The whole Cholo incident left us rattled and ready to leave for Lima.  Our good German friends from Hatun Machay Axel and Kersten decided to come with us and we were very grateful for their company...and Axel’s fluent Spanish!  After 8 long hours driving we finally made it to the vet’s office in Lima.  Poor Sierra once again had to have a few shots, a bit of painful wound cleaning and a good dose of doggy-morphine. the vet said that if we did not give here the extra shots of antibiotics that she coudl be dead.  We all felt relieved to hopefully be putting the whole experience behind us and be on the mend.

Axel and Kersten had about 6 days to kill so we decided to head to a climbing area up the hill called Yuracmayo.  After about a 4 hour drive we arrived at the pristine altitude area.  Snow capped peaks in the distance, horses grazing, a crystal clear river with trout and beautiful limestone sport climbing. Most is quite hard especially at 4500m.  Unfortunately half of the routes were wet, but what was dry was good enough to keep us busy.    Of course in this ‘tranquilo’ environment it is easy to lose track of time.  On what we thought was our second to last day we realized that somehow we lost 24 hours and the Germans were leaving the following morning.  We packed up faster than we thought possible and made our way to Lima.

We just want to say THANK YOU to Axel and Kersten for helping us with the whole dog thing. You guys are the best.

After saying bye to the Germans and talking with some shipping companies we found ourselves heading back up the hill into the altitude towards another climbing area Huayllay. And what a pleasant surprise it was!  We were told it had a lot of potential for bouldering and that the rock quality was good.  We met up with out Dutch friend...the Bert in the town of Huayllay. He was relieved to see us as he had been having to deal with being the only gringo in town for a couple days and we could help spread the load. We spent the first few days sport climbing and then started bouldering shortly there after. Climbing 30 meter routes at 4300m is a difficult task.  The shear size of ‘rock forest’ was overwhelming and rock quality varied from place to place.  We lucked out when we stumbled upon some ruins from an old village (we were told it was conquered by the Spanish, but it is hard to say for sure), good for camping also but just when we were setting up camp steve went to go relieve him self and found a human skull with as odd shaped whole in the back....needless to say that ruined the camping experience. Just behind the ruins there were a couple beautiful boulders but low and behold in the next valley there lay 8 or so big beautiful boulders that yielded about 15 new problems.   We spent the next few days exploring the surrounding area and climbing a ton. One afternoon as we were bouldering we heard the car alarm going off. Steve ran back tot he truck and found a cow itching her horns on the passenger door, the cow had gone around the whole truck rubbing against it, if we did not have the cage it would have meant much more damage.

During our search for good rocks we stumbled upon the local hot springs as well. Not your average dirty springs though, clean and organized.  For a little less than a dollar each we were able to have our own clean and private bath for half an hour.  A much needed treat after 11 days of climbing and camping sin shower!  Just down the hill from there we found another quality cluster of high ball boulders that kept us busy for the next couple days.  After over  2 and a  half weeks of climbing, soaking and enjoying the friendly locals we decided it was time to head to Lima to figure out the logistics for our departure.  Down the hill we went once again.

Before making it to Lima though two things happened. 1. We wanted to try Pachamancha, a slow cooked regional peruvian meat dish. Steve loved it, Teri got food poisoning. 2. We were accosted by corrupt police which tried to get a bribe for $350US then $350 soles...then food...then they let us go. We told them we would sleep there if needed. We have yet to pay a cent in bribes!!! 

After getting things squared away in Lima it became obvious that no matter how we did the shipping we were going to have to extend out visas. That ment a 1300km drive north or south to a border for a stamp...fun fun. We tried to go to the SUNAT office that is responsible for the vehicle import with no luck, our request was answered with you must drive to the border. So off we went. We decided to go north to Ecuador because we had not yet seen northern peru and it afforded us the opportunity to briefly dip in to the amazon. We decided to cross at the most remote crossing in Peru, Zumba. It turned out to be a wonderful experience.

To get to the amazon basin you must first drive up another big hill (reoccurring theme in Peru). As we drove up and up towards the pass it became greener and greener as we ascended in to a dense fog that made visibility about 6 ft. After cresting the summit we were still engulfed it the fog, it was mystical and we expected to emerge in the depths of the Amazon with tucans holding bushels of bananas flying by.... not so. When we came out of the fog it was like a desert in Africa with thorny small trees clinging to mountainsides and existence in the arid landscape. It did not take long for that to change though, our first sign that we were indeed in the amazon were the fruit vendors that started poping up as we came down the hill. They had mountains of fruit that was big and cheap. The further we descended the more lush it became, soon were were surrounded by rice patties and banana groves with papaya tree boarders. This is the Amazon! In case there was any doubt once we reached the wetter regions huge signs warning of Dengue and Malaria left us with no doubt that we were infact in the tropics and bug spray was critical.

We spent the night in Jaen, a rather large city just up from the jungle. This would be our launching pad for the drive to the border in the morning. that night we went out for food and found that the whole city was full of night owles...must be too hot to do anything during the day. we also found that gringos do not come to these parts often, people were very interested but also very nice. We left first thing in the morning and started to head to Ecuador. The road soon turned in to to a wide dirt track, then to a rutted single lane mud road. Passing through village after village with coffee beans drying in the sun it was a wonderful experience. We arrived at the border some 6 hour later and started the formalities of getting our stamps. first we had to check out of Peru, which was easy enough except the immigration officer asked for a 5 dollar bribe which we declined to pay. Then it was in to Ecuador. We walked across the bridge (which had grass growing the whole way across...rarely used)  and found a Peruvian military officer drinking beer with the Ecuadorian immigration officials. Every one was nice and jovial. the whole stamp in stamp out...back in took less thatn 40 minutes. then it was back to Jaen... long day.

We decided to explore the jungle a bit more and took a detour in stead of heading back to the coast and south. This was a great idea except that took us across a little problem, road block. Turns out the indigenous people were not fond of the recent election and decided they were going to voice their disapproval by blocking the road in to the jungle, no one in and no one out...for who knows...2-3 maybe 5 days, it was hard to get a straight answer. We found all this out by talking to the local police which were just milling about, trying to look busy...but doing nothing about the road block. We did not like the sound of this and didn’t particularly want to stick around Dengue land so we decided to give it a shot and drive threw. We first came around the turn and saw 5 people standing in the road with some small rocks across the lanes, no big deal we drove through and looked at each other and said...”that was it?”...then we saw it. About 50-70 people standing in the road with large boulders blocking the way.  we drove up to them (with the doors locked) and were engulfed by the crowd. They were nice and orderly, the chief came up and we explained to him that we were Americans, had no problem with them and if we could please pass. After saying that about 10 times and showing him a copy of our passports he allowed us to go and we drove over a big rock and went on our way. After the road block we saw the line of tucks busses and yes police waiting it stretched for probably a half mile and this was early in the morning on the first day. We were lucky to get out.

So, we are now in Tujillio, well just out side on the coast. we are going to head back to Huayllay for the last climbing of the trip then down to Lima to ship. We are excited to get to go back to Huayllay and climb again...but also excited to be heading home.