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Published: December 15th 2007
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Mancora
Nothing to complain about, a beautiful little tourist beach town Peru so far has been an adventure to say the least. Getting into Peru from Ecuador ended up being an easy boarder cross and quite humorous looking back. We caught a bus that was 'direct' but before we got to the boarder the three of us had to get off the bus and recieve our exit stamps. Lucky for us a bus personale came with us, because after getting our stamps we turned around and the bus (with our backpacks) had driven away. The bus personale, wearing a bullet proof vest, ushered us into a taxi, we drove for about 10 minutes until we found the bus and the bus driver in a Peruvian town eating dinner. Another five minutes down the road we had to climb off the bus and recieve our entrance stamps, this time making sure someone accompianed us in case the bus took off again ... at times like that it's good to be three girls who can play dumb and have someone walk you through the steps.
Unfortunatly we had to spend a night in Tumbes, a very sketchy town where according to the bus driver we were certain to be mugged unless we went
Reeds
The reed boats, fun to go out in the water on but really really cold with his tut tut driving friend, we took his word for it and the driver even pĂcked us up the next morning to catch a bus to Mancora. After Montanita, the surf town of Mancora was overly touristy, dirty and not as appealing, yet still had a beautiful beach and kite boarders to keep us entertained. Next we headed to Huanchaco, another town claiming to be a surf town but the current was strong and water cold so we opted for a fishing boat adventure instead. Huanchaco is a fishing village famous for fishing boats made of reeds called caballitos. The reed boats were really cool, very primitave and simple compared to large fishing rigs making the town beautiful despite all the garbage.
Huaraz was the next stop. On the way to Huaraz our bus took us to Chimbote - Chimbote is the smelliest town in the world and I will swear to that for life. It was a large fishing port that smelled of rotting fish and the occasional wiff of pooh, if you are ever in Peru SKIP Chimbote or the smell becomes lodged up your nose and you feel sick for hours after. The bus up
Santa Cruz
The begining of the Santa Cruz hike in Huaraz, beautiful glacier lakes and mountains to Huaraz took forever, but had beautiful scenery and exciting events. Going from the coast into desert and then into dry mountains with cactus vegetation was beautiful. At one point on the trip the bus stopped for a bathroom break so as all the male passengers just choose any old spot to pee all the female passengers run up to a brick wall to pop a squat and pee in a hole, all expect the one with a baby. As we scramble back on the bus the mother hands me her baby so she can take a bathroom run as well but after she is off the bus the driver starts to take off. Thank goodness most of the other passengers knew she was off the bus and shouted at the driver to stop because I didn't want a baby for our Santa Cruz hike.
Sitting at over 3000 meters, Huaraz was a very large and busy city in a valley, on one side the cordillera negra protecting the snow capped cordillera blanca from the desert heat. After walking around the busy city for a day we booked our Santa Cruz hike, a four day hike through the Parque
Siempry Spies
The glacier behind us is our next day destination Nacional Huascaran. The hike was really beautiful, like hiking through the rocky mountains except that instead of being worried about bears and cougars you are watching the donkeys, cows and horses graze around open fields. We passed the Punta Union at 4700 meters, and although the hike took us to a high altitude it could have easily been cut down from a four day hike to a two or three days - if you are doing the Santa Cruz get a map and go on your own or take a three day option.
Highlights of the Santa Cruz include the Yungay market on the way. We were lucky to catch it on a sunday but it was the best market yet, almost everyone was dressed traditionally, wearing the beautiful Peruvian hats and more colors then I have seen yet. The glaciers were also beautiful, especailly when seen with the lakes. As for food, the soups were great, we even had egg soup that tasted amazing ... somehow even the porridge in the morning that was 100% liqud tasted great. During the day we had great sunny weather, it only snowed once, hailed once and rained at night ... but
4700m
Freezing, but happy to be at the top it was freezing! So much for a december away from the cold!!
Our adventures are taking us south from Huaraz, back to the coast and eventually to Cusco for Christmas!!!
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