How it All Begins

Once the headache´s set in, it becomes the only focus. The world around me slips away. The hiking becomes secondary. All of my energy is focus on the inhale and the exhale. At 15,000 feet, breathing becomes a discipline. The commonly thoughtless act becomes a conscious effort. I find myself questioning what I am doing half way up an 19,101 foot, active volcano with less then two days of acclimation in modest elevation. I´d like to say that I was prepared. I´d like to say I trained for this. I wish I could say I knew what I was getting myself into. But I think of myself as an honest man so I admit with humility that El Misti chewed me up and spit me out.

A mere 12 hours prior, Ian and I sit in the office of Quechua Explorer staring at poster of Mount Everest.

"No Problem!" I say to Ian nodding at the poster, "El Misti today, Everest tomorrow." Thoughts of Krakauer´s Into Thin Air flashed through my head. What´s the worst that could happen, I thought as a you Peruvian woman named Sylvia settled in behind the office desk. We entered the office to hire guide to bring us up the volcano that towered of Arequipa. We had read in the our guide book that it was the easiest accent of a mountain its size. My selective focus allowed me to focus on one word and one word alone...easy.

"60 dollars?" I gawked, in my awkward Spanish. "Per person?" I spit out in disgust. The dream of ascending El Misti was quickly slipping away. I looked at Ian and without saying anything I knew that our combined frugality would not allow us to splurge on the expedition. Not ready to see this day old dream slip away, I asked the only other logical question.

"How much without a guide? How much for ride only to mountain?" I asked, looking for a glimpse of understanding hoping she could translate what could only be associated to Spanish in the loosest of terms. She pause for a minute, realizing what cheap grigo´s we were.

"30 dollars for both," Sylvia said, seeing her opportunity to make the sale quickly fleeting. I looked at Ian. He gave me a nod. We were hooked. We had just booked ourselves a deal for a leisurely stroll up El Misti.