help climbers visciously attacked in Peru

. . . caught boulder poaching once, on Hunter Ligget army base, by some staff Sargent M.P.

This thread seems to be turning into a "what if" thread.

Common sene. My mom taught me that. I wonder if the three so-called heroes (a term used on a couple of websites now) used their common sense. Two beers among three people to celebrate a birthday? Come on, let's be real. Only two beers. Poor souls must have been broke to only afford two beers.

Heh. Yeah, that's sort of my ode to the idiocy of anglicizing a Spanish word and then getting bent out of shape when people honor the roots.

If it waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck... then it is probably a duck.

blahblah go hump someone else's leg, mkay?

DMT

There is also an ongoing discussion in the overland community, however, not many people are offering up much besides a few people. most are content to just wish them well and be silent. Which I got to say bothers me too since the Wolfrom's are a reflection on this community.

I know that if I got a beat down and lost my stuff I sure wouldn't be in a hurry tot ellt he world about it.

Bottom line, your trip of a lifetime can be ruined if you are foolish and ignorant. On top of that you have a responsibility as a traveler and should not be so hasty to tell tales like the Wolfrom's since you are part of a much larger community.

A pishtaco is a mythological boogeyman figure in the Andes region of South America, particularly in Peru. In some parts of the Andes, the pishtaco is called kharisiri, or ñakaq.[1]

According to folklore, it is pagan evil monster-like man, often a stranger and often a white man, who seeks out unsuspecting Indians, to kill them and abuse their bodies in disgusting ways, primarily by stealing their body fat for various nefarious cannibalistic purposes or cutting them up and selling their flesh as fried chicharrones. Pishtaco is derived from the local language Quechua word: "pishtay" which mean to "behead, cut the throat or cut into slices".2]
Preoccupation with body fat has a long tradition in the Andes region. In pre-Hispanic times, fat was so prized that a deity for it existed, Viracocha (Sea of fat). It is also natural for the peasant rural poor to view fleshiness and excess body fat as the very sign of life, good health, strength and beauty. Many illnesses are thought to have their roots in the loss of body fats and skeletal thinness is abhorred.[3] The Indians were horrified when they saw the practice of the Conquistadores of treating their wounds with fats taken from enemy corpses.[4]

Spanish missionaries were feared as Pishtacos by the Andean aboriginals, who believed they were killing people for fat with which to oil churchbells to make them specially sonorous.[5] In modern times similar beliefs held that human fat was needed to grease the machinery of sugar mills[6][7] or that jet aircraft engines could not be started without a squirt of human fat.[8] Pishtaco beliefs have affected international assistance programs, e.g. leading to rejection of the US Food for Peace program by several communities, out of fears that the real purpose was to fatten children, and later exploit them for their fat.[8] Survey geologists and other Europeans working on the Peruvian and Bolivian altiplano have been attacked by natives in the belief that they were Pishtacos.[9] The work of anthropologists has been stymied because measurements of fat folds were rumoured to be part of a plot to select the fattest individuals later to be targeted by Pishtacos.[7] In 2009 the Pishtaco legend was cited as a possible contributory factor in the apparent fabrication of a story by Peruvian police of a gang murdering up to 60 people to harvest their fat.[10]

The pishtaco is prominently referenced in the novel Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa. In the book, two members of the Peruvian Civil Guard investigate the disappearance of three men, trying to determine if they were killed by the Shining Path guerilla group or by mythical monsters.[11]

Jenny, Jed's sister is finally back in the good ol' USA!!! We are happy she is back safely, but it was hard to say goodbye to her! Our car is back in Cusco and the windows are being replaced. The mayor of Ocongate is supposedly going to pay for it, but we will see if that actually happens or not.
Jed apparently received 6 unneccesary root canals while in Cusco, but because they were also done so poorly he is having to have them all re-done before he can begin the process to get his new teeth. OUCH! Wish him luck in the upcoming days!

OUr bodies ache less and less every day and our spirits grow stronger. We go this afternoon to get our stitches out of our heads.
It has been a crazy 9 days since the incident and we are still looking at about another week of running around, but then we should be able to get the hell OUT OF PERU !
To everyone who has sent us messages of support,... Please know that they have meant a lot to us, and even though we have not yet had the time to sit down a and respond individually we have enjoyed reading them! Your support means a lot to us! Thank you!

Jed apparently received 6 unneccesary root canals while in Cusco, but because they were also done so poorly he is having to have them all re-done before he can begin the process to get his new teeth.