gringa sola in central peru

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Leaving the curiosities of Nazca behind, I headed toward the coast to a small beach town called Paracas. Paracas is famous for the neaby Isla Ballestras, also called the poor man´s Galapagos Islands. The islands have many birds and sea lions. Right now is nesting season, and I was lucky to see hundreds and hundreds of birds (don´t ask me which types I couldn´t tell you) but they were awesome and the sea lions were cute and seemed as though some of them were striking poses for the cameras!

Trying to figure out which direction to head next, instead of opting the easy route via Lima, I headed back inland to Huancayo. The road there hugs the mountainside and sitting on the left side allowed me great views, but also how close we were to the edge. I just kept breathing and saying to myself, I am not going to die on this bus tonight..I imagine they run all the buses at night so you can´t see how close to the edge you are as you keep climbing.

Huancayo does not have much to offer, but I was able to score some aweome speakers that connect to the Ipod (and they fold for travel, genius), so now I have music in my room or wherever I like.

Tired of the cold, I decided to head even further north to the jungle town of Tingo Maria. Tingo Maria is where the jungle of Peru begins. Once you leave the chaotic town, there are many beautiful things to see and do here. First, I visited some botanical gardens, then off to the caves full of birds and owls. The best time to go to the cave is in the morning, when the light is shining directly into it. But seeing as it was the first time I have even come close to a sweat in weeks, I opted to lie in, late breakfast, and swim in the pool at my hotel. When I got to the caves, I walked up and in and just sat there listening to some of the strangest noises I ever heard in my whoe life. I don´t even know how to explain but ask me when I see you, Ill be happy to recreate it for you! All I can say it was deafening and amazing and a little scary all at the same time.

The next day I took a tour to the waterfalls. You spend the day climbing the falls, sometimes with ropes and the help of your guide, sometimes not! My guide and I met up with a group of university students from Lima, a fun group who were nice enough to take my photos with my camera. If you ever get the chance to scale some waterfalls, I highly recommend it, it is so much fun and also reminded me why my nickname id monkey!! Boy do I love to climb!

The past week has been a total mix of emotions for me. Frustrated at my limited Spanish, but feeling awesome when I have an entire conversation totally understood. Being stared like a freak curiosty, but this is what you get when you go to non-touristy places! So I decided to stop being so self-conscious and just get to it. It can be scary to travel alone, especially with so many men trying to pick you up. But in reality, they are just like all the others, how is it that they are taught to act this way when it clearly doesn´t work?

Anyway, Tingo Maria is in an area which is hard to get to other places. I had a couple of options. I could go further east into the jungle town of Pulcallpa (the road ends here!) you must fly or take a boat to Iquitos. The boat seems great, but not a safe option for sola mia! Option two, 24 hour bus to nothern jungle territory (hell no) and besides they are having heavy rains and flooding as we saw on TV this morning.

So option 3, double back a bit south and head west for the coast. Back to the beach it is!! The next couple of days I will be taking far too many buses just to get from one town to another (they are clearly connected on the map!!) but the roads are bad, and there are no buses all the way through to where I want to go.

Destination is Huaraz, entry to the famous Cordilla mountain area and many adventure opportunities. Can´t wait!!

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