Perú

If you read my last blog post you might remember that I wanted to attempt a second ascent of a +6000 m mountain. After the defeat on Huayna Potosi in Bolivia I went pretty much straight to Arequipa in Peru. Looming over this nice colonial city is the mountain Chachani (6075 m). Highly acclimatized to high altitude and accompanied by my mountain crazy friend Juliaan I decided to go for it. Technically it was supposed to be easier than Huayna Potosi because there was no ice climbing during this time of the year. The real challenge was the altitude. Highly determined we took on the 2 days, 1 night trek where I learned at that night that its not only the altitude that’s going to challenge me but also the freezing temperatures. After reaching the base camp (5200 m) on the first day we went to sleep early because the ascent started the next morning at around 2 am. So our guide and us left in the pitch black night to climb up that mountain and I can say never have my toes been that cold before! As for the physical challenge I was quite surprised because we managed it quite easily. Easy enough to smoke a celebratory cigarette on top of the mountain at 6075 m. Even our guide was suffering more from the altitude than we did. I guess this is due to the fact that both of us spent more than 2 months on an altitude higher than 2000 m. So I managed to taste sweet victory and join the 6000 m high club. Mission accomplished!

After recovering from the climb we were hungry for more treks and stunning landscapes which are plenty in Peru. Close to Arequipa we did a 3 days trek into the second deepest canyon in the world. Then we went off to Cuzco where we did a 5 days trek which took us to one of the most sacred and spiritual places in the world: Machu Picchu, the navel of the world. The Salkantay trek I already did in May 2013 with my buddy Patrick but this time it was a whole different experience. We had quite lot of rain on the first 2 days and while crossing the Salkantay pass we got hit by a bone chilling and face freezing blizzard (last year I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts!). On the other hand I was much fitter this time and the trek itself was not as physically challenging. After that we had a couple of days on the coast to warm our bones from the high altitude chill and visiting my Peruvian friend Katty. Then we went to Huaraz via Lima to see some of Peru´s most stunning mountains in the Cordillera Blanca and of course to do some trekking. Suffice to say that after this trek we were done with mountains and were yearning for warm temperatures, the ocean and the world cup. All of that we got in a beach town called Mancora in northern Peru. Here we found everything we wanted which is the reason why we already spent more than a month here relaxing and figuring out what to do next.

Beginning of August we will fly to Denver where we will meet some of Juliaan’s family and prepare a roadtrip through the south and west of the US. We are planning to spent quite some time in this huge country. Also I will change my blogging frequency and will give regular updates from the roadtrip in a journal style.

And just to give you some figures about my trip so far: By now I have been travelling almost 11 months, visited 13 countries and covered a distance of almost 40.000 km (23.000 km of it in South America by taking around 45 long distance busses) overland. Yet I still don’t feel the end of my trip even though I start to miss my friends and family back home quite a lot.