Huaraz Hotels
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Glaciers, ice climbing and Peru´s Fawlty Towers
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We drove through the desert all day before heading inland, back into the mountains and the town of Huaraz. We were meant to be staying in a hostal called "Joe´s Place" belonging to a a bumbling, excentric English expat. When we arrived Joe greeted us in his tartan slippers which he never seemed to be without, later claiming that he even climbed mountains in his trusty toe warmers. Unfortunately his place which was aptly described in the guidebook as "charmingly chaotic" much like its owner, was fully booked so Joe had booked us into a hotel around the corner, Hotel Independent, which it soon became clear didn´t run the risk of stealing repeat business away from Joe with future Dragoman trips.
It took about 40 minutes to check in as the poter/handyman kept trying to insist on putting all of us in different rooms to the keys the receptionist had assigned us. We had asked for a triple room and got keys to a quadruple but he kept taking our bags out of the quadruple and putting them into a double. After several trips backwards and forwards to reclaim our luggage and restake our territory, explaining that we weren´t enamoured with the three in the bed option he proceeded to cram another bed into the smaller room and pointed grinning at the new sleeping arrangements, oblivious to the fact that the door was no longer able to shut and there wasn´t enough floor space for three people to stand, let alone once we were reunited with our luggage which was languishing in the comparably echoing cavern of the quadruple upstairs. Meanwhile our driver Ben had asked for a single room and had been assigned a quadruple with no attempt to downsize him. We hadn´t got off to the best of starts and chose to ignore the porter and reassign ourselves another quadruple room which he had insisted on giving to a married couple of our companions who were about to start their own furniture rearranging by pushing the single beds together. This was Peru´s answer to Fawlty Towers only worse run. By comparison Manuel would have been a star employee worthy of rapid promotion on a glittering career path.
That night we sampled the delights of Huaraz´s nightlife where I spent an interesting time in one of the local nightclubs acting as a piggy in the middle translator. On one side I had a somewhat slimey looking local in a leather jacket and slicked back hair, repeatedly insisting that Harri one of the girls in our group was "Muy linda, muy bonita" (very pretty, very beautiful). However his fixed stare and theatrical hand gestures made it accutely obvious that it was Harri´s curvacious frame and ample boosom in particular which he was attracted to. On my other side was another local that I had briefly danced with who was insisting that his sister, whom he pointed out and was watching our interaction closely, apparently really wanted to dance with one of the guys in our group. I pointed to the chosen friend´s wife who was sitting beside him but the matchmaker was unperturbed and insisted that his sister wouldn´t mind about him being married although the sister shortly afterwards disappeared into the loo where she remained for the rest of the night.
The next morning we were woken at 5.30am by the hotels other occupants - a large number of very noisy and exuberant Peruvian school children of about 10 or 11years old. They obviously didn´t understand the finer points of the English language as several hungover voices took it in turn to bellow "Shut the f**k up" at them though it did little to impinge their football games against our doors or attempts to open our doors and run into our rooms which they found highly amusing.
My next encounter of the day equally had me wanting to resort to violence. Ben, our driver and I had wanted to get some stuff off our truck which was locked behind some gates at the back of the hotel. We asked for the key to unlock it and the bumbling incompetent porter rummaged expressively through drawers whilst simultaneously informing us that the hotel only had one key to the gates and the guy with the key was out all day until 4.00. Ben, through gritted teeth, pointed out in slight condescention that surely it would be very easy for the hotel to perhaps hold 2 keys, wouldn´t it? Ben arranged to return later by which stage apparently the chap with the key still hadn´t returned but miraculously the key had appeared at the back of the drawer which had previously been so thoroughly rummaged through.
At 7.00am we started the 2 hour drive out of Huaraz and further up into the mountains and the glacier that we were going to be walking on. As more of the stunning peaks became snow capped I started to feel the increase in altitude. Though we had spent a lot of time at altitude on the trip, the last few weeks had been at lower levels again and it takes a while to reacclimatise. Every so often, even on the bus, I got the reflex to take a big breath in as you feel the lack of oxygen.
We had about an hours climb to the start of the glacier where we donned very uncomfortable solid plastic snow boots. Lower down on the glacier were loads of teenage school parties having snowball fights but as we climbed we were walking on virgin snow, a bright blue sky and fierce sun glistening off the whiteness. We walked in each others footsteps only sullying the crisp white blanket with one solitary set of tracks. Several of the party were feeling the effects of the previous nights excesses and dropped out, regretting their liberal abuse of the all night happy hour. Those of us that continued cleared the glacier and continued over the rocks to the summit at 5250m. The boots we were wearing were meant for snow and not rocks as they had no flexibility so they made the going really difficult. The view from the top made it all worthwhile though. Straight ahead of us was Peru´s second highest peak and for 360 degrees as far as the eye could see were massive mountains, many of which had white snow caps which looked like they had been painted on.
Everyone had lunch at the summit - I had a banana as I hadn´t had a chance to stop and buy lunch. Combined with the previous nights antics which hadn´t concluded until 2.30am, and my limited calorie intake, I was knackered and started to dose off in the sun, resting on my backpack with the awesome serenity around me. After a short break we descended back to the glacier and the vertical ice wall which was a naturally occuring 30m high formation slicing through the thickness of the glacier. I was the first to climb and put on crampons, a harness and was given two ice axes. You only need the tip of the axe in the ice to support your weight and infact it was often harder to get the axes out than into the ice. The last third had been agony on my wrists and forearms and I was so focussed on making it to the top that I didn´t hear the others at the bottom shouting at me that I had completed it and should abseil down. I thought I had to hoist myself over the top and was attempting to do so when their shouts penetrated my thoughts. As I abseiled down my wrists and forearms, which had been so unused to taking so much of my bodyweight and the repeated attempts to insert and remove the axes, continued to burn and at the bottom I had to remove my gloves with my teeth. After those of us that wanted to had all made attempts at the ice wall, we continued back down the mountain to the waiting ride home. Needless to say we were all in bed before 2.30am that night.
I was woken the next morning by squaking as hundreds of white chickens were being squashed into wooden crates and loaded into a lorry opposite my hotel window. The chickens in turn woke the Peruvian school children who resumed their inter-floor football contest. We were then delayed for over an hour thanks to Manuel´s incompetent subordinate and his equally inept compatriots. They produced the one key they possessed to the gate behind which our truck was locked. Ben noticed that it was cracked and showed the woman telling her that it shouldn´t be inserted into the lock as it would break. She examined it, shook her head and put it in the lock. At which point it snapped off in the lock. For the first hour they appeared to do nothing but after Ben started to politely lose his temper they showed signs of activity and after 2 hours the truck was out. We took a little longer to extricate ourselves from the foyer as the floor was waist deep with bags and the small Peruvian children who owned them. The temptation was to throw both bags and owners forcefully out of the door whilst glaring at the teachers who seemed oblivious both to their charges sprawling nature and their early morning alarm call antics.
Eventually we got underway and started to climb up into the mountains behind the town, only to find the road blocked. A lorry full of gravel intended for the nearby roadworks had gone off the winding road and was residing on its side perilously close to the drop at the edge with a team of guys working to clear its load from the roadway. Meanwhile the inhabitants of the nearby houses had pulled up chairs and were settled back watching the mornings entertainment. In a tiny second story window a large woman and an even larger dog both stuck their heads out, competing for space as they craned their necks for a better view. With the aid of some wooden planks over a ditch to widen the road for us and guidance over the creaking planks Tortuga was on her way.
As we climbed the road wound through eucalyptus and aloe with snow capped peaks in the background and even after 2hours of meandering upwards climbing, the sight of Huaraz was inescapably still present beneath us until we passed over the summit. We spent most of the day then on the downhill drive through glorious scenery but along what could be described as a road from hell. As it wound down through the mountains it was unsurfaced as so many are, but it was excessively potholed and exceedingly winding so it was stomach churningly neauseating as you were thrown around tight bends, contemplating the drop whilst bouncing out of your seat as we went through streams, over holes, rocks and even tree stumps. At one point we started to slid and the truck listed from side to side dramaticly implying that she might contemplate venturing over the edge. Whilst there were a couple of shrieks from people fearing they were coming slightly to close to their maker for comfort, the stereo was playing a version of "Stairway to heaven" and several of us hoped that the road from hell wasn´t destined to become our very own stairway to heaven. I never would have thought that the desert would be a welcoming sight but we were all pleased to make it down in one piece and return to the monotonous sands below.
We headed initially to Huanchaco where we visited the ruins at Chan Chan and the Rainbow Temple and the Temples of the Sun and Moon. We were pleased to be back on the coast and also did a bit of surfing though between battling the riptide and the sharp rocks which cut our feet to pieces it wasn´t the most enjoyable surfing ever. In the evening we joined some firejugglers on the beach before retiring to hammocks at our campsite where we were in turn joined by several harmless rats scurrying around us on the ground and in the branches above us.
A further drive day to Punta Sol where we spent our final few days on the coast. We had a wonderful couple of days camping on the beach again, this time just infront of a small hotel and beachfronted bar where we spent the days swimming and playing beach volleyball within close range of cold cervezas. In the evening we cooked a dinner of fish that we had caught during the day over the open campfire. We also had an hour long salsa lesson on the beach before settling back to look at the stars and the reflection of the moon on the waves whilst the fire crackled and the cerveza flowed. I love going to sleep listening to the sound of the waves outside my tent. How much better does it get?
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| 12. | Glaciers, ice climbing and Peru´s Fawlty Towers - Huaraz, Peru Dec 10, 2006 |
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