Blogs from Ancash, Peru, South America - page 31

The flight out of Quito to Europe is drawing ever closer - only a month left until I fly to Madrid! Today I´m in Huaraz, in the northern regions of Peru. I´m here in search of a flowering Puya raimondii - the plant with the world´s largest inflorescence. If nothing else, this is the only reason for my visit in Peru (Machu Picchu - meh ...). My tour has been booked, and I´ll head out early tomorrow morning. The normal tour spends only 20-30 minutes in the Puya areas before heading up over the 5000m mark to the snow, and anyone that has seen me travel at altitude will realise that this really ain´t my bag, baby. So I organised with the tour guide that whilst everyone else goes to look at snow (which you can ... read more

Pastoruri Glacier today with the Israeli troop. Volcanic landscape reminds me of Tongariro in NZ. REally barren and different to the lushhhhh Santa Cruz valley, but impressive all the same. Having been an unwilling witness to some serious and animated words in Hebrew between Idan and Sol I promptly decided to go it alone and took off by myself scrambling up and down the scree. All the Pêruvian tourists were quite taken just with being on snow, but after four months in fernie that didn´t interest me. Ice caves did. Oh yeah, and Puya Raymondi plants that are the biggest flowers in the world, take 100 years to flower, and are tall (and somewhat phallic). PS. if you buy a bus ticket in Peru it doesn´t necessarily mean you get a seat.... read more

Just got back from a hike up the Quilcayhuanca Valley with Fernando and four local 17-20year old boys who Fernando has been staying with in a town near Huaraz. I only committed at the last minute because I´ve had the runs pretty badly and energy was low. Fernando convinced me when he said that the boys would carry most of my stuff I´d just need to take a daypack. And they did. But it was still a struggle, but worth it. We left Marian at 3am in the morning, and so managed to set off all the dogs in the valley as we walked through the villages. It was a bit nervewracking actually. Quilcayhuanca was a beautiful glacial valley with a laguna right at the head. We spent most of the second day lazing about in ... read more

I have been following this dashing Spaniard from Madrid called Fernando up into the mountains day after day, thinking all the time never again, at least not on sheep´s head soup for breakfast. not at this altitude it´s just crazy. Fernando speaks spanish and it´s a welcome relief for me, I´m struggling but my spanish seems sufficient for most things i need to do. The walks we´ve been doing are amazing. Into the most remote, lush mountain villages where I think gringos are a rareity. donkeys everywhere women in traditional dress and gorgeous and grubby kids running after you with hands out asking for caramellos (which is the generic term for sweets, they don´t get caramello koalas here unfortunately but i´ve discovered this awesome chocolate with manjar blanca which is like caramel mmm). One day to ... read more

Determined to escape the desert, we travelled into the Canete valley and to the town of Lunuhana. The taxi dropped us off in Imperial, a district of Cañete, amid a swarm of market traders. Seconds later, a colectivo materialised. Colectivos are a cheap way of getting around: they consist of a man, a van and a lad who hangs out of the side door screaming the destinations at passers by. Lunahuana´was our destination, 30km up the valley, and I don't think it was possible to cover those 30km any faster. Tyres squealing, taking the racing line the whole way, the canyon walls flashing by alarmingly close at times, we clung on and exchanged nervous glances. At one point we saw dazed, bleeding passengers standing on the road, their collectivo having left the road in spectacular fashion, ... read more