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PERU

NAZCA, COLCA CANYON, TREKKING IN CORDILLERA AUSANGATE AND HUAYHUASH (June - July 2004)   photos

This is where my year long journey began. After spending a few days in Lima being paranoid about getting robbed, I went south to Nazca with 2 girls I met on the plane. In Nazca we hired a taxi to take us to an ancient cemetery in the desert, called Majuelo. Bones and sculls scattered around, and big holes dug out by robbers looking for mummies. We carried on south from Nazca to Arequipa and Cobanaconde, where our first trek started. It took us down Colca Canyon, regarded as the deepest on Earth when it was conquered by a Polish expedition in the 80'. The first day was all about going down a narrow, steep dusty path to a tiny village Llajuar. Hot springs were exactly what we needed after this long day! After 3 days of going up and down the canyon, we went to Cuzco.

There were plenty possibilities for trekking in the area, but we decided to do Ausangate. The trek took 5 days, going around this 6300m mountain. Native people, turquoise lakes, glaciers, snow capped mountains and hot springs, all this in just a few days. After many, many hours traveling by bus I arrived in Huaraz. This is the trekking and climbing capital of Peru. I went trekking around Cordillera Huayhuash. It took me 2 weeks of hardcore trekking, with 40kg on my back to start with. Again the scenery was spectacular. Some of the highest mountains in Peru, stunning lakes, massive glaciers. Every day involved crossing a high pass, often 5000m or more. Robberies are common but I was fine. Those 2 weeks thought me a lot about mountains.