Yesterday was an insane day filled with fun and excitement:

After a slight delay due to me mistakenly believing I had left my passport at the family’s house. (it was in my money belt like it should have been) I took the 10:30 bus on Monday night to get me to Huaraz at 6 this morning.  Though I had to purchase a second ticket, missing my Sunday bus had the added secret benefit of being able to better coordinate my mother’s arrival.  I am happy to say that she will get here on the 26^th of September and stay for almost two weeks.  In the meantime, I have some climbing to do.

After arriving in Huaraz, I made my way to Hostal El Tambo, a cheap, accommodating place that is frequented by other climbers and has a good vibe to it.  Duncan recommended it to me and told me that many of his climber friends from Valparaiso, Chilé, would be staying there as well.  Since I had arrived so early I had to occupy myself with something, so I headed to Café California, a local restaurant the hostel owner told me was good.  After a nice breakfast and a bit of walking around, I went back to the hostel to move into my room.  By this time, things were starting to pick up.  I quickly recognized a group of might-be climbers, and asked them if they were friends of Duncan.  They said they were and invited me to come climbing with them that afternoon.

We walked over to a local craig, Los Olivos, about 15 minutes away from the hostel.  There were many single and double pitch sport routes condensed in a small area.  It served as a good warm up/training sector.  I hopped on 3 routes, the third of which was a 35 meter 5.11b, and was dead tired afterwards (especially considering I only got 6 bad hours of bus sleep that night).  I took a well-deserved nap on a crash pad while my newly acquainted friends finished up their routes.  We went back to the hostel, chilled a bit, and then Duncan and Vai arrived a little while later.

Today, we woke up early to head to the base camp of La Esfinge, a 750-meter vertical wall that tops out at 5325 meters above sea level.  We plan on spending 4 nights there and getting in as many send groups as our window of time allows us, considering our group of 11 people is quite large.  We went to the market yesterday to pick up all the food we’ll need for the next five days, packed up all our gear and clothes, and now are getting rested bus rides, a taxi ride, and 2 hours of walking up to base camp.  I’ll get back to you all Sunday once I return from this grand adventure!

Huaraz is a truly beautiful place.  What it lacks for in aesthetic architecture, it makes up for in raw, natural beauty, and a highly adventurous spirit.