Calgary, June 2024
Sometimes a chance could play a crucial role in life, it can open a whole new world. For me, this chance happened in 1979 in Ottawa, Canada, when I met a friend whom I knew from climbing in High Tatras, Slovakia. He also lived in Ottawa, and we celebrated our meeting by having a few drinks together. The main topic of conversation was climbing, and he told me about a trip to Cordillera Blanca in Peru he did with his wife. They really liked it. The combination of high mountains, good weather and cheap living made it very attractive. "It is like the Himalayas without the need for expedition," he said. Needless to say, I was very interested to go, but there were two problems: I wanted to go with my wife Alena, but it would cost more than we were willing to pay. Also, we had two little kids and nobody to look after them.
At that time, I was working for a large computer manufacturer and had to do a lot of business travelling. In the spring of 1980, I had a trip to Australia and that gave me an idea. On the return to Canada, I could do the stopover in Lima and pay the company the difference in the ticket price. This way I would save the cost of one ticket between Ottawa and Lima. The company agreed, and Alena then talked to her mom who agreed to come and look after our kids. With the problems of cost and babysitting resolved, Alena flew to Lima, we met at the airport, and our introduction to Spanish began.
Like a lot of other people, I was under the misconception that the whole world speaks English. Also, it was our first time in a third-world country, and we were not prepared for the chaos facing us as soon as we stepped out of the airport. A hoard of taxi drivers attacked us, speaking in a foreign language and offering us something we didn’t understand. The most aggressive of them put us in his taxi and, as we later realized, for a ridiculously high price drove us to a guest house, undoubtedly owned by one of his relatives.
The next stage of our Peru trip was a bus ride to the town of Huaraz, the center of tourism in Cordillera Blanca. The owner of the guesthouse showed us where the bus stop was, and the next morning we started the 8-hour journey to that small town. When we arrived in the afternoon, the question was: What now? We knew there were hotels for 50 cents a night, but we were not keen on those. There was also a Holiday Inn for $100 a night, which we rejected outright. We were standing by the bus stop, looking lost, and then I stopped a car which looked like a taxi. I explained to the driver, who did speak English, what we were looking for and he laughed, Peruvians laugh a lot. He said he knew the place we would like and drove us to the old monastery which was converted into a hotel. It was a nice, clean place and the price was $10 per night, including breakfast. We couldn’t ask for anything better.
The main objective of the trip to Peru was to climb their highest mountain, Huascaran, 6,768 m. To do that, we had to acclimatize, so we did hikes to 4,500 m, climbed a mountain of 5,800 m, and then contracted a guide/porter for the main objective. The guide’s name was Claudio, he didn’t speak any English, and I didn’t speak any Spanish, but somehow, we made a deal. The climb will take five days, he will charge $10/day, for a total of $50. Alena decided to wait for us in the base camp.
The climb went very well. After two days we were at the col below the main summit of Huascaran, and early next morning, with a dark blue sky, we started to the top. I was in good shape; we reached the summit at about nine in the morning and were back at the col at twelve. I took out the stove, made some tea and was ready to go down, but the guide said "No, we will stay." It didn't make any sense, we had enough time to go to the base camp, but then I realized the reason. With my non-existent Spanish, I said: "Five days, fifty dollars. Three days, fifty dollars." At that moment Claudio jumped up, we quickly packed the camp and ran down the mountain.
This trip to Peru opened the world of Latin America to me. Alena and I went to Peru three more times, and we also went to Ecuador and Bolivia, always to climb mountains. But to be able to enjoy those trips, I had to learn Spanish. I was never good with languages, at school languages were my worst subjects, but since Latinos wouldn’t learn English, I had to learn their language. In the beginning, I just wanted to be fluent enough to be able to communicate with them, but later, to my surprise, I started to like Spanish. I took many courses, did a degree in Spanish, taught computer science at Mexico City University and after Alena and I retired, we travelled a lot in Mexico and Cuba. I like the easygoing Latino lifestyle where there is always enough time for everything. Sometimes, when I was teaching in Mexico City, it drove me crazy, but then I accepted the basic idea that there was no need to hurry. Spanish is the language of holidays, that's how it is, and I am glad that a chance meeting with my friend pointed it out to me.