Sunday, June 8th, 2014

Well it has been exactly one week since Simon and I had left Bloomington, IN, kicking off our incredible adventure.  This past week has been filled with new sights, sounds, smells, and experiences both good and bad.  Yesterday was perhaps our most roller-coaster day yet.  We started the day off early, around 8 AM, in preparation to go climbing in the foothills of the Andes near Pachacamac, an excavation sight of a pre-Incan culture near about 20 miles out of Lima.  We discovered this place on a website called Topos Peru, and after a bit of discussion with Melissa, we figured out how to get there.  It involved taking two tiny buses and a taxi cab getting there.  Once we arrived, we found the park called Lomas de Lucumo.  We paid our entrance fee, and walked up an approach trail to a bit of cliff that we could make out first real-rock ascents in Peru.  The climbing was solid and a bit tiring, though it felt good to finally use our trad gear.  After we finished climbing, the psych was high and so we decided to hike around the mountain path that formed a loop.  The fog that came up from the coast gave the mountain a very mystical look, and we ended up getting lost a couple of times.  When the fog lifted, we were able to see the trail again and bushwhacked over to it.

After our day of climbing and adventuring, we hiked back down to return home.  Everything went smoothly (as smooth as one of those bus rides can be) until we got off the bus that had returned us to the city.  As we were walking away, Simon reached into his pocket and realized that his phone was no longer there.  That's right, the phone which we have been using to take and post pictures and videos was gone-stolen from right underneath our noses.  The shocking thing about this was not that Simon had his smart phone stolen in a foreign country, but rather the speed at which this act occurred.  He had had his hand on his phone the entire bus ride, yet it only the 30 seconds that Simon went from sitting to standing to getting off the bus for his phone to get pick-pocketed.  Needless to say, we were both very disappointed, and Simon was very stressed out.  We filed a formal police report at the local station, but the chances of finding our phone in a city of nearly 8.5 million inhabitants is slim to none.  Nonetheless, we are still trying to get it back, or receive some sort of consolation.  Lesson learned: Keep all valuables, money, passports and papers, and expensive technologies secured in either a money belt hidden in a bag, losing stuff from pants pockets is all too easy.

After filing our report, the police were kind enough to give us a ride home.  Once we returned, Simon got to work trying to track his phone, but to no avail.  He then had to break the unfortunate news to his family.  The conclusion: The loss might be covered by its insurance, but were not sure.  More importantly, though, is that we are both safe and unharmed.  Technology and material goods come and go, and its best not to become too attached to such things.  A hard lesson, but a lesson nonetheless.

After we had dinner, Melissa's cousin, Greccia, and her friend, Barbara, came to the house to meet us.  They are some pretty neat gals, about the same age as us, and after some introductions and conversing, we went out to the Discotecas together.  All in all, it was a fun night dancing, and trying to forget our troubles.  We returned home around 3 after having our ears blasted out by the big speakers in the clubs, and went straight to bed.  We slept in late today, and decided to take a rest this afternoon from all our adventuring.  Currently, Simon is with Melissa at the Wong (local supermarket) to buy filo dough for the spanakopitas that we are making tonight.  I am trying to get some work done at the computer.

That's all for now, until next time! Chao!

P.S. Here is link to topos peru:< http://toposperu.com/>.

And here is picture of a wall that we climbed (We did route 6, it was a low 5.11 chimney with a cruxy off-width section)