Llanganuco to Lima

When I finally regained my health, I joined the group for a final outing to Llanganuco. It was a stunningly beautiful place. After two days there, we returned to Huaraz and swiftly left for Lima the following morning. Despite the 8 hour ride to the capitol, we did stop at Bandurria, a coastal archaeological site that predates the Incas. It was fascinating to see these structures that were able to withstand the elements for thousands of years! It was also interesting to learn, and essentially see, the workings of environmental determinism. Our guide explained that the change of wetland to arid desert may have led to the downfall of the civilization. We spent one night in Lima, and we shopped the following day. Now that I am home, I miss Peru and cannot wait to one day go back!
-Erin






At the end of our time in Peru we spent a night at Llanganuco.  The drive in was amazing with incredible views of the high valley walls and the amazing turquoise lakes.  The afternoon we arrived a few of us climbed the side of the valley, up a slide that occurred after the 1970 earthquake.  It was very steep and we climbed about 700 vertical meters in an hour and a half to collect data from a weather station as well as perform some maintenance.  From here it was very cold but there were amazing views of Huascaran, the lakes below, and Huandoy directly above us.  The hike (or run) down was particularly fun.  The loose gavel allowed us to essentially ski down part of the way.

After leaving Llanganuco we headed back to Lima via the archaeological site Bandurria.  It was really cool to see such an old site that had just recently been discovered (by accident).  Seeing the coast was also really cool.

Back in Lima I had arguably the two best meals of my life.  First with an all you can eat meat feast (delivered to us on swords), and then my first experience eating cebiche.  Both meals were also finished off with amazing deserts.  This made a great end to our trip. 
-Eric





Our last campsite was located at Llanganuco which sits above two large landslide dammed lakes in a U-shaped glacial carved valley. This was one of the most scenic camps and my favorite of the trip. There were cattle, horses and donkeys frequenting the camp, and I recall a rather friendly donkey became close with Nathan while he was setting up his tent. My favorite field work at Llanganuco was climbing up 2,100 vertical feet to check a weather station. At the weather station we recorded the average wind speed, relative humidity, and installed a rain gauge. The visibility was incredible and the summit of Huascaran and several other high peaks in the Cordillera Blanca were visible. When we made our decent from the weather station we skied down several hundred meters of fine grained talus formed through weathering. The bus ride back to Lima from Huaraz was interesting because all of the farmers still had their technicolor drying vegetables spread along the road. We stopped at a pre-Incan ceremonial site known as Bandurria, which was named after a bird that frequents the coast and migrates into the high Andes between seasons. Once we arrived in Lima we had a wonderful dinner and did some shopping. This trip has been an amazing experience and the group of students and professors were terrific. I would like to get back to Peru in the near future to see how climate change will continue in the tropical Andes and relate it with our observations from this trip.
-Joe





Our last night in Peru, we dined at a restaurant referred to as a "carnivore's delight." Placing the green side of the coaster up, servers came along and freshly cut all different types of meat directly onto your plate. This was an extremely fun experience, and Damon put us all to shame with his food intake. The following day (our last day in Peru) we went shopping at the local stores in the morning and then had the traditional Cerviche dish for lunch. It was great to be able to experience the traditional Peruvian cuisine before we headed home. Before heading back, we took a trip to the beach, watching the parasailers and local surfers. It was completely necessary to indulge in one more ice cream before we left, as we had rountinely eaten at least one a day when we were in town. The trip home was long but I am happy to be home safe! I've made a lot of good friends on this trip, which really helped to make the trip all that it was.
-kait



The drive down to Lima was much like the drive up from Lima that we had done more than two weeks before...fast and curvy. Our visit to the Bandurria Archealogical site on the coast with Dr. Chu was amazing, especially since only a small portion of it had been unburied and you could see the effects of the sand-dune movement on the buried sections. It was a good feeling when we finally broke free of Lima traffic and made it to our hotel, yet this was quickly followed by a not-so-good feeling when our cab driver got lost on the way to dinner...seperating us from the rest of the group. However, after stuffing our faces with a thousand different types of meat at dinner (that were served up on swords!) I realized that I've greatly enjoyed my time spent in Peru.
-Nick



Our last days in Peru were spent in Lima where we had a chance to shop for souvenirs and eat some great food. We got to meet Professor Rodbell's in-laws and dip our feet into the cold Pacific. On our way to Lima we stopped at Bandurria, the oldest archeological site in Peru. The site was located right on the coast where they utilized their marine resources. We were given a tour of the site by Alejandro Chu and it was interesting to see the structures that were being uncovered and stabilized by the team of archeologists. Before heading to the aiport we had to pack up our sediment cores to bring back to Union. Although we left Peru some of us are able to continue our work this summer and coming school year.
-Sarah Tonry



The last few days in Peru were a whirlwind of different places from Huaraz to Lima. The highlights, though, were the pre-adobe architectural site, the restaurant with meat on swords where Damon ate approximately half a cow, and the ceviche we got for lunch on the last day. The entire trip was amazing, and I'm ready to hang out with Professor Rodbell and Sarah for three more weeks on campus
-Sarah Conner










I was happy to be back in the field for the trip to Llanganuco, the glacier-enthusiast’s paradise. We drove to our campsite at Cebollapampa between the sheer walls of a deep U-shaped valley, past turquoise lakes, and over boulder-strewn moraines, all the while surrounded by looming ice-covered peaks. Our hike on the trail to Laguna 69 took us to the head of the valley. The drive up to the pass gave us a chance to see the east sides of Huascarán Sur and Norte and the famous col (saddle) between the two peaks where Lonnie Thompson drilled ice cores in 1993. Llanganuco was a nice end to a great course. Thanks to all of the students for being such a good crew.
-Prof. Smith

Lake Breque/Trek to Chavin

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DAY 1-
While the other students got to enjoy the geological offerings of Breque, I was having an adventure all my own, stuck in a Peruvian clinic. On the two hour hike to Breque, I became very sick, with what I later learned was an intestinal infection. I became more and more dehydrated as the hike went on, and eventually I began fainting. When I finally reached camp, the professors called in a truck to transport me to Clinica San Pablo in Huaraz. After much crying and freaking out, the doctors at the clinic finally hooked me up to an IV, where I proceeded to need five liters of electrolyte solution! Despite my fever, I finally began to feel better.

The hospital was very nice, and all of the staff members were very attentive. When I finally returned to Mi Casa, Francesca, Patty, and the entire family helped me so much! They tried to feed me (although I didn´t eat for 3 days), and they even bought me a newspaper, so I could keep up with the strike.

Now, I am much better. I am so happy to have been reunited with the other students, and I am really looking forward to our lasting outing tomorrow. It just goes to show that everything is an experience, even if it wasn´t exactly what I had been hoping for.
-Erin



The sounds of roosters screaching is the first sound I hear as my eyes first open. While I feel like I should be at home or on a farm, I´m not...im in the middle of Huaraz, our base city in Peru. After getting up I head to California Cafe to grab some breakfast and a strong, very strong, cup of coffee and try not to get impaled by one of the many taxis that rocket around the narrow streets. The cafe is owned by an american, a unique fellow named Tim, and is filled with climbers and US expats. After my seemingly half-day inside the cafe, I met up with Jeff and Jacquie to do a bit of wandering. Our peruvian fashion show was followed by a trip to yet another cafe, Cafe Andino. The mood was not as welcoming as California Cafe and after a small battle over Peachy-Tips and an awkward moment while I snagged la cuenta, we were assured that we´d probably never return... Walking back on Calle Luzuirga, the main boulevard and shopping area, we could see riot police stationed at street corners and many of the shops fully closed while the Paro (strike) was underway. The night before, a french geologist (Michelle) and myself were walking to dinner on this same stretch of road and were awestruck as a very short man was spray'painted bright silver and doing human'robot impressions...which involved mechanically waving a lollipop just out of reach of a small child, much to his own delight. Huaraz is an amazingly beautiful yet rugged city and wandering it´s streets and discovering its many intricacies on my own time has been a great time!!!
-Nick





DAY 2-
Today was great! We walked along the Cordillera Blanca normal fault, and document how much displacement has occured on glacial moraines. Its awesome and spine tingling to walk along this fault that produces 7.5 magnitude earthquakes when it ruptures. At the top moraine we measured about 30 meters of displacement. The views from up there were great, and we took a lot of photos that are now up on the blog. On the way down to camp, we entertained ourselves by having a boulder rolling competition. Joe was the hands down winner. It was nice having my luggage, because back at camp we tossed around a frisbee. At dinner it just didnt feel the same as previous outings without Nick, Erin, and Jacquie. After dinner Damon continued his dice dominance, but I beat him right before we went to bed.
-Tim



Today we studied paleo Lake Breque. Lake Breque was formed when a glacier advanced and formed an end moraine which dammed the valley. The valley that lake Breque was in has a lot of interesting geology affecting it. We walked along the Rio Negro river that flows through the Breque valley. There are several great cut banks formed by the Negro that hold records of lake sediment and glacial till. Towards the outlet of paleo Lake Breque is a nine meter high fault scarp of the Cordillera Blanca fault. Professor Rodbell and our group studied Lake Breque and interpreted that the drainage of the lake was a result in the offset caused by a magnitude 7 earthquake ten thousand years ago. The normal fault hanging wall dropped down during the seismic event, which lowered the dammed end moraine nine meters. This one event caused a huge amount of water to be propelled over the dam and eroded it. The wall of water bursted many smaller paternoster lakes down valley. We hiked up several moraines and measured the offset of the fault scarp. When we got back to camp, Chef Freddy had a wonderful dinner prepared for us to aid our long hikes in the days ahead.
-Joe





DAY 3-
After two nights at the Breque camp site we hiked up to another glacial valley at the mouth of a cirque with a glacier still present in it.  Once we got to the site we hiked up towards the cirque and measured the diameter of a slow growing lichen on 4 of the many closely spaced recessional moraines.  These lichen sizes could help determine the age of the moraines and the rate of glacial retreat.  As we continued to climb up towards the glacier (to 4,650m) we got to a new lake the the retreating glacier had deposited.  The view from here was spectacular, making the climb very much worth it, despite the frigid and thin air.  The red and orange color of the stream was also amazing (from iron oxide precipitating out of the water), as were the abundant red and orange mosses. 
 -Eric







We started off today by packing everything and getting ready to hike from our camp site in the Breque valley to a much higher camp site at the plane below Punta Yanashallash. It was pretty cold in the morning, but it got warmer as the hike went on. Then it got cold again. Then it rained. Then it hailed. Then it got warm again. Then it got cold at night. Regardless, it was a long but pretty interesting hike. We almost got attacked by some stupid little dogs, but a boy that lived on the adjacent farm proceeded to crack a huge whip and scare the hell out of them and make them back down. We also encountered a couple kids that lived along the trail who greeted us by trying to shoot us with their toy bow and arrows. It was pretty amusing, and I think that is how I am going to greet strangers from now on. By the time we got to camp and set everything up it was probably around 3, and shortly after we went out to do some field work. The field work was comprised of hiking up moraines and measuring lichens, because their sizes can be used to determine how long ago glaciers had retreated from the area. It started to get really cold, and I couldnt help but wish I had a high end Gucci jacket so that I could stay warm and simultaneously impress the locals with my bold fashion sense. We were fairly rushed because it was getting cold and dark, but we got some good data and there was definitely some good sight seeing.
-Damon







DAY 4-
Yesterday was our 16th day in the field-pretty hard to believe! We woke up to ice covered tents, and continued to pack up camp in the snow. Needless to say it was a wet and cold morning. We left around 9:30 am for our journey to Chavin, a pre-Incan town, which we anticipated would take us about 6 hours. The first hour of the hike, we climbed to about 15,400 feet, which is the highest we have been yet. As we reached the top, we found ourselves overlooking the continental divide, taking the time to snap some pictures and document this once in a lifetime opportunity, as not many people can say that they have hiked acrosse the Andes! There wasnt much time for geological talk, as we spent the majority of our time catching our breath and taking in the sights around us. Although it was a physically and mentally demanding day, it has been by far one of my favorite days here. Hiking between 12 and 15 miles was something I had never done, and truly showed our perserverence. I can't believe that our time here is almost up, it seems as if we have just gotten here!! I am extremely glad that our fellow group mates have recovored from their illnesses, and cannot wait to enjoy the rest of our outings with them!!
-Kait



After we crossed the top of the Andes (!!!) it was 1700 m (vertical) of downhill... with some unexpected ups here and there. We hiked on an old Incan roadway and then through some villages. The children followed us through the towns asking for presents so we handed out leftover lunch and candies. In one of the larger towns we picked up the area doctor, Walter, who was heading the same way we were. As we got lower and lower, we started to see green and trees and sun again. Finally we could see our destination (Chavin) and we all got pretty excited - only to find out that the track we were on had recently washed into the river (and we were still pretty high up). There were bulldozers and lots of men working on rebuilding the roadway, but there was no easy way through. We ended up basically scaling a cliff face into a construction zone with working bulldozers to get to the restored path. It was terrifying and absurd at the same time, and made the perfect ending to our 6 hour 12 mile trek.
-Sarah Conner





After our long descent we finally arrived in Chavin! We only had a 5 minute water break before we entered the site of the ruins because they were about to close. At that point everyone was pretty beat but our perseverence was worth it. The Chavin were a pre-Incan culture who, according to Milton, enjoyed their hallucenogenic cactus. There was also a large stone temple surrounded by smaller platforms. This was a religious site of worship and sacrifice and we saw ceremonial sites surrounded by stone bleachers where we assume people would gather to listen to the oracle´s prophecies. These prophecies were probably increasingly profound post cactus consumption. One of the most interesting parts of the site were the underground labyrinths that consisted of a series of passageways and lots of dead ends. After leaving the ruins we were all excited to see Freddie waiting for us in the center of town. We were not sure if he was going to make it to us with all of our luggage (note Sarah Conner´s blog). We had dinner in Chavin before driving back to Huaraz. It was a long few days of hiking and we were happy to be back at Mi Casa... in beds.
-Sarah Tonry

Conococha Plain

PLEASE NOTE: THE CORRECT NUMBER FOR MI CASA IS (from US): 011-51-43-423375
IF YOU NEED TO CALL THE SATELLITE PHONE, BE SURE TO DIAL 011 AND THEN 881651452184 (6-8PM EST)

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DAY 1-
We loaded a bus and several trucks with students and gear and headed for the Juellash Valley. We set camp up which was composed of a dinning tent, chefs tent, two bathroom tents, and ten sleeping tents. As soon as we set up camp we went down the Juellash Creek to study the creek bank stratigraphy. We looked at two different cut banks where glacial till and fluvial deposits had been deposited. In the first outcrop studied a grey diamicton with a mud-fine sand matrix was observed. This was formed during a glacial advance took place down the M2 moraine. The top unit of the outcrop contained flood plain deposits and some larger clasts resulting from a possible outwash event caused be erosion of a end moraine. The next outcrop studied had remnants of a lake. There were interbedded layers with fine sediment and more coarse gravels to small cobbles. The lake likely formed when the creek was dammed by mass wasting or an earthquake. The upper part unit of the outcrop contains flood plain deposits much like the first outcrop studied. After our creek bed studies, we returned to camp for a wonderful chicken dinner and flawn desert prepared by our chef Freddy, what a guy!!!
-Joe






DAY 2--
On Day 2 in the field, we continued profiling stratographic columns. We did seven this day, and it became much easier as we moved down stream. In our field notebooks, we would draw the columns and write out observations on what we saw. We began to distinguish between two types of till, which we labeled as grey and olive till. The olive till was clearly younger, seeing as how it sat on top of the grey till. It was particularly interesting to contrast the two tills. The grey till lacked any granite, whereas the olive till had an abundance of the rock. This indicates that the glacial action associated with the grey till predates the unroofing of the basolith, but the olive till must have occurred after. Even so, both tills are very, very old, predating the moraines we would study later in the week. Also, in the first outcrop we studied, there were very obvious signs of a lake or pond. Just by analyzing the different types of sediment, we were able to determine the existence of lakes and glaciers.

Although this was just the beginning of our Conococha field work, we had already learned a lot. Nathan was sick this day, and thus began the illnesses that almost all of us would eventually get. I had a small stomach bug later in the week. Nevertheless, studying the outcrops furthered my understanding of glacial geology and facilitated my comprehension of later work.
-ERIN








DAY 3
Today we began measuring weathering posts on the Right lateral of moraine M3 and on the left lateral of moraine M1. We learned that weathering posts are only seen on granodiorite boulders. The posts are formed through chemical and physical weathering and exist possibly due to slight mineralogical differences between the weathering posts themselves and the rest of the boulder. In measuring these we hope to be able to correlate the ages of the moraines based on the size of the posts present on the granodiorite boulders at each moraine. The M3 moraine (circa 15-16Ka) provided us with lots of posts to measure, yet the M1 moraine (circa 60Ka) had no granite likely because it is from the pre-unroofing of the batholith.
The game of dice has become infectious in our camp. Damon seems to be unstoppable with his more rolls, and I´m realizing that my "go-for-broke" strategy does not pay off. I´m sure more epic games lay ahead and I´ll be waiting for Damon´s luck to run out and mine to start kicking in...
-Nick
















DAY 4
On the fourth day of our field stay Conococha we hiked up the left side of the M3 moraine which is about 15,000 years old.  As we hiked up its spine we measured weathering post heights on granite boulders.  These posts were really strange, some reached almost 40cm.  As we walked even higher up we got a great view into the cirque which has little ice now but was the source of the glaciers that created most of the moraines in the valley near where we camped.  There we could also see a very recent moraine, created during the little ice age around the year 1800.  Another very cool thing that was visible from this elevation (about 4,900 meters) was the fault scarp runing right along the edge of the mountain. 
-Eric







Day 5--
During our 5th day in Conococha we divided into two groups. My group, which was Kait, Erin, Joe, Nathan, and Proffesor Rodbell, did the first coring of Lake Yanacocha. We drove about an hour away from camp, and when we arrived at the lake, having to take full advantage of our trucks 4-wheel drive, we began unloading equipment, pumping up the boats, and constructing the PVC piping that we would be using. We attached the two boats together with wooden beams and tied a smaller raft to the back of the boats that tailed behind us as we paddled out to the center of the lake. Kait used a sonar depth meter to determine the depth of the lake, and we were surprised to find the the deepest part was only about 5.8 meters. When deciding on a good sampling spot, we anchored ourselves with bags of rocks. We used a hydrolab to record the water chemistry of the lake, took a 50 cm surface core in plastic tubing, and then returned to shore. Kait, Erin, and I stayed on shore and sampled the surface core in 0.5 cm increments... a task which took us the remainder of the day, through sunny skies and snow flurries. The men went back out on the boats and took six more 1 meter cores from the center of the lake, which they enclosed in plastic piping. Sarah Conner and I are planning to duke it out over claim for these cores when we begin our thesis work back at Union. This was our longest work day yet and we did not make it home before dark.I would not say that we actually got lost on the way back to camp, but we were all a little relieved when Joe spotted the tents up on the moraine. We called to Freddie on the walkie-talkie to help us home, and within a second Jackie had emerged from the dinner tent flashing her head lamp as a beakon on the horizon. Although we missed afternoon snack, it was a great day in the field and a very new experience for us.
-Sarah Tonry

We split into two groups. My group hiked to the fault scarp and back, while the other group went coring. On the way to the scarp, we noticed small hills between the laterals of some of the moraines (M4, I think), and identified them as being recessional moraines. We continued the hike up a moraine of unknown age, which we called moraine M10. We thought that M10 must have been younger than the adjacent M4 and M5 moraines, but many of the weathering posts were much larger than expected. We eventually got to the fault scarp, and if I remember correctly (which I probably don´t), we measured 16 meters of vertical offset. At the top of the scarp we took the only cosmogenic sample of the trip.

It´s also worth noting that I´m incredible at dice.
-Damon







Day 6--
On our 6th day in the field, Jeff McKenzie joined us to teach us of the hydrology of the Corillera Blanca. We hiked along the Jeullesh stream, attempting to understand the pro-glacial hydrology of the area. This is important as the Rio Santa provides water for day to day actuivities, irrigation systems and hydroelectric purposes. Locals say that "water is life," therefore this is beyond a scientific issue. There seems to be a love/hate relationship with the mining industry, as the locals need the jobs but this is countered by the contamination of drinking water. Not only is this a scientific problem, but also a sociological issue. We also talked about the origin of the water in the stream, questioning how much of each water source makes up the river. Using a flow meter, we were able to measure the volume of water passing at different points on the stream, indicating spots of groundwater infiltration. By using the flow meter and calculating different aspects of the water chemistry (temp, pH, dissolved oxygen percent, turbidity, etc.) our data can be used to determine stream discharge along with the sources of water in the stream.

More importantly we witnessed the miracle of life. At our last stop along the stream, we noticed a cow with what Joe declared to have a "prolapsed uterus"...Little did we know that this cow was actually begining to give birth. We sat in amazement for the next hour, cheering, hoping and pushing for this cow, all the while Jacquie documented it with an obcene (some might say unnatural) amount of pictures. It became humorous as we began to narrate the cows every move, becoming clear that we had all watched way too many Dicovery health birthing shows. Finally, the calf ungracefully "plopped" to the ground, which was followed by an immense amount of licking by its mother. We waited to see it stand, and then headed back off to camp, where we were excited to share the story with the rest of the group...Little did we know that on their way back from the lake, the other group witnessed a sheep being mauled by oncoming traffic...
-kait



On day 6 we stayed split up in our two groups, so I went with all of the guys (except Joe) to core Lake Yanacocha a second time. Nick and I went out onto the lake with Nathan and Professor Rodbell in two inflatable boats with all the equipment we needed. In order to continue the core that the other group had gotten, we cased the hole using PVC pipe. The casing ensured that we could use the same hole for each drive and also allowed us to core deeper. Since the other group had gotten 6 meters the day before, we threw out the first 6 meters of core that we got (and I got to hear some quality potty jokes in the process). After that we started wrapping up each meter or so of core that we got from each drive in saran wrap and more PVC tubes. As we got deeper into the core, there was a clear transition from the peaty sediments that are being deposited today to drive after drive of pure glacial silt. As the drives got deeper, it got harder and harder to pull them back out, and for the last two drives Nick, Nathan and Professor Rodbell were all standing precariously in the two boats yanking out the core while I tried to get cable out of their way and worried about how I was going to save them when they all fell in. After our fifth drive, it was obvious that it was getting too difficult to get the cores out so we stopped coring, pulled out the casing, and went back to shore. After lunch Damon, Tim, and Eric went back out with Nathan and Professor Rodbell to get an eight foot surface sediment core in clear tubing to complement the surface sediment sampling the other group had done. Then we packed the truck and set off back to camp. We were on the highway, almost to our turnoff, when a bunch of sheep decided to cross the road. Professor Rodbell slowed the truck down, but a white car headed the other direction didn't seem to think that was necessary and absolutely wrecked one of the sheep. Even after impact the car zoomed on past, leaving us to watch the sheep do somersaults across the road until it stopped and just lay there blinking at us... I was totally traumatized. We got back to camp and I opened my mouth to tell the girls about it but Kaitlin beat me with WE SAW A COW BEING BORN TODAYYYY!!!
-Sarah Conner

Happy belated 4th of July all you blog watchers! Yesterday we got back from our first outing to the Juellash Valley and to my surprise my luggage finally showed up! Unfortunately, a stomach bug has been going around and not all of us fell so great, so that put a damper on our 4th celebrations. Despite that our 4th was pretty interesting. We pestered Professor Rodbell to find us fireworks, but the store is on the other side of town and none of us had the ambition to follow through with it. We had dinner at Pizza Bruno, where they played Beatles music in the Peruvian style. The girls bathroom litterally has a throne, and the guys bathroom is themed like a gold mine, with pyrite sticking out of the walls and wooden supports to make you feel like you in the mineshaft. All in all it was a good day, but i wish i had some hot dogs and fireworks
-Tim

The week at Conococha was great – what a beautiful and geologically spectacular site. Every time we go there, we put more of the geologic puzzle together. This time the weathering post project helped us identify some “missing” moraines, which was very satisfying. We were lucky with the weather and saw a couple of incredible sunsets. Watching the birth of the calf was a memorable experience – never expected hydro day to include water breaking, so to speak. My trip to the Breque site took an unexpected turn with Erin’s sudden illness, so I’ve spent some leisure time in Huaraz instead. I’ll get to Chavin one day, I’m sure. Meanwhile, hooray for the California Café.
- Prof. Smith




What a great group of students we have! I especially enjoy showing them the magic of this place-- a magic that first captivated me 23 years ago, and continues to do so with every visit!
- Professor Rodbell