The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

Another pancake breakfast today at Caroline’s Lodging. Though they only give one pancake per person, so Alex and I were keen on searching for second breakfast from street vendors as usual.

We spent the day going to the market, eating, and stocking up on food for the upcomming ~9-day trek. We compared prices for almonds, peanuts, raisons, etc. For example: peanuts – S1/100g ($0.33), almonds – S4/100g ($1.37), Brazil nuts – S2.5/100g ($0.90), cashews – S5/100g ($1.67). Next the cheese – 600g for each of us at S14/kg ($4.67) and the salami, hanging as tubes from the vendor’s ceiling at S25/kg ($8.33). We had lunch upstairs in the marketplace for S3.5 ($1.17) – soup, entree, and a pitcher of mystery beverage – what a steal!

Next step – Huascaran park office to get new climbing authorization, stopping for ice cream and baked sweets along the way. I remember the park guy mentioning before that climbing club membership allows authorization for climbing, but not trekking, so we said that we were planning to climb Alpamayo. Once allowed into the park we would have no intention of actually climbing Alpamayo.

Chinese for dinner, “Chifa”, route description verified, food packed, and ready for our last sleep before the trek.