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Published: August 20th 2008
First day hike from Huarez
Hiking through the fields to Ichic WillkawainHello friends and family,
We left Cajamarca during the day and headed to the coast. One thing about these roads in Peru, they all follow a river down the mountain valleys. The coast was overcast and quite dismal, especially after being around some impressive mountain ranges and awesome vistas.
We stopped only for a moment in Trujillo, then caught another bus to Chimbote. From Chimbote (where we stayed one night), we would be heading up back into the mountains to Huarez. Chimbote was quite the nondescript town. Spent an uneventful night there with a decent meal, then headed to the bus station again. Robin & I were still traveling with Tammy and Terry of Secret o´Life fame. The ride up into the Cordillera Blanca mountain range was spectacular. It´s somewhat funny now, since we have been traversing the mountains and coastal area, that it´s always pretty spectacular. The geology of the region is as impressive as Utah´s southern loop of geologic wonders. Lots of minerals in these them hills, lots of colors.
Lots of dams and electricity being generated with all the water coming down from the mountains. Lots of agriculture along the river area. One thing about
Cordillera Blanca
Beautiful backdrop for our hiking Peru is that it is a MUCH drier climate than Ecuador. Ecuador was very green all the time. Here, it is around 10,000 ft, but very, very dry. My lips are always cracked.
When we finally arrived in Huarez, we were ready to stop traveling for a few days. It was quite a neat little town, geared to tourist. Good food, and good accomodations. People were nice. There were a lot of Europeans there. It is a big trekking mecca for them. The mountains and glaciers here are right up there in height, over 20,000 ft.
The air is thin...very...no more headaches from the altitude, but every day we had to climb 4 flights of stairs to our room, and you would think that after a few days my breathing would somewhat we normal...noooo
We took some day hikes. The first was just around town to a trout hatchery. Pretty basic, but had some huge rainbow trout swimming there. They do stock some lakes, but not the high andean lakes. We have eaten trout here, and it is yummy.
The next day we decided to hike to these ruins called Ichi Willkawain. It seemed like a
Lunch stop
Robin, me and Terry good day hike. We packed water, fruit and food for sandwiches. Needless to say, it was an exhausting 3 hour trek. We would have to stop to catch our breath many times. I even chewed some cocoa leaves, but didn´t help me at all. Maybe I didn´t chew enough. Very novice at that sort of activity.
We finally reached our destination after crossing through many, many fields, and asking directions from all the locals. You can drive to the ruins, but we wanted to walk.
The ruins were mainly tombs for the wealthy class of natives of the area. There were two sets of these tomb areas, so after the first one (the one I videotaped) we walked with a couple little kids (as guides) who led us to the larger tomb area. These little kids looked about 5 years old (height wise), but they were 9 years old. Very, very small people live in the country. They were cute and talkative. Robin gave them a little money for guiding us, and they quickly bought some chips. When we were looking a little museum, one of the kids walked in with his chips, and Robin teased him about
The funeral tombs
Many are still in quite great shape for 500 years old
Mostly for the rich people in the area. ´´oh, those are for me?´´ The little kids didn´t quite get the joke, he kinda looked blank and stopped eating his chips. We explained it was a joke, ¨bromo¨, and he kinda smiled and slipped out of the museum without a backwards glance....crazy gringos..
When we got back to the hotel, I was busted! The next day Tammy and Terry were going to leave for Lima and continue their trip to Boliva. Robin and I decided to do this hike up to this Laguna Churup. It sit´s by a glacier about 15,000ft plus.
First we got a ride part of the way out of town, then were dropped off. We hiked through these fields for about 2 hours gradually climbing the foothills towards our mountain. It is supposed to only take 1 hour, but it took us 2. The other part of the trek was supposed to take about 3 hours, that meant a lot more than 3 for us gringos. I was a little worried about doing the second part of this trek. We bought tickets to enter the national park area and started to climb. I made it up to the first hump (no switchbacks here...just
View from our ¨penthouse´¨
Fourth floor room was not easy accessing, but quite the view. straight up with lots of rocks, big and small). I sat down and told Robin I will wait for him there as I was totally exhausted with the altitude. I sat for about 30 minutes and ate a little bit. I saw Robin climb, stop, rest, climb, stop, rest, etc. I have been hiking with Robin to know that he will continue until he gets there. That means I could be sitting here for hours (no book , no IPOD). So I got myself up and began the hike again. I finally caught up with Robin, and we almost made it to the lake. I was REALLY exhausted by then. My body is literally screaming at me to stop. I sat down and made us some sandwiches. We saw some hikers (or trekkers) pass us by and some on their way down. We only had a rock face to negotiate to reach the lake, but we were done!
We ate lunch, then began to head back down, as we knew we had still hours to go before we could reach a collectivo (van) to carry us back to town. Going down was almost as hard as there were so
Our long, long day hike
Black and white, unintentional, showed the path we started on. many rocks, you had to be very careful and not slide down the hill. It was not easy.
We reached the town in about 2 hours or less, and hit it back to town and the inviting bed. AHHH! My lungs, legs, and feet were sore dogs to say the least.
The next day, Robin had decided to head to another smaller town called Chiquia´n. It was in another mountain range called the Waywash mt.s.
Another impressive mountain range with lots of snow and serious trekkers going there for 4 to 12 days treks. We were just going to rest and do some day hikes. The town was really, really nondescript. When I write that a town is nondescript it is ususally because there is nothing there that makes it stand out. Pretty basic accomodations, a few resturants, but no ¨town¨entertainment for a tourist. I really appreciate being a tourist and life I have lived in the states. The places I have felt more comfortable at have had more of a cosmopolitan feel about them, more international you could say.
Anyhow, we stayed in a nice hotel called El Nogales. The town itself had nothing except some small
The Rock Wall
This is the wall that stopped us from going further up the mountain to the glacier lake. stores, a few resturants, a couple internet rooms, and that was it....or so we thought...
We took our hikes, not really many. One was to a mirador (a lookout point, ususally with a cross on it)that has a good vista of the town. The other walk we took was along a road to a waterfall, that was a nice vista and good reason for a walk.
On the day we headed to the waterfall, we walked by a door that said, welcome to San Miguel, and there was a young man standing in the doorway, so I said, Buenas Dias, and had continued walking past. Robin stopped and noticed there was woodwork inside. So we spoke to the young man and entered the building. We were simply astounded at the quality of woodwork there. It was a merchant, carpenter workshop called Don Bosco. They ship all their funiture to Italy. It started as a family affair, but now there were quite a few young men in the workshop. Robin and I were duly impressed. Took some photos. When we return to Lima, may try to get a cataloge of their work. Anyhow, that was a surprise.
Then
Garden area of Hotel
Visiting Chiquia´n, stayed at the Hostel El Nogales. They had a wonderful garden courtyard. the next day before we left, I had read about a women´s cooperative that made sweaters, coats, etc. out of Alpaca. I went there in the morning before th bus left, and it was another wonderful experience. All the women were there either working on the looms, coloring the wool, are spinning it into threads. They have been in operation for 30 years and all their goods are shipped to Germany! Robin and I bought ourselves something. I bought an alpaca jacket, that is so warm and soft. Robin bought himself a vest. Good prices for quality. I was proud to help these woman improve their lifestyles. I hadn´t brought my camera so I didn´t get any photos of it, sorry.
The next day we headed out of the mountains again towards Lima. Lima is the capital of Peru and as such is a huge metropolis. There are safe areas for tourists and other areas you shouldn´t visit. We stayed in the Miraflores District. The hostel was just OK. We hate staying a night then having to move, so we just changed rooms a few nights, until we got one we wanted.
We had tickets to take a
Day hike in Chiquia´n
Sharing the walk with local women and their cows. tourist train from Lima back up into the mountains to a town called Huancayo, so we had to hang in Lima a few days. I tried to get my IPOD fixed with a new battery, but the Apple store was brand new and didn´t do that kind of repairs (if any). Went and saw the new Batman movie...we like it. We went to visit the Peruano Yacht Club in the Callao district. We were impressed with the service and the prices, so we may come during the next hurricane season, not definitive yet. The last day we headed to the downtown colonial district of Lima. Saw the changing of the guards at the Presidential Palace, went to a couple cathedrals, saw the catacombs of Iglesia San Francisco (iglesia means church). We also toured the museum of the inquisition. Then we were done with Lima. Found a starbucks there and were thinking of you, Chelsea, and those starbuck days pre-Sierra....
The train ride to Huancayo was really a treat. The seats reclined, had plenty of leg and shoulder room, big windows, on the side and above, and controlled temperature. There was a bar car and an open observation car that
Mirador in Chiquia´n
Town nestled in the hillsides was really cool.
We traveled through various ecological environs. It is called the ¨highest train in the world¨ It crosses the highest bridge in the world at 10,827 ft. It is the highest passenger train in the world reaching a peak of 15,881 ft. They had a nurse aboard checking on young and old and the servers were passing out Mate tea as needed (Mate tea is made from cocoa leaves, supposed to help with altitude sickness). We were given a breakfast and lunch, which I was unaware of. Also coffee, tea or water. We got a free pisco sour from the bar car (more about that later). Here are some stats: It´s a 209 mile journey, going through 69 tunnels, 58 bridges, 6 switchbacks (which are really zig zags that the trains will go backwards, then switch to a track taking it up the hill higher) It was built by Henry Meiggs between 1870 and 1908. It was based on the train service in the Himalayas in India.
Took quite a few photos, and some video. About mid-day, I headed back to the observation car and it was pretty packed with people. Robin finally joined me and
Hard workers
Saw this many times... thrashing the wheat- we had our ¨free¨pisco sour. They were dancing back there with the employees and the tourists. It was a regular party there. When we would go through these little towns, all the kids would wave at us, and we would wave back. Then....I had another pisco sour, and then one more...yep, you guessed it, I felt muy fino (very fine). At this time we were crossing our highest peak. So in addition to too much liquor and high altitude, my head started to pulse. I took a few cups of Mate tea, but no help for the wicked, as they say. I suffered for a while.
The party winded down in the afternoon. I went back to the observation car after lunch, and it was pretty empty, and the fresh air felt good on my face. It was nice to be able to walk around (12 hour trip), and not have to worry about being in a bus on a narrow dirt road and coming around a curve and meeting another bus or truck. It was really relaxing, especially after my headache went away.
We reached Huancayo that evening. On the way up on the train I suddenly
Waywash mt. range
Another beautiful backdrop to our time in Chiquia´n. realized that all these tourists probably have reservations at a hotel in Huancayo, and we didn´t. We got our luggage pretty quickly and caught a taxi and went to a hostel recommended in our travel book. When we got there, the lady said she didn´t have any rooms, all reserved.. ugg! But... she did have one room with a double bed but no private bath (meaning we would have to share). We took it. 30 min. after we arrived a whole bus load of tourists arrived at the hotel with reservations. I felt lucky. We only stayed in Huancayo for 1 day and 2 nights, and the town was kinda a dud. We really didn´t want to take a tour to some partial ruins, as we had seem Kuelap (which was awesome) and were planning on a couple more big ruins to visit (Machu Pichu being one).
We headed our the day after arriving on another 2nd class bus to Anacucho (about 9,000 ft). We like this place. The bus ride was not too good though. Another dirt road with not much place to pass on, and the bus driver was definitely the speediest we have had so far.
Nice end to our walk
Waterfalls outside of Chiquia´n. We saw many, many waterfalls in our Ecuador, Peru travels. Did not enjoy it at all. We have another stretch to do on the way to Cuzco, and am hoping for a more mellow driver.
There is a big artesian influence around here, and the artists are outstanding. I took some photos and videos of their artwork, and it will be on the next blog.
Take care to all our loved ones, keep a smile on you lips and find some laughter each day in your life, love, Jean & Robin
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