Fiestas Patrias Vacation

Angela and I are coming off a big vacation for Peruvian Independence Day. Like many Peruvian parties, it lasts for at least three days. After travelling to Lima for a few days of work at the Peace Corps office, Angela and I took some vacation days and made a long trip to Huaraz, the capital of Ancash (a department to the south of La Libertad and the home of the biggest mountains in Peru). High in the Andes, Huaraz is smaller than the coastal cities and has a much larger number of foreigners. It is in the middle of the dry season, so tourism here is running full steam. Luckily, it doesn't get the kind of tourism that Cuzco does (old, fat, rich people that have no clue about anything except that they want to see Machu Picchu), but a lot more of the somewhat rich, adventurous, moutaineers from all over the world. The food is incredible (for gringos), as the town has more established tourism and therefore more non-Peruvian food choices. The mountains are huge and their snow caps and receding glaciers loom over the city.

We met up with some friends from Peace Corps (and some non-PC people) and had a few great days of getting used to the altitude and relaxing at a backpacking hostel (The Way Inn) up in the mountains 45 minutes above Huaraz. The days were mostly clear and warm in the sunshine. The nights were chilly. Huascaran and the beautiful mountains of the compact Cordillera Blanca, many over 18,000 feet, were visible almost the entire time we were there. The weather could not have been better. After three days of hanging out, we took a three day summit trip with a great local tour agency (Galaxia Tours). With 8 good friends, we took an amazing trip to the top of a mountain called Ishinca (all the mountains are named in Quechua, the language of the Incan Empire and the dominant language in the area still to this day). I wrote this about it:

Angela and I just finished a three day summit trip to a mountain called Ishinca in Ancash, Peru. It was incredible. The first day we got all our gear from the agency and hiked a few hours up to base camp in the Ishinca Valley. We went to bed early to summit the next day. The day of the summit we were hiking from base camp under a full moon at 3:45 am. At sunrise, we were in the middle of a huge, boulder-covered morraine and some alpine glacial lakes, looking up at the summit of Ishinca. We arrived at the glacier freezing cold in the soft early morning light, donned crampons, ice axes, harnesses, and continued the ascent on ice. I lost my glacier virginity in style, with numb hands and breathing hard as a hell on the first steep ascent. The glacier was enormous and steep, making for very slow going. After many hours of alternately walking and resting, we arrived at the final summit climb - about 100 feet of very steep and by now slushy snow. It was intense and crazy fun. Definitely the most intense thing I have ever done. The summit was okay, a bit scary due to slushy snow and very steep and narrow trail. But the view was amazing - sitting at 5500 meters (I found out today that the peak is 18,143 feet) and looking around at monstrous nearby peaks towering over 6000 meters and glacier covered mountains shining in the warm sun as far as the eye could see. Incredible. Spiritually altering. The way down was luckily much easier going. We got back to base camp late sometime between 5 and 6pm - a 14 hour round trip. Exhausted, tired, dehydrated, and starving. Grinning from ear to ear. Give me mountains, anyday.

Angela had some problems with headaches up at altitude, but I was unexpectedly free of altitude issues - no problems breathing or anything. Just some minor digestion issues, but I heard that they were common. I am amazed and happy that I was able to take the trip I just did. I don't want to go back to site - the vacation has been so incredible and this part of Peru (full of nice mountain people, expat-run restaurants with great, affordable food, and the breathtaking scenery of the Cordillera Blanca) calls to me so much that I am having trouble convincing myself to go back to site tomorrow and return to work as usual. But the overnight bus ticket is bought and so it must be. The vacation comes to an end, and it has been a vacation in so many ways. I have a fresh new feeling inside. I have been cleansed. Hopefully I will be able to put some photos up on facebook within a few days if the internet here will work the way I need it to. Its back to the coast and back to site after an incredible Fiestas Patrias. Peru continues to amaze and confuse me. Couldn't be happier about it.

What more can I say? Great trip, great friends, and new adventures. Cheers.

Patrick and (to a lesser extent) Angela