The Road to Ayacucho

It's been at least 2 weeks, and A LOT has happened - believe me! By the way, Scotty, thanks for reading this, I'm writing this in large part for you!
Managed to do some climbing, first at a local gym (then went to a crag although I didn't climb), which had an awesome vibe. First off, it was outdoors, with a home-made feeling. Not too many roped climbs (not that I remember) but a lot of outdoor bouldering, fire pit, barbecue, that sort of stuff. and the people were amazing! Imagine getting off a problem, having a swig of brew and a bite of sausage right off the grill - that's what I'm talking about! Next time I'm there, I'll snap some photos for y'all!

Next off it was for a weekend at a friend's cottage and a day of climbing in an area about 50km east of Lima, the name of which I'll have to verify for you. The rock was a bit chossy, but otherwise felt like like some sort of sandstone conglomerate. The area looks like it is still being developed, as routes looked untraveled with some loose rock. The canyon had a lot of potential, and I'm sure that the locals know of many MANY more areas and access point. All in all, Peru looks like an awesome climbing destination, at least from what I saw for sport and trad. (I hear Huaraz, up north, is in a league of its own- kind of like our Bugaboos.)

On Wednesday of the following week we took a long bus ride - about 10 hours long. I realize that 10 hours in a bus is nothing amazing at all, however, within those 10 hours, all of which is done at night by the way, you go from sea level up through a 5000m high pass and then back down to about 3000 meters. The twisting of the bus up switchbacks, the speed of the descents, and the loud shear of very very poor rate movies playing throughout the night through the speakers make the ride less than enjoyable. Arriving at 7 am in the city of Ayacucho with a bad head ache, both from altitude and the in-ride experience. Ayacucho, I will leave to the next blog, because it deserves at least two or three entries to itself. All I can say is, if you get a chance to go, especially for Semana Santa like we did, don't think about it, just go! It's one of the biggest celebrations of any kind that I have seen.

Clicking the image to the left takes you to an amazing sideshow.
As always, more soon - hopefully sooner than before.

Cheers,
Kamil