Advertisement
Published: October 2nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
CAÑON DEL PATO
View of the canyon To leave Huaraz I decided that I loved buses so much that I would take the route to the coast that was longer, bumpier and more uncomfortable. I wanted to drive through the Cañon Del Pato...the road weaves around the base of the cañon and at the closest point the walls are only 15m apart. To do this trip I had to go on a chicken bus, a term used for the local buses where anything from chickens, dogs, food stock and anything else can be put on the bus. To start with I boarded a bus and I had touble fitting behind the seat in front or getting my arse to fit in the seat....I thought that I had been eating a lot of sweets but didn´t think that my behind had managed to move to the seat next to me. I tried to move around but found that what ever way that I sat I still couldn´t fit my legs in without having them jammed against the seat in front. To make matters worse I then had some guy come and sit next to me so it was rather cosy and I was convinced that he had been out
CAÑON DEL PATO
At the start of the ride....a lovely old man getting his bags all night drinking as he stunk. Within 5 minutes of leaving Huaraz I decided that I couldn´t stand the smell of this guy or sitting that close to him so I moved to the seat behind me which I could stretch out in a little more successfully. After an hour or so we stopped at a small town and changed onto a big more spacious bus for the rest of the journey which I was glad to do as I was not sure I would cope the whole way to the coast in the smaller bus. Soon we entered the cañon and I was like a little kid in the back of the car......with the window opened and my head stuck out so I could get a better view with my face in the wind. Only problem was that the road wound around the bottom of the cañon and in places the road went through tunnels cut into the side of the cañon wall.....so it was necessary to keep my eyes open to pull my head in when entering one of these. The cañon was amazing and I was happy that I had chosen this way to come as I
CAÑON DEL PATO
Little girl hanging out of the window was getting to see yet another side of Peru. The walls of the cañon were high and steep and at times they came very close together. Many waterfalls also plunged down the side of the cañon walls and gave some greenery to the mostly arid environment. There was not much space between the bus and the side of the road or the side of the cliff, so again it was a little bit of a scary ride but at least time we didn´t have far to fall. We passed through many small towns and I noticed a change in the people and the lifestyle here.....there was not many people dressed in traditional clothes...they had changed them for modern clothes that were made for the hot weather. A lot of bad fashion and many women squashing themselves into jeans and tops that were too small for them. Still when ever we stopped the bus filled with people wanting to sell us everything from fruit, drinks and all other sort of food. Not only did I enjoy the countryside but I enjoyed being off the beaten track and being on a bus full of locals, I was the only foreigner other than
CAÑON DEL PATO
A man asleep next to me...this man had the most amazingly healthy looking skin one other gringo. After many hours bumping along the dusty road I was ready to arrive at Chimbote as my bum was numb and I also needed to go to the toilet. As usual the bus was late so we were on there for more hours than expected and by this stage the bus was completely full, including people standing up. On arrival in Chimbote we had to make many stops along the way to drop people off in town....there is one terminal here where the bus arrives but you can ask to be dropped anywhere on the road. This is good if you are a local but if you are like me then it means that it takes so much longer to get to the bus station. At one stop many people got off and as I looked out the window I realised that the guy working on the bus was actually pulling animals out of the bottom of the bus.....alive ones! Yes 4 goats and one sheep where travelling in the back compartment of the bus and as they were brought out they had all their legs tied together and were understandably not happy.....not a good sight to
CAÑON DEL PATO
The view as we enter the canyon see. Finally we made it to the bus station and thankfully there was a bus straight out of there to the next town of Trujillo as Chimbote was not the nicest place on the planet.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0322s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb