Once again we had another early morning. I had a quick shower and headed up to the rooftop restaurant for breakfast. Quita a nice view overlooking a small shanti town and Paracas Bay. I had a good laugh at everyone as they complained about dogs barking all night. Since I was in the dungeon I didn´t hear anything and slept like a mummy in it´s tomb. There did seem to be lots of dogs roaming around again.

After breakfast we headed over to the boardwalk where we would eventually hop on a boat that would take us to the Ballestas Islands. We had to wait for the visibility to improve before we could head out inthe boats, so we spent the next 30 minutes wandering around Paracas. In 2007 there was a massive earthquake that rocked the area. Pisco, the next town over was nearly destroyed. In Paracas you can see signs of damage from the quake.

We finally got on the boat, which seats close to 30 people, and headed out to the sea. Within five minutes the captain stopped the boat and we were able to see lots of dolpphins. After watching the dolphins for a few minutes, we continued to our next objective, the Candelabro.

The Candelabro is a huge drawing carved into a cliff overlooking Paracas Bay. Some say that it is some how related to the Paracas or Nasca culture.

We then moved on to the Ballestas Islands, which are a series of islands that are literally painted with bird shit, aka guano. The islands are littered with birds, including humboldt penguins, red boobies, turkey vultures, and red-footed cormorants. There were even lots of sea lions. Overall it was pretty cool to visit the islands. I found the tour guide rather annoying as he wouldn´t stop talking…ever! I kept trying to take videos to capture some of the audio from the sea and the animals, well that never really happened.

Once back on land we hopped on board a private bus and headed to a pisco winery (bodega) located just outside of Ica. We went on a tour where they showed us how pisco is made. After the tour we were all treated to many free pisco samples. We all left the winery with huge grins on our faces.

We then hopped back in the bus and headed off to Huacachina Laguna, which ia a gorgeous oasis in the middle of the desert. Right away we changed our clothes and slapped on some sunscreen. I´m not sure what the temperature was this day, but it was really hot!

Nine of us then climbed into a giant dune buggy and our driver put the peddle to the metal and drove us all out into the desert. Driving around in the dune buggy was a blast! It was a lot like riding a rollercoaster with speeds reaching up to 90 km/hr.

We eventually came to a stop, took some photos, and then we strapped on our sand boards to tear up the sand dunes. Sand boarding is a lot harder than it looks. On my first attempt down a dune, I cruised for a few seconds with ease, but when I went to make my first carve in the sand, my body instantly went into a flying cartwheel and I went rolling down the dune. Sand got everywhere! Russ and I were the only two to sand board standing on our feet, eeryone else laid on their stomach to go down the hill.

I never really did get very good on the sand board. Im going to blame it on the bindings. The sand boards that we were using did not have the typical bindings used on most snowboards. Instead, the bindings were simply velcro straps. These velcro bindings don´t offer much ankle support and they would come undone everytime I tried to carve. I ate a lot of sand this day.

After sand boarding we tore up the sand dunes some more in the dune buggy before heading back to the oasis. I immediately emptied the sand out of my shoes and hopped in the shower. After a quick rinse and a change of clothes, we all ordered some drinks and food. I had lamb with some type of beans. It tasted great! We sat around by the pool for a while before packing up our belongings and getting back on the bus. Our next destination was Nasca.

I´m going to save this next part for a separate post as it really should have it´s own post.

Sunday morning I woke up at around 7:30 am, had a warm shower, and then headed up to the restaurant for breakfast. I ate scrambled eggs, a piece of bacon, a glass of fresh juice, and of course a cafe con leche. After breakfast I packed my bags and checked out of my room. Six of us met in the hotel lobby and we decided to go explore Lima before catching a bus to Pisco. We stored our backpacks in the hotel storage room. Strapped with only the essentials for the day, we left the hotel and headed to Larco Ave, where we caught a bus to downtown Lima.

It took 20 minutes to get to downtown Lima. We got off the bus on Calleo Street. Calleo Street was pretty empty and worn down. But we knew where we were going, so we kept on walking down the street. In the distance we could here music being played. It sounded like a marching band. We carried on walking down the street and then from out of nowhere a group of dancers dressed in colourful costumes turned a corner and were coming down the street straight for us! A man unlocked a cage door and then forced the door open. All of the dancers ran through the door and up a ramp that led to an above ground parking lot. The man who opened the door waved to us and we chased after the dancers up the ramp and into the parking lot. The band was already here in the parking lot and now the dancers were performing their dance routine for only a few spectators.

What a coincidence that we got to watch these dancers perform on a rooftop parking lot in downtown Lima. It was an incredible experience! The dancers’ costumes were very colourful and their dance moves resembled some sort of martial arts. After watching the band perform their routine, we seized the opportunity for some group photos with the dancers.

We then proceeded back down Calleo Street and finally made our way to Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor was filled with people, pigeons, and dogs. We went inside the big cathedral and to be completely honest, I was quite surprised that I wasn’t struck by lightning when I entered the building. This cathedral is huge and it had gorgeous ceilings that were painted blue to resemble the sky. There also seemed to be gold everywhere you looked. After a few minutes wandering around the inside of the cathedral, the Sunday service began so we decided to leave.

Once again we continued walking, but this time we chose Huallaga Street. I needed to make some pee pee, so I stopped at el bano. I had to pay $ 0.50 soles to use the toilet. We eventually arrived at a giant market, that smelled an awefully lot like a zoo. There was even plenty of dead animals hanging all over the place. It was pretty gross and I didn’t buy anything.

After some more strolling around the neighbour hood, we stopped at a little cafe where I ate empanada de pollo. It was okay, but definitely not the best empanada I’ve had. After a quick bite to eat we caught a bus back to Miraflores and walked back to the hotel.

Oh some great news! When I got back to the hotel I checked my e-mail and I got the confirmation that I’ve been waiting for. My bag arrived in Huaraz! Woot woot!!!

I grabbed my pack and waited with the rest of the group for our private bus to arrive. We took the private bus to the bus station where we caught a public bus that would take us to Pisco.

Today we also learned about Peruvian time. Peruvian time is usually longer than what is expected. For example, today our trip leader David told us that it would take 4 hours to get to Pisco. Well, it ended up taking 6 hours in total.

The scenery wasn’t too spectacular along the PanAmerican Highway. It was really more of an eye opener than anything. This part of Peru is mainly a desert so we saw lots of sand dunes. The sides of the roads are filled with garbage and there are a lot of small shacks located all over the land. David referred to these as shanty towns. The shanty towns do not have electricity or running water.

Once we arrived in Pisco we had to catch another bus that took us down a long bumpy gravel road through Pisco town, and then into Paracas, where we checked into our Hostal, the Refugio del Pirata

My suite was in the basement, which I referred to it as the dungeon. Although in the end I think I ended up with the best room. Everyone else was upstairs on the main and second floors. They were kept up all night by barking dogs.

Anyways, after checking into the hostal, our tour guide David took ua to a restaurant a few blocks away located along the coast. I had a Pisco sour and also the ceviche. Ceviche is a popular Peruvian dish that consists of raw seafood that is covered in lime juice, onions, and cilantro. The lime juice essentially cooks the seafod. I’ll be referencing this meal choice in my next post.

While we were eating two Peruvian buskers came by our table and started some music for us. After finishing our meals we walked back to the refugio. On the way back we saw two dogs fighting. Oh by the way, it seems nobody in Peru gets their dogs neutered. So all the dogs down hear have really big balls. Kinda gross!

I returned to my dungeon suite and called it a night. The next day turned out to be an awesome day, but also a day filled with catastrophe! Stay tune for more of my Peruvian adventure!

Well today has been a pretty interesting day. After returning to my hotel from the bus depot, I decided to go out on my own and explore Lima. I left my hotel and headed over to Larco Ave, which is a fairly busy street full of restaurants and shops. I even saw several shops catering in alpaca clothing.

Along my way down Larco, I got to listen to a man playing a peruvian recorder on a street corner. You should have seen and heard this guy play! Man was he ever rocking out! At one point I swear he broke into a rendition of Three Blind Mice!

As I walked down the busy street I was approached by several locals. One was a cute little girl who tried to sell me flowers. She came up beside me singing a song in spanish. I felt guilty for not buying any flowers, but I really didn´t want to pull out my wallet at this particular intersection.

Eventually I came to Larco Mar the end of Larco Ave. Larco Mar is an outdoor shopping mall on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I did some quick browsing through some of the stores and then decided to leave the mall. Note to shoppers: there weren´t really any good deals here.

On my way back to Larco Ave, a Peruvian man approached me. He started talking in spanish to me and pointing at my shoes. The next thing I know he´s on his knees scrubbing my shoes! I´m thinking WTF, but can´t really say no because at this point one of my shoes is wet. I can´t be walking around Lima with just one clean shoe and one dirty shoe. So I let the man clean my shoes. He scrubbed them down and then applied what I believe was water proofing to them. I guess I´ll find out soon enough. Once the man finished with my shoes he then asked for money. Yes I saw this coming. After some quick bartering I ended up paying the man 4 soles, which I´m guessing is maybe a buck or two Canadian. Not too bad at all

So now that my shoes were nice and clean, I felt the urge to walk some more. I carried on walking around the Miraflores district. After walking a few blocks I noticed that a Peruvian lady had been walking close to me for the past block. She kept looking over at me. Finally she asked me in english where I was from. I told her that I was from Canada and she got all excited. We chatted back and forth for a few minutes. Then she started to get all flirty and began asking me more personal questions. Anyways…I decided that it was best to carry on and we both went our separate ways.

I eventually ended back at my hotel and I really had te urge to have a hot shower. So I went and had a closer look at the shower faucets. Wow, I must of been half asleep this morning when I had that shower because this time I was able to get the hot water to work. Hooray!

After having a nice hot shower I went and met up with the rest of the group from GAP Adventures in the hotel lobby. We all introduced ourselves and then our trip leader went over a bunch of things with us.

After the meeting a bunch of us decided to go for dinner. We walked around Miraflores until we came to Cafe Cafe. I was going to order seafood, but they were all out. So instead I had a grilled chicken breast along with dos cervezas (Cusqueñas), which tasted great

After dinner we headed over to a grocery store to buy a few things before heading back to the hotel. I picked up some bananas, a huge bottle of water (sin gas), and some Inca Corn nuts. The corn down here is supersized compared to the corn in Canada. The kernels are at least twice the size!

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day. We´re meeting for breakfast bright and early and 8:00. After breakfast we have some more time to explore Lima before catching a bus to Pisco, where we will be staying at a refugio for the night. I´m looking forward to my first Pisco Sour tomorrow night!

Well here I am in Lima writing from my hotel´s Internet room. Yesterday was a long day. My flight left Winnipeg a few minutes late, but I wasn´t too concerned because I had a couple hours to waste in Toronto anyways. The flight to Lima was nice and smooth. I had an empty seat beside me so I was able to spread out a bit and listen to my iPod (thanks Sean). Other than that, the flight was pretty uneventful.

Okay so get this, once I arrived in Toronto I proceeded to the TV screens to find out which terminal I needed to get to to catch my next flight to Lima. At the screens I recognize two other guys from Winnipeg. We started chatting and it turned out that they are also headed to Lima and they are on the same flight as me. What a coincidence! They are heading to Cuzco to trek the Inca trail.

And if that wasn´t enough, as I began walking to the international departures area, I started talking to another dude from Winnipeg. Guess what? He is also headed to Lima to meet some friends and trek the Inca trail.

My flight from Toronto to Lima was freakin long! Eight hours. On this flight I ate Air Canada´s interpretation of mashed potatoes and chicken. For desert I had what appeared to be a meatball in chocolate mousse. The meatball turned out to be some sort of chocolate cake. Go figure. The nice thing about this flight was that there were TVs mounted on the headrests in front of each seat. I ended up watching three movies: One Week, Gran Turino, and Yes Man.

I arrived in Lima last night at around 9:00. After clearing customs and proving that to authorities that I don´t have swine flu, I proceeded to get my bags. Note to any Canadians travelling abroad where other Canadians may be travelling abroad: Many Canadians shop at Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC). If you buy a backpack or any type of luggage from MEC make sure that you dress up your bag so that it stands out from others. There were six other people who had the same backpack as me! It got a little frustrating trying to figure out which bag was mine. Mine ended up being the last one to come off the plane.

Once I had all my bags, I proceeded to the money exchange booth and grabbed some Sols. After exchanging some money I walked out of the baggage pick-up area and into a mob of taxi drivers. There were signs everywhere and everyone was yelling out at me to try and get me to hire them as my taxi driver (all in spanish of course). It took me a minute, but I finally found a sign that read¨”Brant Friesen” I assumed that was me a flagged down my driver. We worked our way through the mob and stepped outside. It felt good to finally breath the fresh air. Lima definitely has a distinct smell to it. It kinda smells like the ocean, fish, and then you get the smell of diesel fuel from all the cars.

The cab ride was interesting, but relatively quite as the driver didn´t speak English and I am not very good with my Spanish yet. I got to the hotel, checked in and went to my room. After a bit of reorganizing all my stuff. I had some water and went to bed.

This morning I woke up and decided to have a shower. Boy was I in for a surprise. This hotel doesn´t have hot water! I´ve had warmer baths in some of the lakes back home in Manitoba compared to this. After showering I went upstairs to the restaurant ad ate breakfast. I also had my first cafe con leche, which rocked!

After breakfast I then had a task to accomplish. I´m not kidding when I say this, but this may as well have been a task on the Amazing Race. So here is my roadblock.

I had to make my way by taxi to Movil Tours, a local bus company with service all across Peru. Once I got there I had to have my duffle bag, which contained all my mountain climbing gear, wrapped and sent on a bus to the town of Huaraz. Jenn from Skyline Adventures agreed to pick up my bag from the bus station when it arrives. Thanks Jenn! Let me tell you, that was an experience on its own. Nodody, and I mean nobody at Movil knew how to speak English. Great. Here I am, some gringo carrying a big duffle bag , blabbing about something in English using the occasional Spanish word.

Well if there is one thing I´ve learned from watching the Amazing Race is that you may have to improvise at times. I glanced out the window and saw two gringos getting out of a taxi. I flagged them down and asked them if they could speak english. Great they could speak english! And even better, they could both speak spanish! Woo hoo! I´m saved. This couple helped me get my bag on the bus. Thank you!

That pretty much brings me back to where I am now. Tonight I´m meeting with the rest of my group from GAP and we will be going for dinner and hopefully some cervezas or pisco sours somewhere. So until next time, haste luego mis amigos!

Well in just a few minutes I will be on a plane headed for Lima, Peru. I can’t believe this day has finally come. As usual, the weather here in Winnipeg is nothing to write home about; however the weather down in Lima looks promising. My total travel time today is supposed to be around 14 hours. I hope I don’t encounter any delays.

I imagine I will be tired when I get into Lima, so tonight will be pretty relaxing…well, we’ll see

Since I won’t be taking my Crackberry with me, I won’t be able to write another post until I find a computer in Peru. Wow, six weeks without my Crackberry, this is going to be tough. And I’m even quitting my addiction cold turkey….not bad at all

Have a great day everyone! TGIF!!!

Holly crap! In just a few days I will be on my way to Peru. It’s pretty surreal. I can’t believe that all my planning and preparing over the past nine months are about to be put to the test. Time has really crept up on me these past couple of months. All along I felt as if I had lots of time. The next thing I know I’m counting down the days.

This past weekend I started packing my bags. What a chore! I might also add that it’s a little stressful. I keep worrying about bringing too much or too little. I also keep thinking that I’m forgetting something. Let me tell you, I will be really glad once I arrive in Peru so that I finally know what I forgot to pack.

Yes the packing is tough, probably because I’m essentially packing for two different trips. There’s the backpacking around Peru part, and then there’s the mountain climbing part. After packing all my climbing gear and winter clothes in my duffle bag, I sure am glad that I won’t have to haul all that crap around Peru.

Ok, so packing may not be as bad as I make it out to be. There have been some highlights. For example, I got to prepare my pee bottle!

Yes, that may sound a little hillbillyish, but where else are you going to relieve yourself in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping on a mountain ledge at 17,000 feet above sea level. I’m sure not going to be the guy who falls off a mountain while making pee-pee.

Well, I should really get back to packing. I’ve still got a few more things to go through.

Until next time…

Well I’ve only got about five more weeks until I leave for Peru. Lately I have been frantically trying to figure out what to bring with me and what to leave at home. In the mean time I’ve come up with a tentative gear list. I say tentative because I’m pretty sure this list will change before I leave. I also haven’t included some of the basics such as personal hygiene items.

Wow I can’t believe I haven’t wrote anything new in almost two months. Things have been a little crazy around here as I have been busy training and preparing for the trip. Oh I have a been in contact with someone who I will be travelling across Peru with on the GAP Adventures tour. I’m really looking forward to meeting more people who will be on the tour.

I think I’ve finally got all my gear sorted out. I have arranged for all my climbing gear to be sent up to Huaraz as soon as I get into Lima. I’m really happy I was able to do this as I won’t have to carry any extra gear around Peru until I actually need to use it when I’m mountain climbing.

Since some people have been asking me about the gear that I will be using down in Peru, I will put together a gear list and post it on this blog. Potential gear sponsors take note

I’m still going to the gym on a regular basis. Unfortunately I had to stop running a while back as I some how managed to hurt my foot. Instead of running I’ve been using some of the different cardio machines at the gym, as well as going for the occasional bike ride. On a positive note, my foot has been feeling much better these last couple of weeks, so I think I’m going to try running again tomorrow night. Besides going to the gym and going for the occasional bike ride, I have also gone indoor wall climbing on several occasions. Here are a couple pictures from the climbing gym and also from a recent snowboarding trip to Holiday Mountain.

Well that’s it for now. This Friday I leave for San Diego. I must say I’m really looking forward to the warm weather. I’ll be sure to post a trip report when I get back.

Lately a couple of people have asked me how my training for the trip is coming along, so I figured I would write a post about it. The truth is that I’ve been slacking off I know, I know, tisk tisk. In my defence, the holidays did consume a lot of my time, and it’s also been really frickin cold outside for the past month or two.

Okay, that’s enough with the excuses. It really isn’t as bad as I just made it out to be. I have been going to the gym regularly, just not as much as I would like to though. Ultimately I should be going five times a week.

But besides going to the gym, I have also been getting outside on the occasional nice day that we rarely see in Winterpeg. Last weekend I headed down to North Dakota and spent the day snowboarding. It turned out to be a pretty decent day and the ski hill wasn’t very busy, which was awesome because you didn’t have to wait in line for a long time just to get on the chair lift. For those of you who have never been skiing or snowboarding in Manitoba or North Dakota, this is a big deal as it can take less than one minute to get down most runs. When there are lines you end up spending most of your day waiting in lines and riding chair lifts. This is a perfect example of why we need to build more mountains in the prairies

Now if you remember back I had originally said that I wanted to ride my bike to work throughout the winter? Well that ended rather sooner than later. It turns out that the bike cage where I normally lock my bike up does not approve of cold weather. The lock for the cage froze and we’re unable to open the door. Boooo!!! Then to top it off, whoever is clearing the snow from the parking lot is piling the snow right in front of the door to the bike cage! I guess it was just not meant to be.

Oh well, I actually got out biking last weekend. I met up with a good friend of mine and we headed out for close to three hours on the bikes. We ended up riding on the Seine river and headed towards the Forks where we stopped to watch the snowboarders and drink some hot chocolate. After that we headed down the skating rink on the Assiniboine River.

That was last weekend, so what about this weekend? Well, this weekend was also pretty wicked. It was gorgeous outside! On Saturday I checked out the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival. I highly recommend this event to anyone who enjoys action sports and the good old outdoors.

On Sunday I finally got out and did some ice climbing at the St. Boniface ice tower, which is run by the St. Boniface section of the Alpine Club of Canada. What a blast! I will definitely be heading back to the ice tower this year. I’ve included some pictures from today.

Okay, I have finally finished working out the details for the last three weeks of my trip. I have worked out a sweet itinerary with a company called Skyline Adventure School. This company is run by a former Outward Bound instructor and is based out of Huaraz, Peru. I’ve added the details to the Itinerary page.

Basically my additional time will be based out of Huaraz, Peru. I will be going on more acclimatization treks to get used to the altitude. I will also be taking a six day mountaineering course on Yanapaccha. The time spent on Yanapaccha should greatly help out with my acclimatization and is crucial before heading on to the next mountain, Chopicalqui, which is a towering 6386m (20,951 feet).

There are also a few days where I have nothing scheduled. Depending on how I feel or what’s going on, I would like to fit in some mountain biking into the schedule. We’ll have to wait and see what’s going on. These days may have to be used as cerveza days