Over a week in the mountains....

Well, we made it. We had a day for a "warm up hike" out of a town called Chiquian and then 8 days in "back country" of the Peruvian Andes in the Cordillera Huayhuash, trekking 120km(ish). Our average camping elevation was around 4200m and trekking aroud 4500m. 7 high passes later, we were ruling the Andes....

We had a bit of all weather fronts. But, we still lucked out with amazing views every day.... Here´s day 3:



The highest pass of 5000m on Day 5:

We had some really high rivers to cross because of the extra rain / hail / snow fall of the end of the rainy season. I knew if I missed or slipped off of my rocks, I´d be wait deep in water to the right, and swept down the river and over my head to the left!!....

This river, I had to cross my fingers and make a flying leap!!!...

Other "problems" from the weather fronts included our tent collapsing on us at 1:30am due to the weight of the snow. I somehow found it really funny and enjoyed pushing all the snow off the tent while singing Christmas carols... hoping to get the tent into a somewhat standing condition. This is how far I got:
But, the snow afforded some beautiful views the next morning!!!

For more photos from the trip, I´ve uploaded a slew to the end of my Photos Folder from the trip.

We´re off now for 8 days in the "other" direction: The Amazon!

THREE weeks of travel already!!?!?!?!?!??!

Okay, okay... I know I´ve been a little silent since I´ve been on the road. Although I don´t have much time to write now of the adventure´s we´ve been having, I´ve uploaded a sample of the pictures to date into a photo folder (they aren´t quite in order yet though....!!). Here´s the link to my PHOTOS

What we´ve done so far:

BOLIVIA
1) Send off / seeing Potosí
2) Uyuni and salt flats tour (3 days)
3) Hanging in La Paz, Bolivia with other volunteers
4) Biking the "world´s most dangerous road"... 3300m in elevation drop over 65km
5) Hiking in Sorata who thought hiking up from 1800m to 4600m in one day for an overnight camp was a good idea!??!?!?!?)
6) Chillin´at Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca

PERU
7) Arequipa.... seeing the city, heading out to the Colca Canyon (one of the world´s deepest canyons) to see the condor´s fly, see some small Peruvian communities, etc.
8) Nazca... flew over the Nazca lines, lines etched into the planes over 2000 years ago and only distiguishable as shapes from a flight over.
9) Ica / Huacachina... a few days of vineyard tours, wine tasting, dune bugging riding, sand boarding and relaxing poolside.
10) Pisco / Paracas.... National Reserve (my first "taste" of the Pacific ocean since last October!), and seeing the "poor man´s Galapagos Islands"
11) Lima!

Tomorrow, we´re off to start a 10 day trek in the HuayHuash Cordilla range. We´ll be hiking over 165km of terrain, crossing around 6 high passes of 5000m or more. Should be interesting!!!!!

Goodbye Potosí...

Leaving Potosí was a day (weekend?!?!) filled with tears. I met incredible fortune with the people that I met and developed relationships with over my short time here.

A few days before I left Potosí, I went out to Sucre to pick up Aaron from the airport (a few hours from Potosí). I brought him back to Potosi (from Calgary at 1050m to Potosí at 4100m in one day!) and on my rounds around the city saying goodbye to the people I met.

Although, we didn´t go far to say goodbye to the first people! I knew a guy in Sucre and promised to come out and check out his printing shop that he opened there (I´m not sure how old the printing press was, but it was REALLY neat to see!!!).

Then, that night in Potosí, we had a small party at my apartment. I was able to say goodbye to a few people like Harry, a local guy who was always up to go for a few drinks, the people I worked with and a few other people from around town.

The next day, I went to the post office to have my mail forwarded to La Paz, and it turned into a round of goodbyes with all the ladies there. Some of them promised to send me letters in Canada (how ironic if their letters get to Canada when half the ones that I mailed from Bolivia didn´t!).

Then off to the market. It was so hard to say goodbye to my market mom... everytime I bought anything from her stand, she would quiz me on how I was going to cook whatever I bought, offering me tips, etc. And, I always got a few candies snuck into my hand with my change. I gave her some Canadian maple candies to say goodbye (thought it was fitting!), so she loaded me down with her biggest chocolate bar in return!!! I plan on keeping in touch with her through letters...

PIC: Saying goodbye to Gabe... my market mom (infront of her stand)

We then went to dinner at a local restaurant where I got to know the owners, to say goodbye to them.

My last day in Potosi I spent with my "adoptive" Bolivian family... my good friends Helen and Evelin, and their 8 brothers at their home. I never got a picture of them all together, but here´s a picture of a toast to my safe and quick return to Potosí:

And finally, with all the goodbyes and best wishes, I even had a send off crew at the bus!! How fun was that to have people waving outside the bus yelling after it as we drove away (okay... AND how sad....)
From left to right: Helen, Evelin, me, Marcelo, mom

Once in La Paz, of course a few of the volunteers there and I had to have some fun goodbye pictures. Here´s one of me with Linea (from Sweden) and Patrick (from New Brunswick - Ottawa)....

So, I´m not sure when I will be back in Potosí. But, I have never been able to predict my life too far in advance, so you NEVER know what the future has in store.

For now, I have around 2 months to travel and see a bit more of Bolivia and get to know some of the areas of Peru. I´m looking forward to what´s around the next bend...