August 2003

August 2, 2003 - 11:15 am

The Apurimac was a blast. A beautiful canyon, with no one else around. Crazy rapids that definitely made us work to get down. There was even a nice play hole right by one of the campsites that Mark got to play in for a couple of hours.

Rafting the Apurimac

Yesterday Mark and I floated down the Urambamba in our kayaks. It had pretty scenery (with Inka ruins along the side of the river). But once was enough - as it was mostly a float.

We plan to stay in Cusco for a little while. Mark has an opportunity to safety kayak down the Apurimac a few more times and I plan to hike around the area. We plan to save Macchu Pichu until the tourist season dies down a bit.

August 13, 2003 - 10:24 a.m.

Nothing much has happened since I last wrote - we are still in Cusco. Mark is now working as a safety kayaker for Southern Rivers on the Rio Apurimac. Last trip he went on I went along as well, just to enjoy the canyon and to get out of the city for a bit.

We will probably continue to do this for another week or so and then move to somewhere new.

Tipon

August 16, 2003 - 10:33 a.m.

Wednesday night a couple friends (Juanito, Leo and Piero), myself and Mark decided to make a trip down the Apurimac, kayaks only, in two days. So after some frantic arrangements on Wednesday night we left at 2 in the morning to make it to the river at 9. It was fantastic going down just kayaks - we blazed through the rapids and stopped at various play spots along the way. I had a blast going down in a kayak - much better than rafting, though I decided to skip the two class V rapids on the way down. We camped beside a sweet hole and got some awesome video footage. We slept outside on the sand with the stars overhead, with the sand flies only bothering us a bit. A sweet trip down the river, great rapids and beautiful scenery. SWEET!

Rio Apurimac

August 23, 2003 - 9:44 a.m.

Still in Cusco.... Mark is still working on the Apurimac... I found a job to pass the time helping sell raft tours. Nothing much new to report though I promise the next update will be more interesting...

August 29, 2003 - 9:01 a.m.

So on Monday afternoon Mark made his way to Lima from where he should have caught a flight on Tuesday evening and made his way to Canada for a short 2-3 week visit. Unfortunately flying stand-by he did not make it out. As of yesterday night he was still stuck in Lima but hopefully as of this morning he made it out and is on his way to Canada.

So that leaves me with about 3 weeks on my own....

So last Sunday I left to go on a trek with Frank (a German raft guide/kayaker). We decided to go on a 5 day/4 night around the mountain Ausangate (6372 m), the highest mountain in South-eastern Peru. We went with a local guide, Vincent, who could speak Quechua and a bit of Spanish. Originally we were also supposed to go with 2 Swiss but they did not turn up and it was just the two of us.

The first day was easy. We took the day to get to Tinki (a small village close to Ausangate). The only problem was we rode in the back of a truck with a bunch of Peruvians. Not the warmest way to travel but definitely interesting. The next 3 days involved trekking around the mountain, hiking over 5 passes - the highest being 5200 m. Within that 3 days we did about 60 km so each night both of us were exhausted and rested in the tent while Vincent cooked us dinner (besides it was freezing cold when the sun went down). Luckily we had a horse to carry our gear or I don't think we would have made it. We learned that normally the trek is done in 7 days/6 nights or if you ride horses (which we did not) it's done in 5 days/4 nights. So it was definitely a crazy, hard-core adventure. It was sunny most of the time (luckily) but we did have periods of snow and cold. To ease our aching muscles at the end of the forth day we arrived at some natural hot springs and soaked for a few hours.

The final day involved a 10 km walk back to Tinki and then we caught a truck half full of empty beer bottles back to Cusco. The views were fantastic and both Frank and I feel good about ourselves for finishing such a crazy hike.

Going up...

Nevado Ausangate