From My Soul (Desde mi alma)

Book excerpt: Alonso Abugattas is more than a fanatical hunter, fisherman, shooter, and mountain climber. The author also possesses a deep, compulsive, and infectious love of the natural world. His writing evokes the pleasures of hunting, fishing, and shooting, as well as the perils of mountain climbing in the Andes during the 1960s. The stories in his book range from vivid eyewitness narratives that involve adventure, travel, personal struggle, and disregard for safety, to Peruvian history, customs, and geography, as well as discussions on ancient Inca civilization. The book is a mesmerizing blend of mountaineering adventure and high-altitude archeological exploration that describes active volcanoes, grave robbers, and Inca mummies. The book recounts the recovery of a mystery woman, presumed dead since 1945, whose body remained undisturbed near the summit of the Misti volcano until the author, with a team of civilians and Peruvian police, discovered her remains in 1965. It was a stunning recovery that made local and national headlines, but it was just the beginning of this intriguing find that for more than fifty years has continued to haunt the author. His vivid eyewitness accounts include a harrowing encounter of an avalanche on Ampato mountain, snow blindness on Coropuna mountain, eruption of the Ubinas Volcano, and his experience with an inexplicable phenomenon in Mauca Arequipa. In this firsthand account, the author chronicles his excitement, obsession, anxiety, and exhilaration as he prepares for and participates in world-class shooting tournaments in Europe and South America. A riveting account documents all the famous high achievers in the shooting world that he was lucky to meet during his quest to find hunting, fishing, and shooting heaven.