I did have a blast in Lima. Met some great people, and dropped in on some great classes at La Tarumba (the circus school that has been running in lima for over 25 years). But my main reason for being there, to scope out the city and school for potentially living there for a year or so and training at La Tarumba, turned out to be a dead end. They have limited space and recources, and so really aren´t flexible for that sort of thing. Besides taking evening classes for hipsters and hobiests, he only option would be to wait till 2011 and apply to the 3 year professional program.

So, I escaped from the monstrous city and headed for Huaraz, a small city on the edge of the Cordillera Blanca, an incredible mountain range which has Peru´s highest mountain, Huascarán, and Alpamayo, which, acording to UNESCO, is the most beautiful mountain in the world.

I just got back from my first adventure, climbing at Hatun Machay. At 13,700 feet, its the highest sport climbing in the world, in a place aptly named "Bosque de Piedras" (Forest of Rocks). Having been sport climbing only once before, I was quite bad, and had a few moments of "shit this is scary i dont want to fall what the hell am i doing here?". But by the 3rd day I was significantly better than the first, did my first (and second) lead climb, and was no longer questioning why I was there.

So now I´m back in Huaraz for a couple days. I´m staying with Victor Hugo, a local mountain guide that I found on couchsurfing. He has a whole seperate apartment for couchsurfers, where I just ran into trekking guide I had met in Guatemala. Though it lacks a kitchen and a hot shower (and we´re not just talking cold shower, at 10,000 feet this is a glacial runnoff shower), its a great place to crash and meet people. And to prepare for the next adventure, a trek up and accross a glacier, among some mountain lakes, preparing the body for the altitude and the climbing of peaks that will come later.