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| October 20 |
 “Cambio, Orlando, cambio,” Johan uttered into his walkie-talkie. The exchange—meaning something like “come in, Orlando, come in”—confirmed that part of the team, a group of José’s students, had reached the excavation site on the summit. Their initial task—to begin clearing away snow and ice from a burial platform built by the Inca centuries ago. An expedition to the site last year yielded two mummies. Johan and José hope to finish the job they began last year by fully excavating the platform. We will use drills and shovels to meticulously chip away at the frozen ground. |
 While Orlando and the others begin to clear the site, we arrive at Chilitia—a quaint settlement on the edge of a dry salt lake, Lake Salinas, located at the base of Pichu Pichu. We spend the night here to acclimatize to the altitude, already at 14,000 feet (4266 meters). To get here, we drove three hours from Arequipa over a dusty, rock-choked road, snaking up the terraces and hillocks cast by volcanoes. A day earlier, we had climbed to base camp, located at 16,230 feet (4945 meters), and met the rest of the team. |
 When the dig begins, we will establish a summit camp at 18,300 feet (5576 meters). The effect of altitude was instant. A tingling in my left thumb, slight disorientation, a mild headache (for me, this feels normal, although Johan and others assure me it is not). Diamox, a drug to combat altitude sickness, suspends the effects of discomfort. I elect to go with my normal state of disorientation, for the moment. |
 With part of the group at base camp, our group (including José, Johan, and a group from Bell Sygma of Canada, who are sponsoring the expedition) is encamped in tents and adobe huts in Chilitia. Llamas are just outside my hut craning their necks toward the sand. Alpenglow coats the peaks in orange. Night has settled in over the Andes now. Every star in the Peruvian cosmos is electric—a sacred constellation eclipsing us below. The sun, the stars, the mountains—all magnified and intense in this realm. I understand now why the Inca, and the Andean people today, revere their natural elements. It would be a sin not to. |
| For now, my candle has just turned out, and till tomorrow, so have I. |
Yancey Hall
nationalgeographic.com