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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.