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Published: November 11th 2007
Lima
Miraflores cliffsI can´t describe the excitement that we both felt on our way to Barranco from Lima airport. It had been THREE weeks since we´d seen snazzy lights, proper buildings and BILLBOARDS! Although we enjoyed Ecuador more than we could ever have imagined, it can´t be denied that we felt a huge wave of relief as we sped by fancy looking restaurants, bright lights and trendy apartment blocks. Welcome back to civilisation!
We stayed in a cute hostel with very friendly owners in Barranco, which boasted a fantastic cliff top location above a pristine beach, in one of the poshest parts of Lima. After being warned by so many people to avoid Lima at all costs, I was surprised at how beautiful it was. I think that it is one of the most spectacular cities I have ever visited. It is certainly up there with Capetown. On our first day in Lima, we strolled over to Miraflores, which is a 30 minute walk along the edge of a cliff, affording stunning views of the sea, beach and (our personal favourite) gorgeous apartments! We spent half the day ogling at super chic apartments, and toying with the idea of giving up on
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Huge jug of beer the round the world trip and making a down payment on a pent house. Seriously, they were so cool. They are separated from the edge of the cliffs by immaculately kept gardens. Vomit inducingly nice really.
We (I) was starting to run out of cosmetics and other nice stuff so we (I) decided that we should make a bee line for the posh department stores. We were both in our element as I perused the make up section and Mark spent some time in the electronics department. Next on the shopping list was some "developed world confectionary", i.e. Mars bars and Snickers. We had attempted to buy some in Ecuador but laughed in a shopkeeper's face when she tried to charge us $1.50 per bar! We searched so many street stalls in Miraflores and we eventually had to settle for 90 cent per bar. We bought 10. We then made our way down to Larcomar which is THE place to be seen in Miraflores. We had lunch overlooking the ocean and watching the paragliders sail by. Larcomar is a really trendy shopping centre which is built into the cliffs of Miraflores. That night we decided to head out on
the town, since it was Halloween, which is huge here! We spent the night at a salsa club in Barranco and since Barranco is so safe, we were actually able to walk home, a really nice feeling.
The next day we decided it was high time we had a "day o´fun". And what a day o fun it was! We began the day by paragliding off the cliffs of Miraflores. This was followed by a leisurely lunch and a stroll around the tourist trap "Inca markets", where I bought a bag. It appears that we have yet to master the art of haggling. We just can't seem to get the "walk away if you don´t get the right price" move quite right. We do walk away, but the problem is that we come back. I hear that Victoria McMullan is the girl to have around when haggling... We need some tips! We also stocked up on some pain killers to help with the altitude over the next few weeks. We then headed back to Larcomar for a well deserved coffee break in Starbucks, where we watched the sun set over the Pacific.
But just because the sun had
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Walking along the cliffs from Barranco to Miraflores set, didn´t mean the day o´fun was over! oh no. We went "cosmic bowling" in Larcomar and then headed for a spot of gambling. Gregory McGovern is in big trouble when he arrives in Chile. Having spent some time in Lima last summer, he highly recommeneded that we visit "Lucky 7s Casino". In his own words, "it´s impossible to lose"!. Three hours later we were still at the roulette table, and suddenly all our well-earned chips were callously recouped by the dealer. We couldn´t be too disappointed though, as they had plied us with free booze all night. We even received a few sly back handers from one of the girls working the roulette table. We always seemed to win when Carmen was around... All was not lost though, we ended the day on a high with a fantastic mexican dinner.
We headed off on an eight hour bus journey to Huaraz (3,500m), in the Cordillera Blanca, the next morning. I certainly wasn´t feeling in the mood for such a mammoth journey after those Lucky 7´s beers. But we were so relieved to not be on another chicken bus, (we had way too many of those in Ecuador). It
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Larcomar was a relief no to have touts shouting "A Quito, A Quito, A Quito, A Quito, A Quito, A Quito" in our faces. The bus journey was truly spectacular. After we left Lima, we drove along the coast through desert for about 3 hours. We then turned inland and began winding our way up through Andean mountain passes steadily gaining altitude. We watched a beautiful sunset from our bus seats over the mountains and snow capped peaks. When we arrived in Huaraz it was dark and we jumped in a taxi to bring us even further up the mountains to a lodge that we had booked for 4 nights. The lodge is at 3,700m and in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lots of high snow capped peaks. They have no electricity, (apart from a generator that they switch on for about an hour every evening), so when we arrived we could barely see the lodge! The owner met us with a candle and guided us into the main house where we enjoyed a lovely stirfry. We were starving! Our room was lovely, with a huge window overlooking the valleys and mountains and a huge bed with a luxurious goose
Miraflores
Mark at Larcomar down duvet. We were exhausted and happily collapsed into bed, excited at the prospect of a wonderful sleep with the crinkling sound of the duvet. However, sleeping for the first time at 3,700m is not easy, no matter how tired you are! The lethal cocktail of altitude and malaria pills is not conducive to restful sleep! It was the longest night of all time, I thought the morning would never come. I had fitful sleep, and Mark was waking up gasping for air all night and we both had hypoxia induced crazy dreams.
We spent the next day acclimatising. The water at the lodge was fresh from the mountains springs so we added some iodine to purify it just in case. Of course, we didn't realise what a messy job this entailed and I ended up spilling iodine all over my hands. Mark read the warnings on the bottle where it said that if spilled, iodine will stain until the skin wears away so I was frantically trying to exfoliate the huge red stains off my fingers and hands. I had visions of myself with permanently bright red stained hands! Luckily, I managed to vigorously scrub it off, my
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The Marriot in Miraflores fingers must be half the size they used to be from all that scrubbing.
We decided to take a walk up to a Lake in the mountains, Laguna Churup which was meant to be a 4-6 hike there and back. The staff at the lodge prepared a packed lunch for us and off we went. Every half an hour or so we would pass by local women sitting in the long grass while their animals grazed. They dress in kaleidoscopic colours with huge knee length skirts, thick woolen tights, fedoras, and beautifully designed ponchos and capes. We were pretty confident that we would make steady progress after our experiences of much higher altitude climbing in Ecuador. So, we were shocked and surprised to be suffering so early on in the walk. After about 2 hours, the storm clouds came rolling in and the deafening thunder began so we turned back and watched the storm from the comfort of our room. There was a storm every day at 3pm, it was really cool. The thunder was so loud, it felt like the room was shaking and we even saw fork lightning striking the peak of a 6,000m+ mountain. Incredible.
There were only two other guests staying at the lodge, a recently married young couple from the States, who are teaching in Lima for a year. Really nice people. In the evenings, we would sit around the table and eat dinner by candlelight. The food was excellent! To get back to our room after dinner we needed either a torch or a candle. Even our showers were had by candlelight. I really loved it. The next day we were meant to go horseriding but that plan fell through so we just chilled out at the lodge for the day, eating, sleeping and playing with the seven resident puppies, who were adorable- Mark had a serious soft spot for them. The weather was always great in the mornings until about 2pm so Mark got to work on his tan! He also did some mountain biking- while the thunder was roaring through the sky. We topped off the day by chilling out in the sauna.
On our last day, we decided to tackle Mount Churup again and hike to the Lagoon. We set out earlier this time and made good progress for 2-3 hours up very steep and rocky terrain. It
Lima
Miraflores was probably one of the toughest things I have ever done. As we gained altitude, (we estimated that we reached 4,200m), our breathing became even more strained and we were in agony. But we were determined and so we persisted. The slopes became steeper and we found ourselves climbing up sheer rock faces, the steep gradient was unrelenting. But the views urged us on. We were soooo close to immense, majestic peaks all over 6,000m. Our photos could never do the views justice. It got to the stage where we would have to stop looking at a small rock in front of us, psyching ourselves up for 10 seconds, willing our legs to move, before we could move forward. It really was agonising, but if the truth be told, I bloody love it. There is no better feeling than reaching a fixed point that you aim for and looking down at how far you've come. It's amazing how you feel you can't go on anymore early on in the trek and a couple of hours later you find yourself not only still going, but scaling even tougher and steeper terrain. After 4 hours we were totally drained of energy so
Lima
Parc del Amor we sat down and ate our lunch. This made us feel stronger so we pushed on. But we had no idea how much further we had to go to reach the top, and the sky was darkening as the daily storm brewed. We lost the will to continue and made the wise decision to turn back. As myself, Mark and Gregory's mountain climbing idol, Russel Brice would say, "It takes as many guts to turn back as it does to go to the top". We were so glad we turned back when we did, as it the descent was almost as tricky as the ascent and it took us longer than we had thought it would. Needless to say, we slept soundly for the rest of the day.
One of the guys who worked at the lodge made an interesting observation on our last night. He said that he can always pick out guests who are travelling for long extended periods of time and those who are just away for a few weeks. Long- term travellers, like us, are more laid back and make themselves feel at home when they arrive at the lodge, or any other place they
Lima
Parc del Amor, Miraflores stay. They get really excited about things like "make your own pizza night" (which was our dinner on our last night in Huaraz), as it means we can make a contribution to our dinner, rather than eating out in yet another restaurant. And it's so true. We love things like that these days. Our favourite places to stay are homely hostels, hotels, or lodges and we like to chill out there and make it our own. It was a nice observation to hear!
We left Huaraz the following morning and headed back to Lima. It was hard to leave, as we had had such an amazing time there. It is such a beautiful and awe inspiring part of the world. But we have much more to look forward to. That night we went for a great Italian dinner and then went to cash-in a free drink voucher which we found in a guidebook, at a less than salubrious nightspot. When we saw the bartender crack the raw egg into the cocktail shaker, as an ingredient of our Pisco Sour, we decided there and then that we would not be drinking said beverage. Down the ladies toilet and over the
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Parc del Amor, Miraflores balcony and onto the square below they went! I might add that Mark came out with the best line of the trip so far..."Kate, I miss your mother". He is obviously missing her insistence on taking regular taxis and taking it easy. In Mum's words, "Get a taaaaxi, we'll put the MONEY in your account TOMORROW..."....!
Next stop, Huacachina in the desert, south of Lima. Stay tuned folks...
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MichaelM.
non-member comment
Awesome endurance
Well fair dues to you both for mixing endurance with enjoyment. Iloved your comments re the iodine make up. Sure you could never be ever accused of nicking money again with those red fingers. And don't worry Mark we'll make sure that comment about missing the m-in-l won't be forgotten. Will you be fit at all to do your next blog?