Into the Mountains (Part 2)

If I`ve said it once, I`ll say it again. This is one of the most amazing countries I`ve ever even heard of. There is every single type of geography that you could possibly want here. The city I`m in right now is nestled into a high mountain valley and is great for agriculture and has it`s own music and culture. There are beaches, swamp, jungle, rain forrest, cloud forrest, desert, and of course, my personal favorite, mountains. The Andes spring up right on the coast of Peru and soar up to altitudes of more than 18,000 ft. You can see a short stretch of those mountains called Nevado Huaytapallano from my city. They just barely peak over the foothills, tantalizing me from a distance. Yesterday, we decided to go see them.



They really don`t look that far away, and in reality they`re not. They are only about 40km from the city, which in the US would take only about 20 minutes to get to. Here, unfortunately, it takes an hour and half because the road is complete crap. It`s pockmarked with holes and rocks and there were several sections the only bridge across a river was a couple of logs. It was more like a mountain biking trail. That being the case, it`s very hard to find public transportation there and cab rides are rather expensive. We decided to go with a cab ride because it cut the time to get there from three hours to 1 and a half. So we bargained the price down to something reasonable and me, my teacher, and her neice piled into the cab and off we went.



The road being in the condition it was didn`t really seem to be much of a deterent to the cab driver. He sped down the road bouncing over rocks and teetering dangerously close to the edge of the road where there was a rather substantial drop into the river (no guardrails of course). I probably should`ve been a lot more scared, but I`ve found out that when you get on what would be considered extremely hazardous transportation in the US, you just kinda accept it because there`s not much you can do about it. And I was more distracted by the view of the beautiful green valleys that spread out behind us.

After many potholes and a lot of grumbling by our driver at the unfair price, we did eventually arrive at the at our destination. It wasn`t much of a destination, but it`s a good thing appearances are a deceiving. There was only a small little building at the top of the pass that was part restaurant, part grocery store, and part tourist information. The place has some of the best food I`ve had since I`ve been here. We quickly decided where we were going and set out to climb the pass. Our cab driver decided to come with us and I was quickly impressed with his stamina and strength. We scaled the first pass and were greeted with a beautful view of the glacier capped mountains.

We kept climbing and the view just kept getting better. A beautiful, blue glacier lake came into view and I just stood there kinda stunned for a minute. I`ve never seen a glacier lake before. It`s kind of a shame that most of these glaciers are going to be gone or significantly reduced by the end of this decade. Gotta try to see as many of these as I can before they`re gone. Unfortunately, the weather kept getting worse and the girls decided to turn around. I really wanted to go all the way around the trail and get down to the glacier lake to take some pictures and just admire the blue water. So the cab driver and I decided to continue and blazed a trail down to the lake.




My cab driver and I started a rudimentary conversation. I had a lot of trouble understanding him because Castillano was his second language. I found out his first language is Quechua, which a local highland dialect descended from Ancient Inca. I was again impressed by his stamina and strength as we both started to flag as we descended the glacier valley. There were lots of sheep in the valley and lots of angry dogs that didn`t like us very much. We also saw some of the huts that the local sheep and alpaca herders live in during the year. It`s hard for me to even contemplate such an existence.


After another hour, we eventually worked our way back to the hut, where a steaming bowl of soup was waiting for us. I was the happiest gringo for hundreds of miles. Our group gathered for some photos, paid the restaurant guide and started the descent. Going back down the road was rather uneventful, if you can call speeding along at 40mph next to the edge of a cliff uneventful. We got back to the city totally exhausted, and I surprised the cab driver with a very generous tip. I like our culture where we reward people for extraordinary service. Everyone is very surprised when I give them what would be considered a normal tip in the US. Overall, one of the best side trips that I have done since I`ve been here. The next adventure is going to be biking back to Lima. Hasta Luego.