Sunday, September 03, 2006

I climbed a glacier!!

Having not much time in order to get to Lima i had the choice of; a) spending the day travelling to lima and then spending the night on my own or b) doing something fun all day and get the night bus down to Lima. Obvious choice really. I decided i'd go ice climbing up a glacier- its something i've never done before and sounded like fun, except the leaving at 7am bit that is! When i arrived at the tour agency there was only one other boy coming with me, he was a russian israeli (and spoke like a James Bond baddie) but having just finished the army i expected him to be very good and make me look even more rubbish than i would already. Ha ha, was i wrong or what- i kicked his ass!The drive up to the glacier was beautiful, through a national park which contains a special type of flower, the tallest in the world actually. Apparently they take 40 years to grow, flower once and die (unless of course my spanish translation didn't fully grasp the concept); snowcapped mountains on my right and indigenious people with herds of fluffy cows deeper in the valley. At the sight of the glacier we had to walk towards the bottom of it, this wasn't too far but still took 40 minutes or so (partly due to the altitude, we were now at 5000m). Glaciers are amazing, once up close you can hear the trickling water beneath the rocks, the creaking of the ice itself and as the ice has been so tightly pressed it is full of swirling layers all brilliant white. So bright in fact that to look at it required sunglasses, now this posed a slight problem as yesterday i seemed to have lost my 'Oakleys' somewhere between booking ice climbing and getting back to the hostel (you all knew i would lose something sooner or later!). But i'd been told i must bring some eye protection, yes that's right, i took my huge pink beach sunglasses- i fitted right in with the others with all their proper climbing gear and sporty sunnies! After a few laughs the climbing got under way, the Israeli (Alex i think) went first and it looked extremely difficult and tiring but he got to the top and then had to abseil back down (which he didn't get and kept using his ice pick, much to the amusement of our guide!). Then it was my turn- yes, it was really tiring using both arms and both legs to bash holes into the ice in which to secure yourself; i had to stop halfway up to catch my breath but i did make it to the top and then back down- abseiling was definately the the best bit i thought. As we had lots of time we could climb up a second time, so i proposed a race with Alex- totally kicked his ass, even the guide said that i did well! yes.
On the return we walked around the bottom of the glacier to an ice cave, once inside the cave it was huge with icicles growing from the ceiling and floor and everything taking on a glowing blue colour- i could imagine living in an ice palace, it was very beautiful we couldn't however stay long as our guide told us it was dangerous and last year part of the cave had collapsed (oh dear, perhaps not so great to live in an ice palace after all).
That night i caught the night bus to Lima and then waited for Roo to arrive!...
(photos to follow)

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