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Published: June 16th 2006
Hello all!!! Actually writing from the lovely beaches of Costa Rica 😊 - I managed to find a fabulous hostel in San Jose with free fast internet connection, so I have downloaded heaps of photos for you (hence the Huayhuash photos... see also PERU! and Choro Trail... entry for new photos)!
TRUJILLO
Well, from Huayhuash and Huaraz, I headed for some much needed relaxation to the beach! First I stopped at Trujillo - about 10hrs bus ride - where I found a lovely HI hostel, thanks to the Footprints guide of some Israelis I met while looking for a place to stay at 6am when I arrived! The owner was lovely and invited me for a coffee and breakfast when I arrived. Then I took a shower - swearing that next time I would pay extra for hot water! - and took advantage of the wash basin and line to catch up on my washing. I sent some post, got my backpack repaired, and caught up on other stuff I hadn´t done in a while... oh, and I slept all afternoon! Then I splurged on a film at night, as it was two women for the price of one
Chan Chan ruins
Largest pre-Colombian ruins between Trujillo and Huanchaco beach, Peru(2.50 real - under $1 each!) - I grabbed the nearest woman to share the ticket! Saw the Da Vinci Code which I thought they did a good job of after having read the book...
The next day, headed to the Chan Chan ruins - the largest pre Colombian ruins - where I met an Israeli guy I had met the day before, and we headed to Huanchaco beach where I had to have a ride on the local totora reed fishing boats, despite the horrible weather! The fishermen kindly leant me a t-shirt and shorts so I didn´t get my clothes saturated, and I did a tour in the freezing water! Why am I always so crazy?! 😊
MANCORA
That night I caught another 10hr night bus to Mancora - I´d heard it made a better stop than the border town of Tumbes, and it was definitely worth the stop! I stayed in the local gringo hostel, but it was fantastic - own bathroom and room with a hammock out the front and right by the beach! I arrived around 5am and slept all day till about 1pm. Checked out the main street which was pretty
Huanchaco - in borrowed clothes for a ride on the Caballitos!
Caballitos - totora reed boats fishermen have used for at least 2500 years! much the whole town, and then went to eat lunch on the beach where I started chatting to Nori, a girl from Lima. We went for a horseride, did a bit of shopping, and spent the afternoon together. She decided to stay another night once she found out my hostel was only S/. 15 ($4.50) per night - she´d been paying $45!
The next morning she woke me at 8am, a tuk tuk waiting to take us about 10-15 mins down the dirt road to Playa Bonito beach her sister had recommended. Nori returned to catch her flight to Lima, and I started walking along the beach - I decided I could do with another day in this place, so I had all the time in the world! the beach was completely empty, except for a couple of builders who happened to tell me there was another town right at the end of the beach. I walked a few hours before eventually arriving, enjoying the isolation and the huge birds you find along the coast of Peru... the coast is very dry and lacking in vegetation... apart from what the upcoming hotels are planting. I had a ceviche seafood
Horseriding on Mancora beach
... with Nori, a girl I met from Lima meal for about $1 and checked my mails at this little town, Organos, with no foreigners at all, then I headed back to Mancora. I arrived back at around 5pm, with a vendor to keep me company the last few kilometers - he sold me a gorgeous coral necklace he had made. That night I was going to go out with the guys I had met on the beach, but I fell asleep! Not surpising!
VILCABAMBA
The next day I headed to Tumbes - after driving up and down the main street until the bus filled up! A tuk tuk took me to a restaurant for lunch at Tumbes and the drivers shared my lunch - then they had the hide to ask me for more money!! When I crossed the border, I missed the stop to get my exit stamp from Peru, and wasted a few hours going back to get it! I caught another bus to Manchara, in full festivity, and then to Loja where I arrived at around 11pm and stayed the night before heading to Vilcabamba the next morning.
So my relaxation continued! I gave in to the man at the bus stop
trying to sell his hostel, and accompanied him to check it out - complete with jacuzzi, swimming pool, turkish bath, sauna, internet, free water (although maybe that´s what made me vomit on the bus to Loja the next day??), breakfast etc etc, I decided to stay. Whatsmore, there was a really noisy seminar being held above my room - a private room with bathroom as all the dorms were full - so I got $1 off the already cheap dormitory price of $8!! 😊
To get away from the noise, I headed off on a walk up to the cross on the hill overlooking the town. I was warned that some foreigners had been robbed there the previous week, but that now there were armed men guarding the summit. They asked the usual - are you married, ah, you´re the same age - we´d make a perfect match - and one even gave me his phone number. They accompanied me down, but luckily I bumped into Goska, who I'd met on the way up the hill, when we arrived in the main square, and the next six hours I spent chatting with her and her Equadorian friends... perfect!
Goska and I met up the next morning - I decided I could do with another day in this place! - for a walk to a nearby waterfall. It was lovely to chat to another woman, and to find out she had the same trouble with the men in Latin America as I did!! Six hours later, I arrived back at the hostel for a jacuzzi and Turkish bath with the Israeli friends I'd made at the hostel... perfectly heavenly! Then we all met up with Goska and co at the gorgeous cafe in the main (and only!) square for some fruit salad and yogurt followed by dinner and desert!
QUENCA & CAJAS NATIONAL PARK
The next day I parted ways with my Israeli friends at Loja where I caught a bus to Quenca - the step off town for visiting Cajas National Park. Oh, and I've gotta say I loooove Ecuador - so luxurious after so much time in Peru and Bolivia. You have HOT showers for the WHOLE shower, hostels provide towels and soap, buses have ample leg room, buses actually stop at designated 'paradas', most of the roads are paved... Oh, and the vegetation is
lusciously green - a nice change from the mainly dry landscape of altiplano Peru.
I woke early to rain and headed off on a bus to Cajas... after I'd caught a bus back to the entrance because no one had told me we'd passed the stop, I was greeted by a very eery, beautiful landscape. I made it to the final checkpoint at around 2pm after getting lost only a little bit, and a kind local offered me a lift back into Quenca.
ALAUSI & NARIZ DEL DIABLO
From there I moved on again - this time on a bus to Riobamba from where the famous train to Nariz del Diablo (Devil's Nose) leaves. My newfound friends on the bus - a french couple and an Ecuadorian - told me I was better off getting off at Alausi, where the train passes at about 11am rather than get up for the 6am departure from Riobamba, so I was bruskly ushered off the bus in the middle of Terminator 3, with barely time to say goodbye. It was 8pm, and I was dropped in the middle of the highway, from where I walked down into the tiny tiny
Boats
Notice there isn't much vegetation along the coast - mostly desert town with a local who was heading in the same direction. I got a hotel for $3, ate dinner and went to bed - nothing else was open in the tiny town!
The next day the train was late. A bunch of foreigners were hanging round the station until it eventually showed up, delayed due to a landslide. It was great fun riding on the roof, switching back as it made it´s way down and back up the mountain!
BANOS
Keeping up my hard schedule, I caught a bus from Alausi a few hours to Riobamba, from Riobamba to Ambato (I kept thinking the French couple I met had gone 'en bateau' - by boat!), and from Ambato to the gorgeous town of Banos...
From there it was all party. 😊 When I arrived at 9pm, I headed straight off on a tour to the Tungurahua volcano - the whole town was evacuated a few years back as the volcano gave signs of an imminent eruption, but as nothing happened, everyone moved back, including the tourists! Unfortunately, due to cloud cover, we couldn't see the lava flow, but we had fun around a campfire drinking a
nice warm shot of tequila! And, I met a great group of people to go out dancing with!! It didn´t stop there! At 3am, when the disco closed, a group of us decided to stick it out till the hot springs opened at 4.30am - why not make a night of it! Well worth it too! We returned for breakfast on the gorgeous rooftop restaurant at my hostel, and I went to bed around 10am!
QUITO
Two hours later I checked out and joined Julio and his cousins and aunt who were also returning to Quito. Julio told me to leave my backpack in the bus while we went to buy a drink, but I told him it was safer to take it with me. Just after, his two cousins realised that his camera had been stolen from between them sitting in the bus waiting for it to leave! You have to be so careful!
We arrived in Quito around 5pm, and Julio kindly offered to accompany me to my hostel. In the end, he decided to stay there too, as he'd promised to guide me around the city the next day! It was so lovely to
have someone who knew the town to show me around, especially as some areas aren´t too safe in the city. Two swiss guys from Lausanne and a French guy were sharing our dorm, so we all went out for pizza and... mmmm... a glass of wine! It was lovely to meet some French-speaking swiss!!
The next morning, Julio and I headed off to Mitad del Mundo - the middle of the earth, ie. the equator!! Who cares that some claim the line isn't exactly on the equator, it was fun to say I had one foot in each hemisphere! Then we braved the ensuing rain and headed for a seafood lunch to watch the World Cup - Ecuador vs. Poland! Ecuador won - great atmosphere!!!! 😊)
The whole town had stopped work at 1pm to watch the match (can you believe it - the working hours were changed so people could watch!), but we managed to talk the guard at the Basilica into letting us up to see the view from the top... lovely, but it didn´t match the view from the cable car we caught up to 4100m.... I think this must be the highest cable car
in any city!! We celebrated again Ecuador's win from on top with a delicious vin chaud (hot wine)...
We headed down after dark for my last night in Ecuador... as usual, I celebrated (mourned?) with a night out on the town! This time I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before my flight though! At 5.30 I got up to catch a taxi to the airport, said a teary goodbye to Julio and Ecuador, and headed to my next destination... my next CONTINENT 😊)))) Central America!
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