This is Chanchani as seen in the city of Arequipa
I came to Arequipa with the notion that I hate the city (I was already here with Yusef, and we left after 1 day…because it was impossibly touristy and grey … it seemed). I was not even going to spend the night here and go trekking outside of the city instead. By chance, or destiny :), my Irish travel friends were super fun and convinced me to spend some time in Arequipa with them. Then, they had another crazy idea to climb the Chanchani Mountain of 6075 meters above the sea level. Since, I loved their company, I agreed again. The first day of the ascend was great! We drove first, and then we walked to 5500 meters… It was really tough and slow walk, it got cold, but no problems.
The night was a nightmare! One can’t sleep in such high altitude. Your head does not get enough oxygen, you have severe headaches and all you feel is the cold, that does not stop and you can’t do much about it but lay in your tent and wait for the time of ascend. We started at 3 am, got some coca tea and bread and were on our way.
Out of the group of 4, one was already out... the Irish boy who could not handle the altitude… Chanchani was a disaster for me too! I was not prepared for such tortures! No oxygen to breath, headaches, but the worst one for me was freezing temperatures and snow in your face. I could not feel my fingers on my hands and my feet, my nose and my cheeks were frozen. After 1 hour, we had to put trampons to walk on the ice… that was the beginning of the end for me… When the guide put my trampons on me, I already could not feel my feet…, but I still did not want to give up… Every minute of this torture of walking steep in the dark, with the snow in your eyes and not feeling my body…. And then I had to give up!!! Unfortunately, due to my orientation challenges, one of the guides had to take me down, back to the tent where we had to wait for the rest of the group to come back… It was cold still, but as the morning came, it warmed up a bit and I was able to take a nap. By the way, the other 2 Irish made it all the way to the top! They both had run marathons in the past, and said that Chanchani was a torture that is not even compared to any marathons…
And I am taking a break from the mountains! Who am I kidding? I am really a beach person!! Why am I doing this to myself? :)
All of the following photos were taken on the way to Chanchani... The time that I was actually doing the hike is undocumented, because my fingers were not able to operate the camera :(
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