Mexico to Brazil

An 8 month journey travelling from Mexico City through Central America and South America to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil Read more

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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Diving, Bocas del Torro
Apr 16–24, 2024 in Panama ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
We are on a small island off the north coast of Panama called Bocas del Torro which has a very sheltered bay with lots of wrecks in it which creates interesting diving. There is even a passenger plane wreck here which we will visit before we leave.

So far we have done 6 dives including 3 wreck dives and seen a lot of interesting stuff. We are enjoying staying in one place for a while too. On the swim through of one of the wrecks I found two sleeping sharks. We also found several giant eye squid in mid water on today’s dive.

Lots of love, missing you allRead more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Bocas del Torro
April 17, 2024 in Panama ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We have been staying here for a week which has mostly been spent diving - see other post.

The other main activity we took here was a day birding by boat around the mainland and visiting bird island. I will do a blog post on this shortly.

Bocas is currently a work in progress. They have ripped up all the roads and are replacing the drainage, pavement and surfaces but they seem to be doing this one piece of equipment at a time. Also there was a major fire a few days before we arrived and a 4 storey hotel on the waterfront was destroyed.

Our Airbnb Accomodation was nice enough but a tad on the small side. It is a converted shipping container (quite common here) and they were a bit cheeky in pretending the bed was long ways across the room in photos (see mine).

Tomorrow we head to Panama City so boat, taxi and ten hour bus.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Wreck Diving in Bocas
April 23, 2024 in Panama ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Bocas has a lot of wrecks to dive. First no there are no bodies in any of these wrecks! Most of them were planned wrecks for diving.

We dived to a sailboat called Godewind with all the rigging and sail still intact encrusted with marine life. Quite a Pirates of the Caribbean look. Our dive master kindly took a video of us here.

We free dove (just holding our breath) the Panama Airplane. This didn’t crash in the water but overran the nearby runway and was destroyed with no loss of life so they just towed it out into the harbour and sank it to provide an interesting dive site. It is about 6m under water.

We also dived around the sunken Old Ferry for the island complete with car deck and a random toilet.

Lastly we did 3 dives to a trimaran called Mystic Winds which was big enough to swim under and through finding various fish including large groupers and a couple of sleeping nurse sharks.

I find it encouraging to see how marine life reclaims old wrecks. Not all our waste is totally useless to nature.

All in all we have grown during our diving on this trip. At the start of the year in Mexico we tended to be lacking experience and confidence when diving, but now we tend to be quite a bit more confident and competent than the people we are diving with. Diving around and particularly through or under wrecks requires excellent buoyancy control which we have been focusing on with a speciality course in Costa Rica. So far this year we have done over 30 dives.

We hope to dive again in Colombia.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Panama Canal
April 25, 2024 in Panama ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
I was a child when my interest in the Panama Canal was first peaked. “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama” - my Dad taught me that and the fact it is a Palindrome (can be read forward or backwards).

Well we have been to the museum about the canal, crossed the canal and visited the main pacific side locks.

It is an amazing feat of engineering. 30 million kilos of dynamite were used to blast a way through the mountains (more than in any war previously). Over 45,000 workers were employed the vast majority ex slaves from the Caribbean many of whom lost their lives during the work.

What is also interesting is how the vision for the canal actually caused the country of Panama to be formed, divided, invaded and then united!

Formed - the USA negotiated with Colombia to build the canal and they would not agree to the US price so instead the US backed some rebels from Panama to break away from rest of Colombia. Within 15 days of Panama being formed as a country a treaty was signed for the canal to be built at a cheap price of $10 million for which the USA was sovereign over than canal and a zone 5 miles either side. The Panamanian government was told of the terms without being involved in the negotiation,

Divided - from the formation of Panama to 1999 the country was divided by the Canal Zone which was 10 miles wide. The USA owned and ran this zone and it was quickly seen as an unjust colonial insult to Panama’s sovereignty. In 1964 students took the Panamanian flag into the zone to raise it in key locations. Violence followed and about 20 were killed. Panama broke international relations with USA.

The USA was increasingly losing the moral argument over the canal with several UN votes going against it. So from 1979 to 1999 a process progressed to hand the Canal Zone and operations back to Panama.

Invaded - fairly recently 1989 the USA invaded Panama to implement regime change. The president Noriega (a former CIA agent) was a liability to the US, accused of many crimes and ignoring the election that he lost. The canal could not be handed over to him. The full invasion lasted two months and many civilians were killed. Those we spoke to here said it was very traumatic but the majority of the country supported it to end military dictatorship.

United - on 31 December 1999 the canal was handed over fully to Panama and the “fifth border” was removed. Since then the canal has been widened to allow bigger ships and it has operated smoothly. Ships pay variable rates to transit the canal from $2k for a small yacht to $1.2million for the largest ships that want to jump the queue. Today the size of many ships around the world are designed to fit the Panama Canal. The Neopanamax class (fits the new locks) are 370m long and 49m wide.

Oh and the canal pays the Panamanian government about $3 billion a year, 26% of government income.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
The many faces of Panama City
April 29, 2024 in Panama ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
We have enjoyed being in a big city again with lots of culture, sites and food choices. Panama City is a vibrant cosmopolitan place and has many sides to its personality.

Historic - the old town goes back to 15th century and includes churches, plazas, fishing boats and food markets. It was sacked by pirates (Captain Morgan) and rebuilt in the area we have been staying.

Financial - this is a recent addition with the first skyscraper being built in 1996 but now counting over 60 as the banking and financial area thrived based in part on secret offshore banking.

Industrial - based on the canal the city has a huge port and transport hub along with all the industries to support this.

We have enjoyed this city and yesterday climbed the main hill/viewpoint and today walked and cycled around the coast to see different sides to Panama City's personality.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Goodbye Panama, Hello Colombia
May 1, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
We celebrated our last night in Central America with a meal out at a nice restaurant, this is also just over half way in our adventure.

Today we headed to the airport and flew to Colombia and South America for the first time. We have a few days here to explore the city of Cartegena. Will share more soon.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Cartagena Old Town
May 1–4, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
We are now in Cartagena in northern Colombia.

Established by the Spanish in 16th century this was the city where gold was gathered before being exported to Spain. It had to be very fortified to protect from pirates and privateers including our own Frances Drake who captured and sacked the city at one point.

Colombia is a bit more gritty and lively than Panama. We have to watch for pick pockets and over aggressive traders but it is so full of energy and a lovely buzz and friendliness too. The street food is tasty too.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Getsemani
May 2, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Previously a very poor part of the city Getsemani (after the biblical location) hosted a street art convention in 2017 and suddenly became a place of interest to visit. Rapidly artists and hipster coffee shops and bars gathered and it is now a tourist hotspot.

This is an Afro-Caribbean area so the art is influenced by that. Lots of colour and energy to this place. Love it!Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
San Felipe Fort
May 2, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Cartegena was a dominant trading town particularly a place where gold was collected from elsewhere before being exported.

This quickly attracted pirates (of the Caribbean). Interesting pirates don’t mean Jack Sparrow type characters here but the most famous is Sir Frances Drake who captured the city in 1586 and was going to burn it down but accepted a ransom payment of 10 million pesos.

Having had enough of this the Spanish built huge fortifications - 13km of city walls and this fort - San Felipe. It took about 200 years to complete and was finished just in time for the Spanish to get kicked out of Colombia!

On another note a lot of tourists come to Colombia for dubious motives and a lot of Venezuelan women have been trafficked here for the sex industry. We have seen various dubious establishments on our walks. But when I (Michael) went for a short walk alone at lunchtime to get some food (whilst Helen was on cooking course) I was offered a “massage” 7 times. We have also been offered drugs several times. Quite seedy and sad for what is otherwise a beautiful city.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Colombian cooking
May 3, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
A new continent seemed a good opportunity to learn more about local food. So today I (Helen) took a cooking class in Cartagena. Colombian food doesn’t have the same profile as Mexican or Peruvian food does so I was interested to learn more.

The menu today was:

Arepas - these are common in Colombia (as well as neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador) and are made from corn dough, often stuffed. We had two fillings, one with avocado, similar to guacamole (but no chilli) the other a chicken mix. Apparently chilli is not commonly added when cooking in Colombia but would be added at the table as part of a salsa/sauce.

Patacones - these are double fried plantains (green plantains so not very sweet) which were served with garlic shrimp. We had a similar dish in Costa Rica called Tostones.

Fish cooked on a barbecue in Bijao leaves served with a pepper and tomato sauce and yuca purée and yuca crisps.

Dessert - ripe plantains (yellow) this time, cooked in picaro. This is a sugar product which is dark like muscovado sugar or treacle. To balance the sweetness it was served with lulo sorbet. Lulo is a fruit which I had never heard of. It has a sharp, citrusy flavour a bit like a mix of passion fruit and lime but is a member of the tomato family.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Diving Tayrona National Park
May 5–10, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
So we moved 5 hours along the Colombian coast to the Tayrona National Park where we have been diving again. The village is fairly basic (no hard roads, no mains water) but the people are friendly and the diving great and very cheap.

I (Michael) completed an underwater photography course as a module of my journey from Advanced to Master Diver (the highest qualification in recreational diving). As well as learning a new camera and all the issues of photographing under and through water -there is much less colour and light and often poor visibility, I was also learning a lot about diving control - staying in the same place despite a current - to get in focus shots. Of course it is also vital not to touch the marine life (lest you harm it or it harm you!) but to get as close as you can to get the shot.

It is such a privilege to enter this underwater world that most people never see. Enjoy our highlights reel of video footage along with a video of me photographing Lion-fish trying to stay still in the current, get close to photograph without touching (they are highly poisonous).

Tomorrow we head to Minca and the highest coastal mountain range in the world (5775m) for some amazing bird watching. We had hoped to dive in Ecuador but the political situation currently means visiting the coast is not possible so we probably will not dive again on this trip. But lots of South America to see above the water!Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Santa Marta Mountains
May 10–14, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Minca is a town at 600m in the foothills of the Santa Marta mountains (highest peak snow capped at 5575m). The town itself is a bit edgy with the police station literally next door to one of the many shops advertising drugs to backpackers!

We were here for birding however and we spent three wonderful days getting up early (3.30am one day) to see so many wonderful birds -70 lifers in fact. This area is famous for endemics (birds found nowhere else on earth outside this small isolated mountain range) and we saw 17 of them. Probably the best birding of the trip so far. You can see and read more at www.wildscot.blog

We travelled to 2600m by 4x4 with a fantastic driver (needed for the rutted roads and river crossings) and incredibly skilled bird guide Cristian.

We are taking the advice from the US state department and avoiding the long and risky bus journeys here in Colombia (both for armed robbery and mudslides as it is the rainy season). So tonight we fly a short flight into the Andes (saving 22 hour bus) for some more birding and travel through the famous coffee region of Colombia.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
High Andes
May 14–19, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C
Sorry if we have been quiet the last few days we have just been experiencing the most intense period of birding of the trip so far. From low coffee plantations (1,400m) to high paramo (4,138m - highest of trip so far). We have pretty much been birding dawn to dusk. Exhausting but amazing.

Colombia is an amazing country. Gritty and difficult in some ways but wonderful in all that count. We teamed up with a couple who have started a local guiding business called Pablo (driver and logistics) and Luz (bird guide).

We saw over 140 new birds of which 18 were endemics (found nowhere else). The hummingbirds were special as we say the hummingbird with longest tail another with the longest bill, one of the largest and the smallest, also the hummingbird with the coolest name “Shining Sunbeam”. Seeing about 30 hummers attack a 1.4m Parrot Snake was cool too.

There will be much more in my blog when I finish editing over 4000 photos! Trip total now 876 birds. The main bird logging tool for birders globally is eBird and of the 820,000 users we are now ranked 160th for most worldwide sightings in 2024!

Now we are in Medellin and about to start another week of Spanish SchoolRead more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Comuna 13, Medellin
May 21, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Comuna13 is a district of Medellin, a city of 4 million in Columbia. It is famous for two reasons. First it was one of the most dangerous places on earth. Second, it managed to turn this around and is now safe.

We have just taken a 3 hour walking tour with a local lady who grew up and lives here and I will share some of what she told us. Here (like El Salvador) is a place where the history is very recent.

When drug cartel lord Pablo Escabar ruled this part of Colombia he offered a 2 million pesos reward for anyone who killed a police officer (£400) in this part of town so the police abandoned it. He was killed in the city in 1993 but this didn’t end their problems.

Comuna13 instead became a battle ground between far right paramilitaries and the dominant left wing (FARC) guerrillas. The guerrillas held the comuna as their territory until 2002.

At this point the government military sided with the paramilitary groups to cleanse Comuna13. During Operation Orion which involved 1500 soldiers supported by Black Hawk helicopter gunships. Over 3000 people were killed in 4 days.

As the people were beginning to go without food and water they all took sheets from their house and climbed onto their roofs to say enough was enough and the action was stopped. The Guerilla’s hold on Comuna13 was weakened but not broken,

In 2011 outdoor escalators were built providing access into the comuna for the first time. This enabled people to access work opportunities instead of climbing the equivalent of 28 stories each day.

A peace deal was also signed in 2011 but in the years that followed ex-guerrilla members who returned to their homes often disappeared. It later became clear that they had been kidnapped and killed by the government supported paramilitaries with an estimated 3-4,000 victims buried in a mass grave outside the Comuna between 2011 and 2016.

In 2016 another peace deal was signed and this time it was mostly honoured by both sides.

The local community also started using street art to brighten up the community, and as a form of political protest but ultimately this served to attract tourists. The first walking tours began in 2017 and involved armed guards and paying for protection from the local mafia.

Quickly business began to grow to provide the tourists with drinks, food, souvenirs etc. For the last 7 years a virtuous circle has helped turn the comuna around - with art leading to tourists leading to money in businesses leading to more art. Today companies such as Coke and Amazon are now even paying for product placement in the art, as photos are shared via social media around the world. See if you can spot one from Coke in my photos to prove the point.

At the end of the tour a lightning storm hit so we took refuge in the guide’s home who offered us food. After the storm finished we returned to our accommodation via escalator, bus, and the very modern metro.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Medellin
May 22, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
We just did a walking tour of Medellin the second largest city in Colombia. The photos mostly cover the variety of what we saw.

This isn’t a pretty city - the main style of architecture is brutalism (ugly concrete basically). But this is a city with a huge positive energy as it comes out of a period of tremendous conflict when it was “the most dangerous city on earth”.

This is a city and country of contradictions.

You can get an Uber but you have to sit in the front otherwise the police will stop you for a bribe.

You can check into a nice airbnb but the room will have a card telling you bringing minors back to your room for sex is illegal. (Foreigners come here for this sadly).

You can get cash from a cash point but you might need to step over an unconscious homeless person to do so.

The second oldest church in town is the meeting point at night for prostitution. Makes confession easy in the morning apparently.

The safest districts for tourists are controlled by the mafia who ensure the tourists are safe but charge protection from the businesses that serve them.

The country has a terrible and recent history of violence but the people are super friendly and welcoming.

We have been studying Spanish here but I (Michael) have been a bit unwell with stomach upset so missed some classes. On Saturday we move on to Bogotá the capital.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Bogotá
May 25–30, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Bogota is a huge city of about 10 million people.

We took a bike tour on Sunday and cycled about 15km on car free roads seeing some of the nicer areas. For 50 years roads have been closed to all cars on Sunday and everybody was out walking, skate boarding or cycling. Lots of energy.

We also took the funicular up 500m to 3200m to Monserate a church on the hill above the city for nice views over the town. We added a few new birds to our list here too.

We also visited a free art gallery where the Colombian artist Boltero gave his collection of own work and wider artists such as Picaso, Dali and even a Henry Moore.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Paddington & Goodbye Colombia
May 28, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
So a bit of a contrast for our last two days in Colombia.

Our penultimate day was a lazy day where we chilled around our hostel, called home, and visited one Museum - the Gold Museum.

Gold was used by many cultures before Spain arrived and the museum showed many pre-Colombus artefacts.

On our last day here we were up at 4am to drive 90 minutes into the Eastern Andes looking for new birds but also the Andean Bear. There is only one species of Bear in South America, it is called Spectacled Bear in Peru and further south.

Delighted we found our own “Paddington” and observed it very close (about 20m). It was pouring with rain and it was eating away. Didn’t seemed too bothered by our presence.

We added another 18 bird species to bring our Colombia total to 356 (more than Costa Rica the previous high point). Our trip total is 898.

This morning we were up at 4am again to catch our flight. I add a short highlights video of our wonderful month in Colombia.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Standing on the Equator
May 30, 2024 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
So we are in Ecuador which of course gets its name from the Equator. Well it would be rude not to!

After our early flight we arrived in Quito by 9.30. We saw impressive mountains including an active volcano from the flight (see video - look for the eruption at the very end to left of Glacier).

On our way to Mindo where we are staying for 5 nights we stopped off at Mitad Del Mundo. This is the place where they calculated the equator to be in 1736. They built an impressive monument and there is a line.

Unfortunately modern measurements calculate the true equator a mere 250m away. Still quite accurate for the time! So we had to go there too. The real equator is much more off the tourist track but they do still have a line!

One amazing piece of trivia (credit to Find Penguins map). Today is the first time we are further from home than when we were in Mexico. All due to curvature of the earth apparently.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Happy Bird Day in Mindo
May 30–Jun 4, 2024 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌫 22 °C
Continuing our time in Ecuador we have just spent 5 nights in Mindo about 2 hours from Quito.

Here, I (Michael) celebrated my 50th birthday. Lots of people had sent lovely birthday messages, sound and video too. It was lovely to read, listen or watch these.

When we decided not to go to the Galapagos I had to chose another location for my birthday and Mindo was the obvious choice due to ease of getting to (are security issues in Ecuador) and the amazing reputation for birding.

It didn’t disappoint as we added another 80 lifers to our trip list (over the four days) to take us to 978. More importantly some amazing experiences. Seeing an Andean Cock of the Rock Lek in full ear-splitting action. Tracking down and observing the world’s largest Antpitta (the Giant Antpitta). Seeing a flock of about 20 Rose Faced Parrots (regional endemic) fly in and tuck into a bunch of bananas. And far more than I can share here - see my blog.

Back at our lodge our hosts surprised us with a highly crafted birthday desert with candle. We have now left Mindo and are back in the capital Quito for a few days.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Quito
Jun 4–7, 2024 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Our journey from Mindo was delayed due to locals protesting water shortages by blocking the road. Our taxi knew before we left so we didn’t leave. We did have to go through several military and police checkpoints on the road.

We have spent our first full day in Quito site seeing. This morning we took a free walking tour with a local. The country has very few tourists at the moment - the tour had one person plus us two - before the current crisis they would have 20-40. We see very few European or American tourists here.

Then this afternoon we visited some churches including climbing the towers. Here we felt the altitude (2850m) climbing the 200 steps. The views over the city were good. Then we went up the hill with the largest aluminium sculpture on top - the Virgin Mary - overlooking the city. Well more accurately overlooking the rich part of the city. She has her back to the poorer districts!

The city is a UNESCO world heritage site partly for the architecture but also the human traditions which are a melting pot of different indigenous groups.

Tomorrow if the weather is good we plan to take the cable car to 3,945m and then do some birdwatching and a hike possibly to a new altitude record of 4680m.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Teleferico Quito
June 6, 2024 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Well it was cloudy and raining all morning so it wasn’t until lunch time that we took the cable car up the nearby volcano. This took us from 3,117m to 3,945m in 18 minutes. We did feel quite breathless at the top.

Rather than trying a hike this late in the day we walked around birding looking for the endemic Ecuadorean Hillstar a small hummingbird restricted to the high Andes of Ecuador. We found it along with 4 other new birds. It was nice to be birding by ourselves and relying on our own skills.

Once the cloud cleared we enjoyed views of the city a 1,000m below us. Tonight we leave for Peru.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Huaraz, Peru
Jun 7–13, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
We have arrived in Peru! We left our accommodation in Quito at 12.30 and took a Taxi to the airport. Our flight was on time at 4.50pm so two hours later we were in Lima, Peru.

Once we had collected our bags and gone through immigration we got an Uber to take us into the city and to the bus station. The driver was crazy weaving in and out of traffic.

We then got a 9.45pm night bus which took 8.5 hours to get us to the mountainous city of Huaraz. It was actually a very comfortable bus (see photos) like the ones we had in Mexico, so we got some sleep. Once in the city another taxi to our hotel where we were in time for a 7am breakfast!

The next few days we are trekking so should have some lovely scenery to see. The mountains around here look amazing. We went into the main centre and listened to a brass band playing and checked out a few trekking companies and made some bookings.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Hike to Laguna Churup
June 9, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C
We were up early to get a taxi at 6.30 followed by a Collectivo (local minibus) into the mountains. The bus had 14 seats and 19 people on the bus.

There were 3 main groups on the bus - western hikers with top walking kit, local hikers with normal clothes and bunny ears, locals dressed in indigenous dress including very high hats.

By 8am we were at the trail head 3,850m and setting off to the Laguna Churup at 4,510m. Going up was twice as hard as at sea level (see video) but we kept plodding and made it.

We spent about an hour at the top enjoying the views and also birding (10 new birds added but no camera). The views of the mountains and lake were wonderful.

We were back at the trailhead by 1.20pm and got the bus back to town. Tomorrow we are trekking again and plan to go a bit higher to 4600m to visit Laguna 69.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Hike to Laguna 69
June 10, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C
So we continued making the most of the incredible hiking opportunities of the Cordillera Blanca by hiking a bit further and higher to Laguna 69.

We set off at 5.30am and drove 3 hours to the start of this walk. Despite the longer distances and slightly higher altitude (we maxed out at 4,604m) we found this walk easier as we must be more acclimatised.

The drive in was impressive with a very high canyon supporting several lakes where I added 3 new species of bird from the drive. Then walking through grazing land we added a few more birds which left me (Michael) on 999 for the trip.

As the climb kicked in we ignored the birds to make it up the hill enjoying amazing views and surroundings. Unfortunately the mountains were covered in cloud but the cover did make the climb a bit less draining as we got a bit dehydrated on the previous day.

Once we reached the lagoon we ate some lunch and took some photos but it was quite cold and started to hail so we headed back down which left some time for birding before our bus would leave.

A pair of Rusty-Crowned Tit-Spinetail’s would provide my 1,000 species of the trip which was a nice moment (ended the day on 1,005). We also saw our first wild llama.

We made it back to the van and back to Huaraz by 6.30. We then got presented with Guinea Pig soup at dinner! (We wouldn’t have ordered this but for info it tastes quite like chicken).

A rest day today before I (Michael) attempt my first 5000m mountain.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Climbing Nevado Mateo (5,150m)
June 12, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ -3 °C
Up at 2.55am this morning to climb my first 5,000m peak - Nevado Mateo. Helen sat this one out.

It was quite a drive to the start and we were stopped by the police on the way with our driver being in trouble for not having the right licence to carry tourists.

We started the climb at 6.15am just as the sun was rising. I was delighted the mountains were mostly clear of cloud allowing great views of many 6000m peaks including Peru’s highest. There were six clients climbing in two groups plus 2 Peruvian guides. Myself, a Dutch lady and 4 Israeli young men all on leave from military service.

After we climbed the rock slope we met the glacier and switched to boots and crampons. The ascent to the summit was similar to many Scottish Munros in winter except the ice was more grippier, we had to cross one crevasse and the air was so thin breathing was hard. A slow plod won the day.

Great views and emotions from the summit. Very happy to have climbed this high and enjoyed the experience. The pictures speak for themselves but a rewarding challenge and adventure within this big trip of ours.Read more
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