Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003 - 9:20 p.m.
August 14th (Thurs) took another all day tour of the Pastoruri glacier. First we drove out of the town of Huaraz, with the Cordillera Blanca mountains on our right and the dull brown Cordillera Negra mountains on our left. It was beautiful. There were awesome black rock jutting out in the Cordillera Blanca dusted with a sprinkling of snow, like sugar powder, accenting the jagged edges of the rock. The brown barren land spread at the feet of the white mountains, occasionally dotted with little lakes or grazing animals. We stopped at one place for a photo where an elderly indigenous woman was waiting. She had two alpaca animals and an adorable baby lamb (10 days old). For a "propina" (tip) I got my photo taken with them. Then we continued on to where these unique and extreemly tall plants were, Puya raimondi. They are a little like simple cactus, tall simple pillars of fauna.
Last we visited the glacier. We also had climbed about 2,000 m in elevation. The foot of the glacier is about 5,000 meters. As I got off the bus, being told this, I realized this was higher than the summit of Mt. Raineer! It was also cold and windy, so I put on my sweater, coat and hat. I was also starting to feel kind of queasy. As soon as I started walking I could feel the altitude dragging me down, making my breathing heavier. I also started to get stomach cramps. Not knowing how far it was to the glacier, I continued up the steady & steep path and told myself to go up to the bend to see how much farther it was. But as soon as I reached the bend, the path would stretch out to the next bend and so forth. I thought about turning around, but kept on going at a slow, methodical pace. Finally (after seeing a sign that said the path is difficult, but not impossible) I reached the glacieral edge. I caught up with the guys and felt absolutely horrible. I saw people climbing the glacier and on the other side was a rope, assisting people to walk onto the glacier. I took some photos and turned around to go back. I needed a toilet immediately, but there was only one back where the bus was. It had taken me about 45 minutes to walk up to the glacier and a painful 30 min to return, having to stop every 5-10 minutes, clutching my stomach and a guardrail, gritting my teeth and breathing hard. Finally I got back OK and told the bathroom attendant (50 centimos per use) that I was sick. I had gotten back to the bus 1 hr before we needed to and rested on the bus (tried to sleep, but felt too nauseas). The guys and most of the people on our tour walked around on the glacier. The guys said they got to 5,200 m, at one point James felt a little dizzy. (Also, I've been having trouble sleeping at night, I think it's the altitude. I heard stories of some people having sorroche, altitude sickness, even when just in the town of Huarez).
I felt nauseas on the bus ride back to Huaraz. James gave me a plastic bag in case I got sick, but fortunately I didn't need to use it.
We stopped in a village on the way back for lunch (at 5pm!). Lots of cute little kids with dirty faces milled around outside begging or offering to sing a song for money. I started chatting with them and then decided to give them some cookies I had.
I thought the kids were going to bowl me over, outstretched hands and arms, excited voices overwhelming me. Firmly shouting "Share" and "Wait" in Spanish I broke the cookies and gave them each little pieces, trying to make sure each child got one...and only one...piece. It was really cute, especially when they escorted over one little girl who couldn't've been older than 2. She stared silently at me as I leaned over and gave her a piece. Within less than 5 minutes the cookies were gone and so were most of the kids. In an anti-climactic way it was over and I borded the bus again, waiting to be taken back to town. Ross and James had watched the event from the bus, they said it was entertaining.
As the bus pulled away from the little village as the sun was setting and the sky was turning dark, I watched a few children waving goodbye. It was then that I thought to myself..."it wasn't enough".
Giving them cookies was entertaining for me and fun for the kids, who were probably very hungry, but it doesn't help them much in their overall lives. I wished I could've done more.
