"A Pass A Day ..."
Peru 1996
Summary
I vacationed in Peru, South America leaving 6/7/96 and returning 6/21/96. It was an excellent trip.
The area we hiked through, the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains), was outstanding. We had an excellent
group as well.
Itinerary
My route was to drive from Columbus to the Indianapolis airport where I then flew to Chicago to Miami
to Lima, Peru. We were met at the Lima airport and then spent 8 hours driving from there to Huaraz, the
entrance city to the Cordillera Blanca. The next day we had a day hike to start acclimatizing to the
altitude. We then proceeded on a 10 day trek through the Cordillera Blanca. The first day was very easy
and the second day was a little long but we were only hiking up various valleys. Starting on the third day
we went over one pass a day for seven straight days, hence the title of this report. We finally got a break
the last day of the trek when it was all downhill to hike out and end the trek. I then reversed my route
back, Huaraz to Lima to Miami to Chicago to Indianapolis to Columbus.
Typical Day
While the scenery and hiking were wonderful, there isn't much that can be done in a written report
beyond stating these facts. It takes pictures to cover this aspect of the trip. So, I thought people would
like to hear about a typical day on the trek. The length of the hiking varies some from day to day.
However the following outline is typical.
We would be awaken in our tents by the call "Tea" at about 6:00. We would be served a cup of tea in
our tents which was the sign it was time to get up. At 6:30 we would get a plastic pan of warm water for
washing up. Breakfast would be about 7:00. At breakfast there would be coffee and Milo (sort of like
cocoa). We had pancakes a couple of times. There was also porridge, granola and bread. Once or twice
we had scrambled eggs.
We would usually be on the trail about 8:00. We would take short water breaks roughly hourly. Longer
breaks would include having some of the fruit, candy or chocolate from the snack/lunch bag we received
before leaving camp in the morning. Around noon would be the lunch stop. We would have our snacks
and the cook would server a cold lunch with hot tea from a thermos. Lunch frequently included some
form of potatoes (see below). There was also a tuna salad which I liked.
One day the lunch stop happened to be at camp. Another day we were hiking until about 4:30 before
getting to camp. More typical was 2:00 or 3:00 to arrive at camp. At camp we would get another pan of
washing water. About 4:00 was tea time. There would be tea or hot water for making other beverages in
the dining tent. There would also be some form of snacks. Snacks on different days included Oreo
cookies, crackers, pop corn and potatoes (see below).
Dinner would usually be about 6:00. It always started with soup. The main course included such things
as chicken, lamb, beef, rice or potatoes. Dessert would usually be a bowl of fruit. Then would come the
struggle to stay up until 8:00. It would usually be getting fairly cold about this time. You knew that the
only warm place in this part of the world was your sleeping bag. However you also knew that going to
bed about 8:00 and getting up about 6:00 meant about 10 hours in the sleeping bag. Even with the
exertion of hiking and dealing with the altitude, we couldn't sleep for 10 hours. So trying to stay up until
at least 8:00 was an important task.
Age
The ages of the 4 of us on the trip were 44, 48, 68 and 70 giving an average age of 57.5, making this one
of the older groups I've been with. It was also the only group where I was the only person with a full-time
job. Everyone else was either retired or only working part-time. Having two men aged 68 and 70 along
was very encouraging for me. I hope to be able to keep this kind of thing up as long and successfully as
they have.
Airport Meeting
I didn't know it at the time but I was the last person of the group to arrive in Peru. Two folks arrived
several days earlier to tour Machu Picchu. The other arrived the night before and got a little rest in a hotel
before starting off on the 8 hour drive to Huaraz. When I came out of immigration and customs in Lima,
I saw this mob of people waiting to meet arriving passengers. I then noticed that a lot of them were
holding up signs with people and tour group names. So, I started looking for a sign saying something like
"Mountain Travel-Sobek." Imagine my surprise when I saw one reading "Rob Janes." First time I've
ever had such a personal reception. It was fun.
Potatoes
Peru is noted for its potatoes. There are over 200 varieties of potatoes grown there. A couple of times for
tea we had ocas, a variety that we bought along the trail one day. Just a pinch of salt and they were fine.
Another variety we had for breakfast were great with just a little margarine. These were closer to sweet
potatoes while the ocas were closer to white potatoes. While I don't know how many different varieties
we had, I enjoyed them all. One of the running jokes was that someone should startup a potato importing
company and bring some of these varieties into the U.S.
Video
Making videos is a hobby of our trip leader. Augusto had a pretty good video camera and tripod. He
took a lot of pictures, scenery, us on the trail, sunsets and so on. Coming back to Huaraz after the trek we
asked if we would get to see what he came up with. He pointed out that it would take a fair amount of
time to edit the raw footage into anything that he would be comfortable showing to anyone else. Knowing
what our raw pictures from such trips are like, we all fully understood. So it turns out that he stayed up all
night and put together a half-hour tape which we got to see before leaving Huaraz. We were totally blown
away, it was so good. Of course it will be interesting to get the opinion of someone who didn't star in the
video. Augusto only had one VHS copy of the tape. Copies are being made and will be sent to the rest
of us in the near future. This should be really interesting. Stay tuned.
Follow-up
The tape showed up and is just as neat as when I saw it the first time in Peru.
Yungay. The town of Yungay was virtually destroyed and about 10,000 people killed in 1971 by a flood and landslide. It was caused by a lake on Huascaran (seen through the gate) which gave way.
A long and winding road. Driving to the trail head included going up this road. The pass here is 15,600 feet. We certainly noticed the altitude at this point in the trip.
Longest day. This was the longest day on the trail. Our camp site is almost at the end of the valley, below the peaks.
Camp at dawn. Same camp site we're headed to in the previous image.
Dawn. Only at very high resolution would you be able to see the glowing line right along the top of the peaks. This was the sun shining on the snow and ice on the summits.
Alpamayo. Just under the clouds is the peak Alpamayo.
Delay. Driving back to Huaraz after finishing the trek, we had a slight delay. The rock fall was caused by blasting as part of the road work. However the folks clearing it were really good. Even though it took an hour to clear, we were impressed with how quickly it went.
Back to Chronological List of Trips
Back to Home Page
