Hello all,

Marc & I greet you from Huarez, the town from our previous blog, which we are using as base camp as we travel about the Cordillera Blancas. We have just returned from three days up in the mountains in a lodge called "The Way Inn" named for its prime location in a huge mountain range. At this lodge were were at 12,700'. It amused us that our lodge sat roughly 2,000' higher than Mt. Cleveland, the largest mtn. in Glacier.
We spent the first day hiking around a small mountain village trying to get acclimated. This was a great day, we got to see up close and personal the lives of the villagers working in their fields, women washing their clothes in streams, and the local ice cream man walking the cobblestone streets honking a bike horn carrying ice cream in a sack on his back.. Along this walk we had the pleasure of meeting a small eleven year old boy named Edgar who walked with us along our path, the same path he walked to and from school each day. We attempted to communicate and realized only after speaking with the lodge owner later that Edward spoke only the native language of the village, quechan.
We also met an elderly woman on our path who kept repeating the same phrase over and over that Marc & I were not understanding, to the point that she was yelling to us; it ended up being "what country are you from" while we thought she was warning us about bugs as she feverishly swatted & itched her legs..

The second day we hiked to an elevation roughly equal to the summit of Mt. Rainier, we reached 14,600'. It was a very dizzying, hard push with several stops to rest, and unfortunately almost all of this was done in the rain. All things said though, it was still a beautiful hike up to a waterfall.

The lodge itself was full of character. It was stone, with thatched roof. It had no electricity except for the 10 min. in the evening before dinner when the chef needed to use an electric appliance, so on came the generator. Our evening dinner, discussion and beer drinking were all done by candlelight, with a small fire in the fireplace.
One of the evenings we drank a few beers with two great guys from Holland. One had worked for Doctors Without Borders for several years, most recently returning from four months in Darfur. Late in the evening, we held up our glasses and toasted new experiences, friendship, and my dad's birthday. I told the men that I was sad that I didn't get to call my dad on his birthday, and they both, being about his age, reassured me that without a doubt, my dad knew I was thinking of him. Happy birthday, dad.

We now head back up into the mountains for a few days. We are headed to a lodge nestled between two giants-the largest mountain in Peru, Huascaran. This mtn is 22, 205' and the worlds highest tropical mountain. The other mountain, Huandoy Massif, is 20, 981. We will be doing some day hikes up there. We will come back with more amusing stories to share, I'm sure.

Hope each of you are well, we send our love!
Jess