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Published: July 22nd 2008
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Chan Chan
Wall with ancient carvings. I entered Peru by the same route I had left in November, using the Macara border crossing and heading to Puira. This time however I didn’t get stuck in Puira, instead I took another bus to Chiclayo and yet another bus from Chiclayo to Trujillo, which put me in Trujillo at about one in the morning. So I had a cabbie take me to the closest cheap hotel and got some rest. Now for some reason there are no buses from Trujillo to Huaraz during the day, only at night, so I had a day to kill in Trujillo. Luckily the ruins of Chan Chan and other smaller ruins of the Chimu culture are accessible close to the city. So I found a convey going the direction I needed and went to go see some more ruins. Chan Chan would have been more of a coastal culture as you can tell from the carvings of fish and seabirds in the palace of Chan Chan. It is a strange type of ruin made of compressed sand, but has somehow survived for hundreds of years. In Chan Chan I met a Peruvian/Swiss couple and we made the trek to The Huaca Esmeralda and
Chan Chan
Ruins of Chan Chan the Huaca Arco Iris. The Huacas would have been small temples, and were not nearly as impressive, however I found it funny that they were actually located in the city in some pretty random neighborhoods. After the ruins we had a walk through the Plaza de Armas and the market along with a meal. With that I said bye to my new friends and went on my way to my destination of choice for the rest of my journey, that is Huaraz, Peru.
As usual the arrival in Huaraz was nice and early, but I was lucky enough to at least have the first daylight breaking over the mountains as I walked to El Tambo. I brought with me a rather tall Danish lad that had been on the same bus as me, this would start my gringo circle for my first few days in Huaraz. Brjarke and I a checked into my old stomping grounds and I was warmly greeted by my friends from days in November when I first discovered the beauty of Huaraz. A little background on this beauty, the town itself many might say is ugly, a quickly made sprawl that is a mixture of
Trujillo
Ugliest dog in the World mountain tourism and people from all around the Cordillera that are looking for there opportunity in the capital of the province of Ancash. It is a town that has sprawling markets piling out of street corners, mountain views in every direction, no supermarket, no McDonalds, and a very Peruvian feel. I am proud to have found a place that offers me so much and is still very much off of the tarted up tourist grid, where it is more common to see the locals dressed typical than like westerners. So here I finally gave my feet some rest and hung up the backpack. This is a sad and glorious moment after 9 months on the road, 7 of which I had been very much on the go without any real rest.
So I decide my first day would be best used wandering the streets, getting my bearing once again as well as memories of rainy days in Huaraz. And due to the fact that Huaraz is basically rainy half the year I found that not too much has changed in 4 months as my wanderings found me back at the hostel in time to hide out from the rain.
Trujillo
But hes so warm. El Tambo seems barren but we find one more group of Gringos hanging out in the common areas, two Americans and a Dutch guy. Thus starts our gringo circle and we decide that having the power of a group we should make a day trek to the Laguna 69 the following day. This starts somewhat early as I plead for enough time to have my standard breakfast, that is a pitcher of surtido (blended fruit juice consisting of banana, apple and something else I think), a tamale, and two of the standard bread rolls with jam. Then it’s convey time as we cram into the typical van transport that you find here in South America. This would bring us to Yungay and the ever-fun search, that is gringos searching a taxi for a non-gringo price. After some searching we find a willing driver and are on our way up the mountain. This would prove to be interesting as our driver decided to pack his car to the brim, putting a local family in the back, effectively filling the station wagon far beyond capacity with 9 passengers along with some random gear. We check into Parque Llanganuco and are quickly taken
Huaca de Arco Iris
Carving of some crazy man eating monster or something. by the scenery of the shear mountain pass and glacier formed mountain lakes. We are dropped off at very much unmarked bend in the road and are told this is the trailhead, so we proceed. Farther on there is a small sign indicating that this is in fact the correct trail and we continue full speed ahead as the cloud formations show the standard rain for this time of year. I am pushing hard as my plan is to be helping a mountain guide in this terrain and I need to get my hiking legs back, this is always interesting at well over 4000 meters as the trail winds uphill almost hitting 5000 meters at Laguna 69. We enjoy an eerie cloudy mountain walk with virtually no one on the trail, a rainy lunch break, and finally we arrive at the Laguna. Here we have lunch break number two and enjoy the discovery of the “double banana” which at this point is a hilarious find. The hike out goes fast as we are running a bit late and don’t want to be stuck on the mountain in the rain. The last half I am at full speed hiking in the
Huaca de Arco Iris
Yes these ruins are in the city. rain, happy that my jacket is waterproof and that my pants dry fast. We reach the road and hike another good hour before finding a willing pickup that loads half of us in the cab and the rest in the back. I end up in the back and find myself standing as there is not enough room to sit with the other four locals crammed in the bed with there sacks of potatoes. This turns into a game of truck boarding as we make are way down the bumpy mountain road to Yungay. I find my friends sitting in the bed counting the kilometer markers since they are not enjoying the bumpy experience as much as I am, as they feel each jarring pothole. Once in Yungay we wait for the final convey to take us back to Huaraz, this proves to be very aggravating as many of the conveys are full, but we finally cram into a willing van and hazily make our way back.
This leads to a rather strange night as the group decides that we need to have a beer due to the fact that most of the circle is leaving the following day. I
Trujillo
Plaza de Armas reluctantly headed to El Diablo with the group minus Niels who was feeling sick. Once at the bar I find myself in several games of foosball followed by long conversation with a local guide about the opportunities of Huaraz. Somehow we all find a second wind and as the group slowly gets nice and drunk we decide to finish the night drinking at the hostel. This consists of a drawn out conversation with the bartender, buying a bottle of rum and a local “Pisco Coca” concoction that we bring to El Tambo. This would lead to every more randomness as I reminisced with Jim about the world, religion and life as funny enough we both graduated from the University of Wyoming the same semester, but had never met until here in Huaraz. Brjarke and Laura disappear as Brjarke is upset about a girl in the bar accidentally erasing a months worth of pictures because she did not know what the menus said in English. Laura also feels bad for Brjarke and is consoling him in the easiest way, attention, as Brjarke seems to have a thing for her. While all of this is happening Jim and I somehow find a
Trujillo
Isn´t it pretty at night. way to bullshit until the sun decides to start shining, which we didn’t realize until we left the bar room for the bathroom and it was light out. This was made funnier when we see Niels and he asks about our night and we tell him that it’s just ending, he had just woken up. Oh Huaraz what more craziness will you bring?
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