan on going to see a friend named Csaba Rojas play baseball for his first time on the Peruvian team, and then hang out with him afterwards. Our days in Lima are drawing to a close as we prepare to embark on our journey to Cuzco to meet up with Rebecca and have some real adventures in the Sierra! Hope all my readers our doing well, and know that I think about you a lot!
Miss y'all, Chao!
P.S. if any of you out there want some Skype time with me and Simon, shoot me a request! My user is Jamilhendrix, and it would be best to do so before Tuesday, when we head out to Cuzco. If you are unable to before then, some other time may work as long as we have some solid internet connection.
No comments:
Post a Comment