This post is being sent from the southern Peruvian town of Arequipa. We have done some of the tourist stuff including a visit to the museum where the Inca ice maiden (child sacrifice) is displayed! She is a five hundred year old frozen body of an Inca girl maybe 12 to 14 years old, and was discovered nearby close to the top of one of the high peaks. One of the described adventure acitivities Heather and I read about before arriving in Arequipa, was the possibilty of climbing one of the easiest 6080m (19950ft) peaks certainly in South America in two days - little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. The peak, Chachani, is one of several that can be seen as a backdrop to the city of Arequipa. The plan for the trek was as follows - leave Arequipa at 08h00 at an altitude of 2300m, and drive to the drop off spot at 5000m; climb up to the base camp at 5400m where tents were set up; an early supper at 17h00 with a wake up at 02h30 the next morning for breakfast and an attempt on the summit. Neither Heather or I had a minutes sleep up until 02h30, the wind was blowing hard and it was extremely cold. During that time, I developed a pounding headache and started to vomit repeatedly. Heather was still okay. By about 23h00, we had decided there was no way I was going up further and we stayed in camp together. Numerous other people turned back, and judging by the comments of those who did the return summit journey of at least 12 hours, we weren´t too upset to have stayed back. Needless to say, our desire to climb a 6000m peak has waned a bit. Maybe, at least for us, transitioning from 2300m to over 6000m in less than a day is a bit ambitious.