TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

NEWPORT BEACH -- The pictures that Jim Wood is holding make the Andes

mountains in Peru look two-dimensional and unreal.

It’s hard to believe he climbed them, even harder to believe he got

snowed in, and hardest to fathom that he did this at the age of 65.

The founder and contributing editor of Coast Magazine traversed the

Andes mountains with an adventure travel group from Florida last month.

The 64-mile hike lasted eight days. The group of 12, ranging in ages from

29-65, parked their van at the last village in a row of towns leading to

the climb and started their trek.

“And little by little you see less and less of civilization,” the

Newport Beach resident said. “And we got two days in and were hit by a

snow storm. It’s winter down there in South America now.”

Wasn’t much of a deal, Wood says about the storm. A veteran hiker --

he’s traversed Tibet, Africa, Russia and China and plans to climb Mt.

Whitney soon -- Wood said the group simply changed its destination and

chose a different route out of the Andes.

“Your main job is to keep warm at night and make it through the day,”

he said.

Wood will present a screening and commentary on his trip at 4 p.m.

Thursday at the Newport Beach Central Library.

Wearing a parka, wind-pants, wind-shirts and a bright orange backpack,

he hiked 10 miles everyday at altitudes of 14,000 to 16,000 feet. A team

of wranglers and horses carried most of everything that was heavy. A

group of experts that led them did all the setting-up and cooking.

“The thrill is to go to those altitudes where you don’t see many

tourists, to say the least,” Wood said. “And you see beautiful, pristine

scenery.”

Granite peaks rose to 20,000 feet, cobalt blue lakes neighbored below

and untamed rivers raged nearby. Further into the hike, there were

“sun-splashed valleys,” fields of maize and potatoes and herds of furry

llamas and alpacas.

The group also met hunters and gatherers indigenous to South America

who spoke a language called Kuechan and were extremely friendly.

“And you wonder how friendly we would be if some strangers started

trekking through Newport Beach,” Wood said. “A lot of their villages are

surrounded by walls.”

Wood remembers a team of young men playing soccer, which was

“bizarre.”

“They live in a village with no roads, electricity, running water or

stores. They live in stone huts. But they had a great soccer game going,”

he said.

The hiking group had its own fun. With nicknames for each other --

some more derogatory than others -- they learned to be considerate when

the climbs got tough.

“You know you bring down the whole group if you can’t make each day’s

trek,” Wood said.

His wife, Nikki, who is publisher of Coast Magazine and usually hikes

with her husband, said these treks are what keep him young.

“I think it’s incredible,” she said. “He doesn’t look 65 and I think

he’s got a very young, adventuresome spirit.”

At the end of the Andes hike, each climber defeated what was probably

most challenging: the peak of Huayna Picchu. It lay in the desolate

mountain village of Manchu Picchu, a 500-year-old city of the Incas

civilization discovered in 1911.

Cables lined the steep trail and the hikers pulled themselves up.

“A lot of people do it but for me it was one of the toughest climbs of

my life,” Wood said. “You travel the basic 500-year-old trail . . . and

it just made me feel great.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

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