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