The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

By the way from last time:
1 – When we were walking down from Laguna Churup and talking to the Ketchua lady, she was telling me about how many people of Huaraz work in the mountains as porters, cooks, and guides. I was happy to respond with “yo soy guida, soy portador, soy cocinador, soy escalador”.
2 – I was talking with an English speaking woman from Huaraz in the hostel about meals in Huaraz. Alex and I explained how we had been eating meals for S5 or S6 ($1.67-$2) daily. She was shocked and said that as a local she would never eat at such places – they are far too unhygenic. That brings me back to thinking about one night we went to dinner and were sketched out at first when no one else was eating there. Second, when the waiter said that they actually didn’t have most of the items on the menu. Third, when a dog sitting at the front of the restaurant walked back gingerly into the kitchen. And fourth when Alex scopped the top portion of his Jello dessert off because he thought there was mold on it.

We slept in until 7am because we had stayed up so late packing. I figure my pack weighed in at about 30kg as an underestimate (It was 23.5kg on the airplane, but I had added about half my 16kg of food, 1kg of water, less the tent pegs, poles, and the tarp.) The collectivo to Yungay was S5, and lasted from 8am-9:15am. It was a very impressive ride. I was sitting by the window and would exclaim Huascaran! to the old Peruvian man beside me when it came into view – two towering domes 6,900m high.

There were “collectivo taxis” waiting at the collectivo drop-off to take people to Cebollobampa (the trailhead for Pisco). The driver wanted S15 per person, but our book said that it should be S10. He eventually went and got an official collectivo rates document that indeed showed S15. He then said that we would have to wait for two more people, because collectivos wait until relatively full until departing. He said that we could pay the four passengers fairs: S15 x 4 = S60, but we declined. By 10am we bargained down to S50 since it was getting late and we didn’t know if anyone else would be heading to Cebollobampa. Just as we pulled out and drove around the carpark, the driver shouted “gringos!” Lo and behold, two apparent trekkers were waiting. They were headed to Pisco too, so it ended up being S15/person.

The taxi got us to Cebollobampa by 11:30am. We hiked a few hundred meters over the course of three hours until we reached base camp. Out packs were brutally heavy with ten days of food and we were both relieved upon arrival. We had been leap-frogging a group of three guided by a Peruvian named Max, the same guide who we’ve been bumping into a lot.

The camp was very pretty – a large meadow with up-sloping rock slopes on three sides and the view of the valley we had come from behind. From here we could see Pisco, Yanapaccha, and Chopicalqui – the three summits we plan to climb. There were maybe two or three groups apart from us (all guided) with over twenty animals – donkeys and horses. We also saw cows grazing in the meadow, presumably belonging to the posh refugio atop the rock slope beside us. It was unnerving seeing the cows, horses, and donkeys sharing the one water source to the whole meadow – a small spring.

Alex had a turkey freeze-dried meal and I had quinoa for dinner around 4:30pm. By 5:30pm we were tucked in in the tent, crashing after a strenuous day.