El Misti (Volcano)

So, before anyone moans and says ERASMUS means in Europe, I'm not daft, I do know this. And I will be an ERASMUS student from January to August, I just happen to be doing my Spanish placement in Peru, on the other side of the world. A brilliant country by all accounts, and living here just makes it so much better.

This last weekend, 3/4 November, I climbed the amazing volcano El Misti, one of 3 volcanoes surrounding the beautiful white city of Arequipa. It can be found in the Reserva Nacional de Salinas y Agua Blanca. At 5,822m above sea level, it's pretty high, only 73m short of Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing volcano in the world. Living in Arequipa, at 2,300m roughly, I figured I'd handle the altitude well, as I've had no problems at all during my time here, even when I went to Cuzco (3,300m) I experienced no problems.

But doing, and thinking are two different things. I first felt my effects at 4,500m at the 'base camp' of El Misti. Headaches and stomach cramps, all in a day's pain. But climbing higher and higher, with a substantial lack of energy, I just got worse until after blood, sweat and vomit - I passed out momentarily. It was time to descend. But given that I had been at 5,200m when this happened, 600m short of the summit, I figured I hadn't done too badly, and well, you can see from these photos, just how nice the sunset was at base camp. It wasn't a bad place to stop and rest for a few hours.