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Published: March 31st 2007
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Huaraz
A farmers path up into the impressive mountains in Huaraz. I would shortly be caught in freezing rain with only a wool jumper as protection. So after having trouble leaving Ecuador, we arrived in our first Peruvian town, Chiclayo. This is certainly not a regular tourist stop but there were supposed to be some good Incan ruins just out of the city and it was another 6 hours on a bus to the next town, we decided to stay. We had been warned by Andy, Faheem and Gordy that the sites and museums in Peru weren’t that great, but as you know Dan and I like to check things out for ourselves. So we made a day trip out to what was once an important Incan city of pyramids and temples, and if you had a very good imagination I’m sure you could have pictured it amongst the dirt hills that now exist. This would be our last Incan ruin until Machu Picchu, should have listened to the boys. We did discover, in a dingy pub which played Downunder twice in a row, that Peruvians like to share their beers with you, preferably out of the dirtiest glass they can find. Thankfully after not catching any diseases Dan and I left Chiclayo for a little beach town just out of Trujillo, where there was an
Freezing rain
It was closing in quickly but I still got a view of the snow caps. awesome left hand wave breaking and no-one on it. I think any surfers would cry if we showed them footage of it and told them we didn’t know how to surf, but hey. After that was a much too short stop in the mountains of Huaraz, as you can see 1 night here was not enough to appreciate the beauty of this place. The bus ride from Huaraz to Lima should be a tour in its own right. After starting in snow capped mountains we passed through green rolling hills, desert valleys with oasis like rivers and then along the coastline with a view of Lima. We had a couple of nights in an Irish run hostel, picked because it was going to be St Pat’s day. This day the Irish lost the 6 nations rugby but beat Pakistan at the cricket world cup, a much more important event. Although not really getting to look around a lot we liked Lima but we had to get to Huancayo to begin our week long intensive Spanish course. Huancayo is definitely off the beaten track, partly what makes it a good place to learn Spanish and get a feel for Peruvian culture.
Clear
Dan managed to get up early enough to get some great shots from our hostel. After a few days I decided I was actually becoming more confused and frustrated with the language but was beginning to be able to speak a bit more with my host family. Eating the local cuisine and having home cooked meals was great except that for one day I decided to supplement the relatively small lunches that I got with a bite to eat in the town. When I got home my "mum" had prepared a local specialty called Pachamanca. She brought me out a plate with half a big chicken, three potatoes and a fistfull of beans on it. Not wanting to be impolite, and it was delicious, I managed to eat most of it and then roll myself to my room where I staved of vomiting for the next hour or two. I think Dan and I both left a little disappointed with our progress but with a lot of material to practice and thankful for the home stay.
Our next stop was one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world, Machu Picchu. We arrived into Cusco, the launching pad to the ancient Incan city and immediately liked what we saw. We found out that there
Road to Lima 1
Leaving Huaraz and entering the rolling landscapes heading toward the coast. was an Indian restaurant playing the cricket world cup live and after a three hour search managed to find it. So after booking a trek to Machu Picchu we spent a couple of days watching cricket in the restaurant with Poms and South Africans having all-you-can-eat Indian lunches, perfect. We met an English brother and sister, Sion and Amata, who had decided to accompany Dan and I on our trek, when will people learn. So reluctantly we pulled ourselves away from the cricket and began our 4 day journey with another 2 guys, Jakob and Julian. Our first stage would be a 4 hour down hill mountain bike ride that we completed in 2 hours without our guide who sent us off on our own after he discovered his bike was broken. The second day was a really tough hike up and down the mountains but with beautiful scenery and an amazing hot spring at the end of the day to keep us going. We made it to a little town just before the skies opened and rain bucketed down. Amata had managed to keep up with the boys the whole time and fend off the not-to-subtle advances of our
Road to Lima 2
The river provided some greenery in what had become a mountainous desert. Peruvian guide, who didn't really have to do a whole lot of guiding, she was happy he would not be accompanying us to the ruins. On our last night we bumped into an American girl I had met in the hostel and I introduced her to the group, this would prove to be a very valuable meeting. The final ascent at 5.30am was easily the toughest thing Dan and I had done for awhile and we were absolutely spent by the time we reached the top. Fortunately after a few days of rain we had an absolutely spectacular day and despite being ill Sion managed to cover the entire site, more than I can say for the rest of us. We caught the train back to Cusco that night and Dan showed where his true stamina lays by hitting the town while the rest of us went to bed at about 10. The next night, our last in South America, we went out with Sion and Amata despite Dan and I having a flight at 8.20. We got home some time after 4, Dan with a busted coccyx after attempting to leap frog Amata and both slept through our alarms.
What?
A proud statement found all over the city of Huancayo. Thankfully Dan had arranged with the American girl that we would all share a cab, as we were on the same flight and at 7.20 she managed to get 2 confused and still drunk Aussies out of bed and to the airport with about 20 minutes to spare. After our fourth visit to the Lima airport we were on our way to Mexico. No passport dramas this time.
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