Hot Spring Heaven

Alaska is a hot bed of geologic activity. With it's proximity along the northern extent of the ring of fire we have everything from erupting volcanoes to glaciers and actively moving faults causing earth quakes. This may not seem appealing when considering a move here (this is the stuff the tourism board leaves out of the brochure). The plus side is that due to these unique features we also have a fair amount of geothermic activity which often leads to hot springs. That's right, hot springs all over the state. Some are car accessible with resorts built up around them, others are more remote and require a bit of effort to reach. One of the local favorites around the Fairbanks area is Tolovana Hot Springs. The shortest way to get there requires an 11 mile ski, walk, or snow machine in to get there from the road system but you are rewarded when you get there with a nice dry cabin to stay in. With this tempting treat close to home Becky and I decided to head out there with a couple of friends, and of course the dogs, for a three day weekend. When we left Fairbanks the temperatures were around -10F with the forecast ranging from high to low. From the trail head we decided to walk the 11 miles in and pull sleds with our food and gear. We got to the hot spring just after dark, started the fire in the cabin and started to soak in the tubs under the starts. What a beautiful place.

Saturday was spent relaxing, hiking around the area and playing cards in the evening along with more soaking in the tubs. Temperatures remained around -20F. Sunday morning we woke up to temps close to -30F and a fairly stiff wind blowing. As nice as it would have been to stay in the cabin until spring, we had to get moving. So we had a filling breakfast, suited up, and headed out. It was easy to dress from the cold when the wind was not blowing but add the wind and it's hard to hide from. Tip: when you are in subzero temps do not face into the wind to pee. Everyone managed to keep moving and stay warm until we got back to the cars. The parking lot is known for being the windiest and coldest place of the entire trip. Needless to say, many cars have trouble starting when it's that cold. Fortunately our truck started with only a little effort. The other cars in the parking lot had to be jump started due to cold batteries. Sure it was cold, but what a great time we had. Now if we can talk someone into putting hot tubs in the parking lot we will have it made.

Peru 2008

It's taken a while to sort through all the photos from Peru. For all the patient people out there here is a quick run down of our trip in December and a few pics.

I'll take a walk on the wild side and cut to the closing statement here in the opening.... The trip was wildly enriching and well worth the time and money spent to be there. Great times were has by all. As with any travels it would not be an adventure if everything went according to script. With that in mind our trip started out true to adventure fashion. We had the typical late departures out of Fairbanks and Seattle due to snow storm delays out of the Seattle airport. No big deal. Things got interesting when we arrived in Atlanta to the minute of when the flight to Lima was suppose to depart. The Delta folks made a blanket statement on the plane that due to our late arrival no one should try to make their flights and that Delta would make sure folks got to their destination ASAP. We figured, what the hell, since we were going to be stuck in an airport for a while waiting for a new flight we might as well run to our next flight on the off chance it was running late like the rest. With Atlanta being the large airport that it is we had to run down the terminal, down the escalator, ride the subway two terminals over then back up the escalators to ground level. Out of excitement of the moment we unloaded the subway and followed the crowd (neither of us saw directional signs so we played the odds). We were bobbing and weaving through the elderly and little children to get to our gate at break neck speeds. Little did we know the one-way escalators took us straight out of security and into baggage claim with no way to retreat. After a brief moment of shock and sinking spell of defeat we realized we weren't defeated until we saw that there was no plane at the gate... so we ran back to security, took shoes off, emptied our pockets, got through screening and started running again. Three minutes later and pretty sweaty we arrived at a closed gate with two other Peruvians begging to be let on as well. They had arrived on a late flight like us. The plane was still sitting at the gate. With a bit of pleading the lady let us on. Near miss on that one. The down side is that they had given away our seats so we had to separate but what excitement on the chase. We remained on the plane at the gate for over 25 minutes after they let us on. Glad we tried.

We woke up early the next day in Lima and found a bus to take us to Huaraz in the middle of the Peruvian Andes. Out of the city, into the mountains. The bus ride was mostly at night so I can't give you any mind blowing descriptions of a beautiful ride, it was dark on winding roads, but waking up the next morning in Huaraz was breath taking (figuratively and literally). The mountains were amazingly beautiful and the air was noticeably thin from the altitude of about 10,000 ft. But not as thin as it was going to get when we moved to 12,000 feet to stay at a little lodge in the mountains. It was noticeably difficult to breath and any physical effort left us light headed.
The lodge, The Way Inn, was 15km out of town and past any development with tremendous hiking opportunities right out the front door in the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains). The first day we were both so winded coming straight from sea level that a 200 yard walk from our room was a victory in itself. Day two I had food poisoning which made a 50 yard trek tough. Day three I was feeling well enough to go about a mile. Day four a new visitor came to the lodge. A visitor who happens to live one mile away from us in Fairbanks and did not know. With our new found friend we headed off into the mountains for a nice day long trek.

We moved from The Way Inn back to Huaraz for the rest of the trip with one excursion to Chavin de Huantar on the other side of the Cordillera Blanca. Chavin is a pre-Incan archaeological site dating back to about 900 BC. The road to the ruins took us over a high pass with lots of switch backs and sharp drop offs with no guard rails. While very few cars/buses go off the side, the road is intimidating enough that Spanish missionaries erected a 100ft tall Jesus statue at the top of the pass to bless travelers on their journeys.

After Chavin we moved back to Huaraz for the duration. From there we spent our days exploring the myriad of markets with everything from chickens and pigs hanging from hooks in the butcher booths to clothes, dishes and crafts. Two different days we hired a taxi through our hostel to take us to different valleys in the Andes for day hikes.

There really is no way to use words to describe the mountain scenery so these pictures will have to do.

All in all the trip was a big success until..... We arrived at the Lima airport for departure with no problems. Stood in line to get our boarding passes with no problems. Exchanged the last of our Peruvian currency no problem. 30 minutes before boarding we had a problem. Becky started to feel sick to her stomach which took her to the bathroom. They started boarding the plane, I still saw no Becky. When she finally came out she looked pale and drained but said she was good to board the plane (what other option did we have if we did not want to buy new tickets, right?). While we were standing in the gang way, Becky doing her best to stand in the slowly moving line without hurling on the elderly lady in front of us, we hear someone hit the floor..... "That man just fell, we need help!" came from 20 feet back. Followed by, "Oh, that was the drunk dude in the bar.... I think he just past out". So we continued to move to our seats while the airline folks took the drunk guy away in an ambulance. Over the next 7 hours, from Lima to Atlanta, Becky filled......I don't want to be too graphic here. lets just say she was as sick as I've every seen anyone from food poisoning and it could not have been at a worst time. By the time we reached Atlanta Becky had it mostly out of her system but was very exhausted and doing her best to hold down water and food.

There is so much more to say and many more stories to embellish but those will have to wait until next time. Until then.

Good night Peru.