Dispatch: Last Hurrah in Lima
Lima, Peru - Saturday, July 8, 2000

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We have had a good time in the city. We spent today walking around, checking out the markets and the antique district of Lima and also went to the National Museum and saw part of downtown.

Lima is a pretty interesting city. I guess it was founded in the 1500s by Francisco Pizarro and was pretty much the landing point for Spanish ships and became the Spanish capital for most of the conquest of the Peruvian country of northern South America. And it was also the seat of the Spanish Inquisition in the late 1500s, so there's a lot of history here.

But an earthquake in the 1700s leveled the city, and there's not much left of old Lima, but still, there's a lot of traces of colonial times and a lot of beautiful churches, plazas. We had a good time walking around today, absorbing some of that history. But besides that, there's 24 million people living here now, and there's a lot of pollution, a lot of fog. The city is built on a coastal desert, which would not be livable other than for man-made structures around here, so it's not a pleasant atmosphere around, but the city has its own charm, and that's what we've been checking out all day.

We're going out with friends tonight for one last hurrah, and then on the plane and back to the states tomorrow.

So, the mountains seem far away—our days up on the summit and at advanced camp pretty much seem a distant memory right now. It's amazing to think back to that, and it's even more amazing to look at all the gear that we have to carry to the airport tomorrow. So that's pretty much it. Bissell, you want to say anything? Okay, here's Bissell Hazen. [Porter] checking out.

Bissell Hazen
Hello, Mountain Zone. Porter's actually full of baloney. He just drank beer all day. No, we had a great day; we just cruised around the city, and it is a pretty city. Lima is a very modern city. It's very crowded, but it is fun. It's fun to be here. It's pretty amazing to think about where we were, you know, so high up at 20,000 feet, only, what, five days ago or something?

The mountains here, the Cordillera Blanca, it's really super accessible. It's almost like the Tetons in a way, or just most mountain ranges in North America. You can get up high pretty quickly and then be down and be enjoying a nice dinner, be with friends down low pretty quickly. But either way, it was a great time.

Thanks a lot to Mountain Zone, thanks a lot to Powder, thanks a lot to Mountain Hardwear, Rossignol, Scott, LifeLink. Wade, Moss, I hope you guys got home. Hello to my parents, my brother, my sisters Susie and Sarah, their families, and have a good night. This is probably— I know this is my last dispatch— probably Porter's. Hope to do it again soon. Alright, bye.

— Porter Fox, Senior Editor for Powder Magazine, and Bissell Hazen, MountainZone.com Correspondents

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