Wednesday, December 23, 2009

more pictures. ahh. Here we find ourselves in the plaza at night in Arequipa.

Brad Goodman and I are just chattin' it up in this photo.


Nice medieval armor there, eh?

Here is a photo of the descent of Misti. We are almost down thank God b/c I am exhausted at this point.

Here is the final ascent. Don´t quit yet!


This is just a sweet shot of us descending from the summit. Not ten minutes ago it was totally cloudy up here, crazy.




The view from the top, looking down on Arequipa.




Here you can see the crater of the volcanoe on the right side of the image.




Here we are at the giant iron cross at the summit.




Waking up at 1am to start the summit expedition. This photo is a beauty of Arequipa at night from the birds nest.




Ah, ya. Here is a look at our basecamp the afternoon we arrived.
Well that is it for now, but I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010!!!
Keep it real while keeping it safe!
love,
-Fletch









Hello there friends. What I am about to show you is more Misti pics. Enjoy


Here we are at our base camp on "El Misti". It is about 3pm and we need to hurry and eat and go to sleep to get some rest before waking up at 1am to start the summit push.



Yeah, Misti did not have the most beautiful views, but the challenge was our reason for going.

Here we go. Starting the two day trek.




Here is my friend Brad, girlfriend Giorgianna, friend Jared and I at the convent in Arequipa


another convent pic.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Arequipa pics

Hello my friends, i am pleased to present to you some photos from awesome Arequipa. Some Misti fotos and some convent fotos. Shall we begin with "El Misti"?
ok, problems with internet make the misti photos in queue for next time.


This is "el monasterio", a religious convent in Arequipa, Peru.

Praise the lord says the sign





green space is critical, convent or not!










Breathtaking, no?





You may notice the looming volcanoe in the background. Conquered!




illegal vision. climbed a stairway to nowhere and took this lil beaut.







This stairway, in fact. That is Brad Goodman doin what he do.








the colors here were amazing. the little city within Arequipa...bonita bonita que bonita.









Tranquilo, ¿no? peaceful and quiet, this place was amazing!










more little courtyards, lovely.










be quiet please! beauty is best enjoyed with a nice glass of shut the hell up!









cowgirl cops in Arequipa? You bet yur bottom dollar, mister.








fountains in centrals of plazas and cities of grandeur, where art thou pointing to?









Arc of sky, yep still in bustling Arequipa.







Ok, we are now back in site, José Olaya and we see a lazy perro taking a siesta in his tetris door.




















Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Arequipa

well this is the summit video. Top of the volcanoe ¨El Misti¨, elevation 5,822 m or about 19,119ft.

this is a little taste of the descent. It might be a bit sandy, but it still tastes real good!

well, i will post some pics here in just a little while, m-kay?

ciao babies,

fletch

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Welcome to the blog event of a lifetime.

Well, maybe I won´t go that far, but I think there are some great videos and pics in this and the prior 3 or 4 blogs. So please, get comfy, grab a hot cup of tea or coffee and your favorite blanket and...
Enjoy.



here is yet mas footage of the famous wild peruvian perro. Some say it is a very dangerous animal but I think you just have to gain its trust in a non threatening way.


this is my community partner in a community I work. His name is Don José Espino and he is a cool guy. Horse trainer by trade and municipal agent for his community. Here he is posing with the new sewer line in the pueblo of José Olaya.
this is the oxidation lagoon for the waste water treatment system in José Olaya.

Here is the line near the entrance to the lagoon.
José Espino and me posing by the buzones - sewer manholes.

Brining in the material. There have been some issues about quality control of the dirt brought in. Some of the engineers found tierra muerta or "dead soil" which is very dusty soil that doesn´t compact. There is supposed to be a mix of gravelly sandy rocky dirt with clay and waterd and compacted.

cool foto of a herd of cattle moseying along in the chacra - farm plots again in José Olaya.

Cute pic I got of some shepherd kids or zagalos.


Hand washing parade in my town.



here I am leading the parade. I felt a little awkward b/c I did not organize this but they wanted to put the gringo in the front. Sweet.


These kids are just too cute. To the right the girl in a yellow shirt seems to be incredibly enthusiastic about hand washing. Nice.


Tuesday, October 13, 2009




are you ready to let the wild dogs out???





and more if you liked that first tidbit.




oh, yeah. these lil guys are gonna make some damn good carapulcra!!





this i think is a reality all over Peru, unfortunately. As you can see people come here to collect all sorts of recyclables, no gloves, masks, nor appropriate shoes ni clothing. this guy was really helpful in giving me all the prices for my region for recyclables.





Monday, August 24, 2009



So this is our infomercial for the tip-i-tap, a real thing that is used where there are no faucets for washing hands. Chino Mark is the creator, editor, and director of the commercial, so i gotta say "nice one!!!" also, thanks rico as strong man number 1 and for the inca tipi. karen, you were sweet, loved it and i hope y'all enjoy it out there.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

santa cruz trek video

finally, here it is, hope it works out!!!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Ancash - Huaraz, Vaqueria, Cashapampa, Santa Cruz - Awesome

Gua, can’t believe it is already almost 2010. What a weird year number right? Its not almost that year, but time seems to have flown although so much has happened. That doesn’t make sense. How could that seem fast? Maybe time has passed more slowly. In 42 days, I will be one year in el Peru. It seems a bit like one year and eight months. The first year being training, with so much to do and everything completely new. Spanish for four hours, watsan for another four. Getting to know people, living in a strange place with practical strangers, working for a new organization, well, volunteering or whatever. There was a lot of stuff, getting used to customs, food, sickness, expectations, etc. Well then getting to site and going through all that new stuff again, family, living situation, expectations, support groups, lonliness, well that doesn’t quite gow away completely, anxiety. So maybe it was the first 6 months seemed like one year, and now the last five months have seemed like 8 months, making it still seem like one year and eight months.

I Went to the department of Ancash for Fiestas Patrias (Independence Day más o menos) and a town called Huaraz was the starting point of our vacation. This town was abs gorgeous! Mountains all around, white capped nevados, many reaching up over 5,700 meters (18,700.7ft). Mostly I was excited about doing the Santa Cruz Trek. It is a 50 km, 3-4 day trek starting in Vaquería and going to Cashapampa. The first day was getting there, arriving at around 1pm and hiking for about 4 hours. We set up camp after a TECHNICAL CROSSING: STREAM CROSSING, built a fire, cooked a delicious bean, rice, tomatoe sauce, tuna and spice concoction that was smothered in fresh cheese and tortillas. I was quite worried about being cold with my old Slumberjack sleepin bag because at camp eating dinner I had on five layers and was still cold, but I turned out okay. Day two, Tuesday, July 27 2009, on the trail by 10:30am and off track before lunch, bushwacking for about four hours until we found trail. Bushwacking takes up a lot of energy, we hiked uphill traversing looking for a high trail then thought the trail was down so hiked downhill traversing and finally found the trail realizing we had hiked down unnecessarily and are now at the base of the steepest part. We hit the summit of the pass, 4,750 meters above sea level (15,584ft) at around 5:30pm, a bit late to be getting to the summit, but we decended hastily and purified some water at dusk, finishing our hike with headlamps and flashlights at around 7:30pm. We cooked a spinach cream soup with peas and carrots and cheese and little pasta shells and lentils. It was also good but I liked the power bean and rice burritos the night before. We set up camp in the dark, and went to sleep, exhausted. The next day we got out of camp by 9am and hit the trail, hard, mostly descending, and this turned out to be much farther than expected, just like the previous day. We finally finished at 5pm in Cashapampa and got back to Huaraz with enough time to shower, repack, eat some zza, pie that is, and get on a much more comfortable bus than the one I came in on. Hung out in Lima for a day and a half and am now back in site, fixin for organizing some In Service Training in my caserio Dos Palmas and my town in a few days which involves sand water filters, disinfecting water systems, repairing water lines and waste management.

Check out mis fotos...

Yummy pigs head in the market of Huaraz!
MMMmmmm!!! cuy (guinea pig)

This burro has his work cut out for him


a cow chillin toward the end of the Santa Cruz trek.



awesome water color of the lagunas throughout the trek




Yay!! we made it to the trail summit, 4,750 m (15,584 ft), exhuasted and with the sun setting and no campgrounds in site we cannot celebrate for long.



this lil lake was at the beginning of the ascent




pure, natural mountain beauty




Now this is what I call a picnic with a view



More pack animals on the trail



ow now brown cow, can you spot a brown cow?




mountain beard, mountain spring spilling down the mountain side




hey there lil ryan, trek on, dude!!



strike a pose, now VOGUE



The motley crew stops for a fot-op



Gua, I love mtns!!!


This is towards the beginning, we have no idea the challenge that lies ahead



This is one of the Lagunas Llanganuco, awesome!



This is Huascaran I think, highest peak in the tropics standing at 6,768 m.



chillin like villians in Huaraz

Ok, you made it. And your prize for getting all the way through my blog is the following video.
ENJOY!

p.d. this is taking a very veryvery veryver veyr ryureve r long time, arrghhhghghgh

i guess too long, so I will put it in there next time, condensed or something, sorry.

Talk to y’all soon!
Ciao,
Fletcher