Huanchaco to Huaraz, sickness in between


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South America » Peru
November 13th 2007
Published: November 13th 2007
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Current Location: Huaraz
The last few days have been to say the least absolutly miserable. After leaving Huanchaco beach I headed into Trujillo with a couple of guys from Sweden? Ireland? Cant remember exactly where. The beach had left us all sunburned, and had somehow filled my backpack with about a pound of sand, weird considering it had never left the safety of the hostel. Huanchaco was great, but I was ready to hit up the big city for a comfortable bed and a hot shower.
Out innitial plan was to have a fun night out on the town before Nels and Ian split off the next day to head North and I continued on South to the port of Chimbote and then on to the Andean city of Huaraz. Unfortunatly before any of these plans could be put into action I took it into my mind to try a sausage roll from a local bakery just across the street from my hostal. I should have known it was a bad idea. The sausage was a strange redish, brown color, and it looked like it had been sitting in the window for perhaps a few days.
Four hours later my head was pounding, my stomache was cursing my decision, and my trips to ¨el bano¨ were becoming more and more frequent. I reluctantly told the guys that I wasnt going to make it out that night and spent the next eight hours curled up on my bed trying to fall asleep. I ended up staying an extra night in Trujillo, before feeling well enough to make the three hour bus ride to Chimbote.
I was feeling fairly good, and the site of the massive harbor (just behind my hostal), filled with hundreds of fishing boats made a great backdrop for a few hours of reading. I could have stayed a few days longer in Chimbote, but the food was at best only marginal, (I was expecting fresh fish and shrimp in every restaurant), and for most of the day the power was turned off to the entire city. Maybe to save money? I didnt find out.
When I got on the bus bound for Huaraz I was a little nervous. First off, during the night my head had started to hurt again, mainly because of the lumpy mass of rocks they had given me as a pillow. And because the bus I was going in was less than safe looking. Small, hot, noisy, with bars on the windows and cracks spiderwebbing across the entire windshield. We left Chimbote a little after 11:30AM and didnt get to Huaraz until 7:45PM. The distance we covered was no more than a hundred miles but it was mostly over bumpy dirt roads, through an amazing landscape of desert mountains, that often times looked like they belonged on Mars rather than Peru. But did I care about any of this, no I didnt. I was to busy trying to ignore the pain that was shooting through my head everytime we hit a bump in the road. I was in agony. It may have been the single most unenjoyable bus ride of my life.
But I made it. My head feels better this morning, and tomorrow I will hopefully be able to find a place that can help me organize a two or three day trek to some cool mountain lakes and glaciers.

I dont have my camera with me right now but tommorow I will put up some pictures


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