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Published: March 6th 2011
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The lazy days of beaching have passed and I am off and out into a world of many buses, rapid travel.. and heights of 5000m above sea level! It is amazing the distance you can cover and things you can see when you are willing to accept long bus rides, luckily the buses are quite nice here in Peru.
I left Ecuador just under 2 weeks ago and my first stop was
Mancora. Arriving from Canoa Mancora had a very tough act to follow. The beach was pretty and the backdrop was desert hills but I didn't feel the town had much heart, it lacked character and appeared smattered together for tourists. I hate to pass judgment after only a couple of days but the vibe didn't seem quite right. I stayed at The Point Hostel which was not what I was looking for. It is party hostel but they were trying too hard, music was being played until 5 am when there were only a couple people around the bar, I was thrown into the pool by 3 staff members I hadn't even spoken to and a staff member placed me in a bed “conveniently” beside him and mentioned
the bunks were soundproof and had been tested.. creepy! These things left bit of a sour taste in my mouth or perhaps maybe I am just getting old..haha. I did meet a really lovely Irish couple Narissa and Neils and even bumped into a girl, Arianna from Vancouver Island and we had some mutual acquaintances.. small world!
From Mancora I headed South directly to
Lima, Isabelle was arriving to spend 5 weeks traveling with me... I couldn't wait! We spent two nights at the Backpacker Family House located in
Miraflores Peru's nicest neighborhood and only 1 block from the beach. To be honest I didn't see as much of Lima as I probably should have, I felt content to spend my time in Miraflores. I strolled the beach boardwalk, admired the artwork and words from the heart in Parque del Amor, and people watched as countless skateboarders, bikers, and surfers strolled by, and ate the odd ice cream or two, life wasn't half bad. 😊 Our hostel was friendly and cozy. On the night I arrived it was Pisco Sour night (Peru's local drink) prepared with pisco, lemon or lime juice, egg white, simple syrup and bitters. The staff
made the drinks for all of the guests, it was a nice intro to Peru and my very first Pisco experience.
After Lima we headed South a few hours to
Huacachina a small town just outside of
Ica. It is here there are massive sand dunes... On the first day we hiked up and watched the sun setover the dunes.. a surreal experience. The second day we took a dune buggy tour and had a go at sandboarding.. Sandboarding was super fun, but I must say the sand is not as forgiving as snow and not nearly as easy to turn in.
After Huacachina we took an overnight bus to
Arequipa. Arequipa is a really pretty colonial city. It is home to 1 million but feels much smaller and is very easy to navigate. We went into a couple of museums, visited a huge and wonderful market, and managed to find some delicious vegetarian cuisine. In Arequipa there are countless tourist agencies selling rushed tours to the
Colca Canyon located about 5 hours NorthWest. On these packaged tours hikers leave Arequipa at 3am and travel to the canyon by minibus to start the trek the next morning. We
knew we wanted to visit the canyon but instead of opting for a tour we thought it would be more fun to take the bus directly to
Cabanconde the small town at the top of the canyon and figure out how to explore it on our own. I would highly recommend this to any traveler not only do you get to avoid a 3am bus but Cabanaconde is well worth visiting and on the tour there is little time for that. The trails are well marked, there is no need for a guide, and the locals in Cabanaconde are able to provide all the information you could possibly need.
We spent the night in Cabanconde at the Pachamama Hostel and it was great, nice and cozy with a big open wood fire.... I never thought I'd say this after 5 weeks at the beach it actually felt good to be a little cold, soemhow it reminded me of home. The next morning we set out early to start hiking into the canyon. Isa and I met up with Juanseslao a Argentinian traveler and the three of us set out on our way. Down in the canyon there are many
little villages to walk through.. We chose a long loop which had us hiking for a little over 8 hours and visiting 5 villages the first day, it was well worth the effort as we were rewarded with beautiful people and views. We encountered some other groups of hikers but more or less had the trail for ourselves. For anyone that is interested in visiting the canyon I suggest hiking up to
Tapay it is the highest town and adds about 2 hours on to the trip but well worth it. We continued on from Tapay to the neighboring villages of
Cosnirhua and
Malata we stopped to kick around a soccer ball with some kids and met a lady selling handwoven straps.. they were beautiful but we weren't sure what we could use them for... we decided with her approval they could make good head bands and our new friend was far too lovely not to buy from so we purchased two and wore them for the remainder of the hike. Our first day hiking ended just before nightfall in
San Galle and we spent the night at Edan hostel. Eden was rustic (no electricity) and absolutely stunning with a
beautiful pool filled with water directly out of the canyon, gorgeous flowers, delicious food and a soft bed, although I am sure I could have slept anywhere that night because I was so tired. We were asleep by 8pm and up bright and early the next morning enjoying the scenery while doing some morning stretches. The spot was so lovely we decided to relax until around 2 pm and then begin our climb up and out of the canyon, the hike up took us just under 3 hours but it was more or less straight up, come prepared with lots of water and a hat to shade you from the sun is my advice. The entire trek was wonderful and so much more of an experience than I expected it to be. At the end of it all we had a warm meal and waited for a night but that left Cabanaconde at 10 pm to bring us back to Arequipa. Our plan was to continue straight onward to Puno and Lake Titicaca but Isabelle is battling the flu so we are in Arequipa awaiting here recovery.
In two weeks Peru has already shown me shown me so much.
I am excitied to see what the next few weeks will bring. Thankyou all for reading and I hope you are enjoying the stories. I really love feedback and updates from everyone at home and any other fellow travelers that may have stubled across my site so please feel free to get in touch.
Happy travels.. until next time 😊
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Christy Hart
non-member comment
Keep on keepin' on!
Buddy! Love the updates. Looks and sounds amazing and wonderful and all things good. How long are you gone for, anyway? AND - how the eff do you do this; have you left your job? Working woman? Train hard ... BJR T-minus 3 mos!