mountain excursion (part II)

Once again, forgive me for cutting and pasting from my other blog but this one is even longer than the last and I have no desire to rewrite the whole darn thing.

day 2 of the trip to huaraz was an eventful one indeed. it started out early with a 6am wakeup call for breakfast at 630 and leaving the hostel at 7 for the trip to lago (lake) 69. we had heard that it was a beautiful place to visit and take pictures of so we decided it was worth getting up with the sun in the morning.

the group of 9 of us piled into the van that was taking us to our starting point 3 hours down the road and 800 m higher than huaraz. it was an ok ride there, the lady from seattle was constantly asking to pull over so she could take pictures of the local scenery and it was getting fairly annoying, even for me. the tour guides were getting impatient to get to the start point so we could do the hike and so was i. after some flat and some bumpy roads, we made it into the park where the lake is located and got to our departure spot - located at 3900 m above sea level.

we ate a bit of lunch before and peed on the local trees before heading off on our hike. a conservative estimate said that it would be a 2.5 hour hike up and a 1.5 hour hike back. we were told that the lake was at 4450 m so it didn't look like it was going to be that hard of a hike, only needing to go up another 500 vertical meters. the guides said that it was an easy trail so we didn't expect it to be that hard.

slight problem - we weren't acclimated to the elevation.

we started off and on the relatively flat sections noticed that we had a hard time talking between ourselves for more than 4 or 5 words at a time. there just wasn't the oxygen there to breathe and speak. we tended to get tired quickly yet found that we recovered quickly when we took a break. after about an hour, our group was starting to fragment into the hikers who were doing ok with the altitude and those that were not. i am proud to say that i was in the group that was doing fine and i was setting the pace for the 3 behind me that were all 10 years younger.

there was a flat valley as we approached the 2 hour mark and at that point, we were at 4400 m. with the joy of knowing that we only had another 50 vertical meters to go, the group of 4 headed across the valley and towards the last trail that would take us to the summit of our journey. we came across some people coming down and they said that the view was amazing but the hardest part of the hike was still to come. no problem!!! we weren't that tired and the skies looked clear. for about 10 minutes and then it started to hail. little tiny balls of frozen water bounced off my cap and shirt (notice i didn't say jacket, cuz i didn't bring one) and the sky changed from being a lovely shade of blue with fluffy white clouds to a sunless day with dark rain clouds looming overhead. oh frackin' lovely, i thought. i'm gonna get soaked at altitude without a rain coat and in relative cold (it was around 8 C)...

the last slope was wicked steep with loose rocks and a lot of vertical ground to cover. the 50 m we thought we had to go was a slight (!!!!) understatement and the 4 of us began to splinter into single hikers as we ascended the last slope. i would take 10 steps and stop to catch my breath. i was amazed at how hard it was to breathe, and the pounding in the back of my head from the altitude was getting rather severe as i continued to climb. when i busted out the gps, i noticed that i was at 4500 m and still not anywhere near the top of the hill. i figured out then that it was going to be a long afternoon even though it was only slightly before 1pm.

i managed to push my way up to the top and towards the infamous lago 69. it was a beautiful sight and i would have appreciated it more only i was physically spent. the gps registered the lake as being 4616 m above sea level and it completely felt like it. at this point i was getting nausea from the altitude and couldn't eat the snickers bar that i had brought with me to eat at the summit of the journey. how sad must i be if i can't eat chocolate????

the headache and nausea were too much so i started back down after only being at the lake for about 20 minutes. the signs my body were giving me told me that i needed to get down from that elevation and back to somewhere that i could get oxygen to my muscles (and brain). i began the trek back to the van and found the walk back to be as difficult as the walk up. the rocks were sliding everywhere and i had to take tiny steps to ensure that i didn't bite it and roll my way down the mountain. after a while, my legs started to cramp up from the lack of oxygen in my muscles and things went from bad to worse. i was going slower DOWNHILL than i was when i was going uphill. the fatigue of the hike was setting in and i still had 1000 vertical meters to descend (which should have taken me about an hour). it took closer to 2.

after about 30 minutes of hiking, my brain disconnected. the altitude was getting to me and the constant walking meant that there was a relative lack of oxygen going to my brain. i got to feeling like i was drunk, with a hangover, and in jeopardy of falling off a mountain. not a good combination and the reality of what altitude can do to a person was really sinking in. the slower members of our group were passing me on the way down and noted that i couldn't walk a straight line no matter what the terrain. it was not a good experience and i have a new found appreciation for what high altitude hikers go through. not being acclimated was biting me in the backside and i went from having a pretty good day to a bad one.

the terrain leveled out a little as i got closer to the van and i struck up conversations with anything that would listen. the cows, the burros, my shoes, even my hat (i told you i was in bad shape). and somehow i made it back to the van and collapsed in the front seat with a massive headache and burning desire to vomit. ugh, i definitely was going to remember this experience...

the van departed for huaraz and as we descended back to the normal elevation of where i could breathe, my headache went away and the nausea with it. i never did throw up and somewhere around 3700 m is where i felt like a human again. the ride back to town went well and although i was tired, i wasn't sick. to finish off the day, a couple of us dropped by a local restaurant for some pizza before we hit the sack around 9pm that night. i haven't slept that well in a long time.

olympic home

I would just like to say hello to the reader from Lake Placid, NY. I don't know who you are (and would love to find out) but wanted to give a shout out to one of my favorite places in NY. I lived in Saratoga for a short time and made it up to Lake Placid once while I lived there, a great little town indeed...

Not only is Lake Placid the home to Whiteface Mountain and the awesome skiing that the mountain provides but its also home to my favorite sporting event in history - the Miracle on Ice. Disney went on to make it into a movie (which I've watched too many times) but I still remember being a kid and watching the game live on a tiny B&W TV in my parents bedroom. "Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!!"

So to the reader from Lake Placid, thanks for tuning in and giving my blog a read. Better yet, thanks for reminding me of a wonderful place in New York. :)



The reader from Lake Placid can reach me at cavaliers948@gmail.com

to the mountains!

I'm too lazy to type this again so here's a copy of what I wrote on my other blog about the recent trip to Huaraz I made with some other teachers. It will come in a few parts, so be patient while I get them all written. Cheers!

a group of us met at the bus station for our night-long journey to huaraz. the trip takes about 8 hours (350 km) and we booked our seats on a sleeper-bus. the chairs are big and comfy, reclining most of the way to horizontal to make it as nice as possible to sleep. i got stuck sitting next to the freaky woman from seattle who wanted the window seat yet constantly needed to pee. gee, thanks for that...

but i got some z's and was awakened at 7am on thursday morning when we arrived in huaraz. after getting off the bus, the first thing i noticed was how hard it was to get my breath. sure enough, 3100 m (10 000 ft) above sea level will do that to you. our group of 6 headed off to our hotel (hostel) to drop off our stuff and set off for the day. the crazy pee-woman from seattle had some idea of stuff to do for the day and so we followed this lady on her expedition to buy native goods.

what a mistake THAT turned out to be...

she said there was an artist's colony in some town called marcara, so we went there. it turns out that the place is there but doesn't allow visitors - they sell their goods in another town. so we piled back into a taxi cab and went to monterrey; another 25 minutes in a cab. we get there and have lunch before heading off to the artist's shop only to find out from the locals that the shop is actually a bunch of shops that are located up the road. grrrrr - we are not happy at this point. so she and some others head off to the hot springs that are in this small village (population 30, maybe...) while the rest of us decide to head back to huaraz to get a nap and relax for a bit.

so kelsey (a student teacher at the school) and i hop into a combi to head back into huaraz. what is a combi? its a mini-van that fits 17 people but are known to cram well over 20 people (like 27) into it. the cost to get to monterrey by cab - 25 soles. the cost to get back to huaraz from monterrey by combi - 1 sole. nothing like travelling like the natives - a true peruvian experience.

we all met at the hotel and relaxed for the afternoon, wandering about to take some pictures and shop at the local stores. alpaca (llama) sweaters and hats and all the other local wares were to be found. i think i found one in orange, i wonder if anyone would be interested in it... in any case, some shopping and some dinner eventually led us to planning the next day, a trip to lago 69 up in the mountains near huscaran (a glacier). friday was going to be a long day so we hit the sack earlier and prepared for our trek up to 4450 m.

details on the trip to lago 69 and the rest of the mountain expedition later.

the crusades - *new and improved*

So here we go again, it seems as though just when you thought that the role of religion couldn't be used any more for non-sense, the latest bout of Islam vs. Christianity features the Pope's recent comments being used as fuel for the fire. Coming soon to a mixed neighborhood near you - the Crusades *new and improved*...

Once again, people are inciting the belief in their god as the reason why they should go forth and kill everyone else who has different beliefs. I think that historians will look back at this time in history as the time when over-population was controlled through the culling of humans through the process of war. Look back at the last hundred years and think of the hundreds of millions of people who have been killed for a set of beliefs. Nowadays it seems as though if any person wants to go kill someone else for whatever reason, they just claim 1) their god told them to do it or 2) their god is offended by the existance of infidels.

I'm going to go out and say it - organized religion is a bunch of crap and people need to stop listening to their leaders who base their decisions on what they interpret as what god wants. George Bush said that god told him to invade Iraq, Islamist fundamentalists say that Zionists are to be wiped off the face of the Earth because they are... Jewish? Ya know, in the past when people said they heard voices telling them what to do, we medicated the shit out of them, put them in "hug-me" jackets, and watched them roll around rooms with padded wallpaper through a slot in the door.

Now it seems like we are following the crazies to their own personal insanity. Since when did people lose sight of the fact that any creator, regardless of religion, gave us the ability to reason and determine who the crazies were? As far as organized religion is concerned, aren't the level-headed, god-fearing people of the community supposed to take care of those who can't seem to grasp reality?

Its no shock that I am agnostic, religion in its current form has just totally turned me off of a certain belief system. I believe that there is a creator (the universe didn't come from nowhere) but I am tired of the dogma that religious people subscribe to without even critically thinking about where that idea originated. Christ wasn't born in December and Mohammed probably didn't mind his picture being drawn (as long as it wasn't a caricature). To all the leaders in organized religion - GET OVER YOURSELF AND YOUR SUPREMACY ISSUES! No religion is the only way to "heaven" and stop killing people in the name of your beliefs. You don't see me running around and cutting off all your penises (or is it peni?) because I don't think you should be allowed to reproduce and spread your ideas, do ya? Its called tolerance folks and EVERY RELIGION PREACHES IT. Pay attention to your own beliefs and don't worry so much about the other guy, he's got his own godly problems to deal with.

small and insignificant

Now here's a video that will let you know just how small we really are in the big scheme of things...

where does it hurt?

The answer to that question is simply, "between my ears". Today was my first foray into the medical system of Peru, a journey into the surreal for me.

Last Saturday I strained my elbow while playing softball. It hurt like a son-of-a-gun at the time that I did it and I knew I had to get it checked out by a professional. Its amazing - the three years I was in Holland, I only had to go to the doctor once and that was because I got hit by a car. I'm in Peru for a little over a month and I've already managed to ding myself up. Nice job there sport-o.

The precedent has already been set for how bad my spanish is as my current hairstyle reflects. So I had no problems with asking others for a little help with arranging an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. I was given the number by someone at school and after having no luck with getting an appointment with him, I was referred to another doctor who was able to see me today. At the conclusion of the day, I packed my bag and headed to the Clinica San Borja to meet with my doctor - Dr. Diaz.

I had no idea that the clinic was just part of the adjoining hospital and never even thought that there would be more than one Dr. Diaz. Ummm, yeah - one should never assume that of a last name like Diaz in a latin country. The clinic is seven stories tall and has doctors ranging from neurology to podiatry and every body part in between. When I walked in, I was greeted by a gentleman who I was hoping would steer me towards the elevators and tell me what floor to get off on. Nope, he put me in the line to get medical insurance sorted out (b/c that was his job) and after standing in the insurance line for a few minutes, I was directed to go see someone else since I evidently didn't have all the correct paperwork.

So I made my way through the blue door with the smiley face on it and sat down to talk with Karina. Not the Karina from my previous posting, but the Karina that works at the clinic. Her job was to figure out how I was going to get my insurance to cover the cost of the consultation and being the efficient worker that she was, she also spoke so fast that I could barely understand my own name being read to me.

I must have gone wide-eyed and had a total look of bewilderment on my face because she looked at me and said (in spanish), "Do you understand what I am saying?"

I replied in my best gringo-accented spanish, "No, could you say that again slower and in smaller words. My spanish is bad because I have live here only for one month." Upon hearing this, she repeated everything she had said earlier - only faster. I guess she enjoyed watching my eyes glaze over as she rambled away, it musta been fun to watch the white guy with his master's degree sit there in total befuddlement - I would have probably done the same if I were in her shoes.

We eventually figured out that I had to pay the doctor's fee up front and then be reimbursed by my insurance company. With that in hand, I finally got to make my way towards the elevators that I was hoping to ride 45 minutes earlier. I made my way up to the 7th floor where I was greeted by another gentleman - and yes, I was a bit nervous about talking with him b/c I thought he might send me back downstairs. He pointed me to the right desk and I walked over to check in with the receptionist.

"Hello, may I help you?" Oh thank God!!! Someone who speaks English!!! "Yes, I am here for my appointment, my name is Expat Nomad and I have a 4pm appointment." By the way, it was 5 pm when I said this to her. "Yes Mr. Nomad, Dr. Diaz will see you now."

I walked off the elevator and into his office for a brief consultation that resulted in some guy telling me (in English too!) the same thing that I figured out on the internet - I have tennis elbow. He gave me a prescription to reduce the swelling, told me to take it easy for a couple of weeks and that I should come back in a week to see him. I paid my S/ 170 (170 soles is about $60 USD) and hopped in a cab to head home. I was tired of using my brain for the day and flopped into the back seat and spoke only to the driver when I needed to tell him what street to turn on to get me home.

But I'm better off. I've been told by a licensed professional exactly what is wrong with me and what I can do to fix it. The hard part is going to be staying away from sports for the next couple of weeks until this heals. Grrrr!!!

Oh well, gotta run for now. I need to get some sleep, I've got a softball game in the morning...