Nevado Chaupijanca

A few weeks ago I got my first real taste of the Andes. Some parents organized a caminata (trek) for one of the classes at my school out to a nevado (snow-capped mountain) about an hour from Huallanca called Nevado Chaupijanca. It was 5 hours to climb the mountain and about 3 more to come back down. Needless to say, for a rookie trekker like myself, it was a bit of a workout. Plus I had to get up at 6 am to catch the bus up there (which is disgustingly early by my standards). And finally I'd had diarrhea for the previous few days. So I had mixed emotions going into the trek.

We started off from the little lake above and weaved our way over and around countless hills...

 And countless other hills...

And all the way up this valley...

The problem with going “over” hills is that after you climb one side you have to go down the other...

We went all the way down to where you can see trees in that picture.

But eventually the end was in site...

Unfortunately we were still hours away, haha. But I still needed to take pictures of me with snow in the background, since I haven't had enough opportunities in my life to get pictures with snow.

We found some cool lakes up towards the top of the mountain as well.

And in the end I had a phenomenal time. It was fun. I got a chance to hang out with the students that I work with, getting to know them a lot better (dare I use the word “friends”?). Once we had climbed to the higher elevation it snowed a little bit. And even better I didn't poop my pants the entire time. I'd have to say after a couple more months in Huallanca, that was still my best day since moving here. The organizers treating us to dinner afterward topped off the day nicely. Especially since any good day for me, as you all probably know, must involve eating ;-)