1981 was the first of my (Manrico’s) two trips to Peru. This was four years before I met Liz. A group of us spent four weeks hiking and climbing in the Huaraz area. Then I spent another three weeks on my own being a tourist mostly in the southern part of the country.
The Huaraz section of the trip started with a four day acclimatization hike around the Llanganuco Circuit. We then hiked into Quebrada Cojup for our first climb, the NE Ridge of Ranrapalca. This was an excellent way to be introduced to climbing 6,000 meter peaks.
Our second climb was the Shield (West Face) route on Huascaran. This highly aesthetic route was first climbed in 1969 by Vancouver climbers Wildemar (Fips) Broda, Scipio Merler, and B. Segger.
We had one last day of sightseeing as a group. We took a day trip to Chavín de Huántar, a superb archaeological site that predated the Inca empire by about 2,000 years.
The others flew home while I flew south to Arequipa, Spanish colonial city. I took a train to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca and then another train to Cuzco. I spent several days touring around Cuzco and two days at nearby Machu Picchu.
Then it was time to go home. I spent two days at Iquitos on the Amazon River. I was still in Peru but it was very different from the Andes.
This was an excellent trip for me. It was my first travel other than to Europe and my first 6,000 meter climbs.
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