Nationalgeographic.com has neither edited nor researched this dispatch. October 30 Fumeroles condensed in the chill of dawn, just over its rim. We could see it from afar: the volcano, Ubinas. Earlier in the week, Johan suggested we should do a quick run to the top, as an excursion, a way to unwind from the expedition. Also, Ubinas, like Ampato and Sara Sara, was sacred to the Inca. It is mentioned in some of the works of the Spanish chroniclers as having religious importance (ironically Pichu Pichu is not). We left the dump site and drove to the base of Ubinas. Our climb was robust. We were acclimatized and heading for the caldera, unwinded. At the crater rim, the wreak of sulfur stings our lungs. We all gazed into the maw of the smoking pit. Yet we were the ones being watched. From directly overhead. Three shadows, belonging to Andean condors, grazed the rocks around us. The condors were riding the thermals above us. My friend Marco tells me they like men with red jackets. I removed my parka (it’s the heat, of course.) We spilled over the side and walked inside the crater. Down inside, the fumes of sulfur were stronger. Gas spit out the side of the crater wall. Rocks ejected from the side like bullets. Yellow sulfur streaks glazed the rocks. The power was contagious and awesome. I felt pleasantly dwarfed by it all. Johan and I climbed back up to the crater rim and basked in the afternoon sunshine, recalling moments of the expedition. Others were exploring the crater rim. We descended in twilight. A red halo of evening sun glazed over the many peaks of Pichu Pichu. At twilight’s last gasp, a single beam of red light shot skyward. We were inspired and mesmerized. I am certain the Inca saw this same image, over and over again, year after year. Such vistas must have played a role in their cosmology, their deification of these mountains, as it has mine. In this land, the past is not vanquished: it continues in the Andean people of today. We climb into the combies at night and begin the long drive back to Arequipa, down the same rock-studded dirt road we first drove. While this expedition is complete, the team is already beginning to think of other mountains, Sara Sara and Misti. I will miss them, as they continue the search for more Inca secrets.

Yancey Hall nationalgeographic.com

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