It was finally time to leave Huaraz, I had been there for about a week and was getting a little stir crazy there. One week is too much time to spend in 1 city! I took an overnight bus to Trujillo, the first charming town that I have seen outside of Cusco in Peru, went to Chan Chan, walked around the square, and then got another overnight bus to Chachapoyas! After an exhausting two days of travel, I was in the cloud forest to see 2 things: Kuelap and Golca. Kuelap are some large, pre-Inca ruins that are on par with Macchu Picchu. They were discovered earlier than Macchu Picchu, but haven't been restored as much as MP. The architecture isn't nearly as meticulous as MP, but there is a lot of interesting history there, and with the lack of restoration, the ruins were a bit overgrown by trees. It looks like you are discovering it and no one has been there yet! An archeological site that is on a 3000 meter summit, has 3 different levels, used as a fortress, and housed warriors and shamans is definitely worth seeing. It was very cool, and a great way to end the "ruin" aspect of my travels.
The next day, I went to Golca, the 3rd highest waterfall in the world following Angel Falls in Venezuela and another one in Africa. It's two-tiered and 771 meters!
After about 10 days straight of hiking and traveling, I decided on some beach time. I went up to Mancora for some R&R at a backpackers resort and hung out poolside for a few days. No hiking, no culture, just relaxing and hanging out with fellow travelers and celebrating St. Patty's day with green slushies. Obviously, it's a world-wide holiday.
I then realized I had been in Peru for nearly 7 weeks, and was only planning on being there for about 5 or 6. I also realized, I had a flight out of Quito, Ecuador 10 days later and was still not in the country of my departure. oops... time to get moving.
Vicabamba was my first stop in Ecuador. It's a beautiful town that's known for it's long living residence. Considering how beautiful and peaceful the town is, it's no surprise. I hung out there for 2 days and did some easy hikes in the surrounding areas. Nothing too exciting, but very pretty.
Now, I am in Cuenca, a very charming city about 10 hours south of Quito. I met up with 1 girl I met in Mancora, and 2 friends from Bariloche (who I also saw in Mancora). Tonight, we are on our way to Quito where we will see the Old Town, straddle the equator, and then on Monday morning I fly back to the states!
Pictures to come soon....
Thursday, March 19, 2009
A cracker jack of a week!
Huaraz, home to the Cordillera Blanca, which are absolutely beautiful snow covered mountains. I met up with a friend who I met in Pisco a few weeks prior. I did some hiking, and then we met an Aussie rafting instructor who convinced the two of us to go with him and some others on the 2 night/3 day Santa Cruz trek. We looked at each other, shrugged, and said, why the hell not?! It's supposed to be beautiful and I wanted to get one more camping trip in anyway. Off we went on our trek. The first camping grounds were a short and easy 2.5 hour hike. We got there early and had NOTHING to do because our packs were with the donkeys who were lagging behind. So, we hung out and played bachi with rocks that we found. Not that exciting.... but then our donkeys arrived!! We had out wine available and we were very happy. The second day was a hard hard hike. It was about 2 hours flat, then 3 hours on straight up switchbacks. It was drizzling and I was walking on a rock basically, so it was a little tricky. I arrived at the pass, Punta Union, 4,750 meters above sea level, and the clouds miraculously parted and we had sunshine for about 30 minutes just in time to eat lunch, relax, and take some photos. Que suerte.
On the way down in started to rain again, then pour, and it eventually snowed. We ate our dinner and went to sleep at 9 only to wake up an hour later with water in the tent, on my mat and definitely on my sleeping bag. After some failed attempts at fixing the problem, trying to ignore the problem and sheer anger, we finally decided to line the tents with the burlap mats that were on the donkeys. So, I went to sleep itchy and smelling like an ass. really. not fun. but, I did get a solid 4 hours of sleep in before our 8 hour hike back to base.
On the last day of the hike we woke up and it was sunny and gorgeous! It was a cracker jack of a day!! (That's the Aussie's saying, not mine. But, I do kinda love it....I am bringing it to the states. get ready.) We hiked basically flat and down the whole time. There was also a swamp involved, I tried jumping over a wide creek and totally missed so now not only are my feet wet, but I'm standing waist high in water. I dried off, and then fell into some more water later. Is anyone surprised that I was wetter and dirtier than everyone else on the hike? Of course not. It's just how I roll.
8 hours of hiking followed by about 1.5 hours of driving around mountains with no railings, no pavement, and no security, and another 1.5 hours of crazy scary collectivos (small public vans) and 2 drunk passengers one of which made us stop so that he could urinate on the curb, we arrived back in Huaraz. It was our Aussie friend's birthday so obviously we had to go out. We went dancing and were drinking our Pisco Sours and Cuba Libres (that's just a rum and coke) and having a great time. As I am always trying to add to my cultural well being, we met some folks from Huaraz, all incredible dancers, and they noticed I was trying to copy them on the dance floor. They loved that I was trying and we all started dancing together. It was very "dirty dancing" when Penny is trying to help Baby, but without all the drama that makes DD a classic. 2 of the girls were sisters, one named Lorena! We bonded over having the same name and the next day she invited me to have lunch with her family. Her parents were so sweet and we spoke spanish the whole time! It was a proud moment for me. Her father is from the next town that I will visit, so we chatted about places to go there. I forced myself to eat as much as possible, but this family put out so much food, I couldn't eat anymore. I felt like I was being rude, and it was delicious, but I had to stop!
The Aussie and my friend went south, so we parted ways as I was heading north.
Next stop... Chachapoyas!
pics from Huaraz http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=42802638&l=338155e52d&id=907196
On the way down in started to rain again, then pour, and it eventually snowed. We ate our dinner and went to sleep at 9 only to wake up an hour later with water in the tent, on my mat and definitely on my sleeping bag. After some failed attempts at fixing the problem, trying to ignore the problem and sheer anger, we finally decided to line the tents with the burlap mats that were on the donkeys. So, I went to sleep itchy and smelling like an ass. really. not fun. but, I did get a solid 4 hours of sleep in before our 8 hour hike back to base.
On the last day of the hike we woke up and it was sunny and gorgeous! It was a cracker jack of a day!! (That's the Aussie's saying, not mine. But, I do kinda love it....I am bringing it to the states. get ready.) We hiked basically flat and down the whole time. There was also a swamp involved, I tried jumping over a wide creek and totally missed so now not only are my feet wet, but I'm standing waist high in water. I dried off, and then fell into some more water later. Is anyone surprised that I was wetter and dirtier than everyone else on the hike? Of course not. It's just how I roll.
8 hours of hiking followed by about 1.5 hours of driving around mountains with no railings, no pavement, and no security, and another 1.5 hours of crazy scary collectivos (small public vans) and 2 drunk passengers one of which made us stop so that he could urinate on the curb, we arrived back in Huaraz. It was our Aussie friend's birthday so obviously we had to go out. We went dancing and were drinking our Pisco Sours and Cuba Libres (that's just a rum and coke) and having a great time. As I am always trying to add to my cultural well being, we met some folks from Huaraz, all incredible dancers, and they noticed I was trying to copy them on the dance floor. They loved that I was trying and we all started dancing together. It was very "dirty dancing" when Penny is trying to help Baby, but without all the drama that makes DD a classic. 2 of the girls were sisters, one named Lorena! We bonded over having the same name and the next day she invited me to have lunch with her family. Her parents were so sweet and we spoke spanish the whole time! It was a proud moment for me. Her father is from the next town that I will visit, so we chatted about places to go there. I forced myself to eat as much as possible, but this family put out so much food, I couldn't eat anymore. I felt like I was being rude, and it was delicious, but I had to stop!
The Aussie and my friend went south, so we parted ways as I was heading north.
Next stop... Chachapoyas!
pics from Huaraz http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=42802638&l=338155e52d&id=907196
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Jungle Woman I am Not.
One more thing that I forgot to add from my week in Pisco....
Carnaval is celebrated all over South America, not just Rio. In Peru, every Sunday in February there are waterfights all around each town. So, on the last Sunday in Feb. when I was in Pisco, a water fight commenced with the kids on the street. Then the parents got involved. Then, the kids added paint to their buckets of water. Then we added mud to our buckets of water (but really, we stopped using buckets and just started throwing fists full of mud). Then we tried stealing their amo (their waterguns and buckets). Then our neighbors kidnapped me when I was trying to steal one of the kids buckets and they pinned me down, pulled me into their courtyard area, locked the door and 3 of the family members proceeded to put shoepolish ALL OVER ME as I screamed for help, in english and in spanish (it was all in good fun, I wasn't actually yelling for real). Then the released me. Then they kidnapped one of the British volunteers who I was with and did the same to her, but worse. Then we called a truce. Then I took a very long shower because I had a hard time scrubbing the polish off my arms and neck. And that's how you do Carnaval Peru style.
I took my last flight of this trip up to Iquitos, the main Peruvian city on the Amazon. I am gonna be honest. I got screwed by the travel agents. I spent a ton of money and didn't see that much cool stuff. I was going to stay an extra day and hire a different guide to go swim with the pink dolphins and feed monkeys in the wild because I didn't get to do that, but then I decided I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
However, if you do plan to go to Iquitos at some point, I feel the need to mention the following information:
1. The water in the jungle accomodations, not in Iquitos, is yellow. Basically, when you go to pee, it looks like there is already urine in the toilet. And before you ask, I did flush several times to make sure that it wasn't someone else's leftover urine in the john.
2. The rooms have a wall/mosquito net combo. There are actual walls that separate the rooms, but the "ceiling" is just a mosquito net that is pulled over posts, so you can't see other people but you can hear them. That goes for the bathroom as well. You can imagine how hard I laughed when I walked in and saw that after I diangosed myself with a parasite and my stomach still isn't the stomach of steel I once knew.
3. I think the domestic airlines in Peru recognize that the average height of a Peruvian is much shorter than those from, let's say the states. So, they take the beat up old planes that we used in the states, add some more rows, and off they go. Usually, I am ok in planes, but here, I felt like a giant. It's like when Jeff (that's my brother who stands just under 6'5" or 195 cm for those on the metric system) doesn't get his exit row seat. Highly uncomfortable.
I am in Lima for the last time and soon I am going up to Huarez to get back to good old fashion outdoorsy stuff like hiking. Can't wait.
Pictures coming soon.
Love,
Lauren
Carnaval is celebrated all over South America, not just Rio. In Peru, every Sunday in February there are waterfights all around each town. So, on the last Sunday in Feb. when I was in Pisco, a water fight commenced with the kids on the street. Then the parents got involved. Then, the kids added paint to their buckets of water. Then we added mud to our buckets of water (but really, we stopped using buckets and just started throwing fists full of mud). Then we tried stealing their amo (their waterguns and buckets). Then our neighbors kidnapped me when I was trying to steal one of the kids buckets and they pinned me down, pulled me into their courtyard area, locked the door and 3 of the family members proceeded to put shoepolish ALL OVER ME as I screamed for help, in english and in spanish (it was all in good fun, I wasn't actually yelling for real). Then the released me. Then they kidnapped one of the British volunteers who I was with and did the same to her, but worse. Then we called a truce. Then I took a very long shower because I had a hard time scrubbing the polish off my arms and neck. And that's how you do Carnaval Peru style.
I took my last flight of this trip up to Iquitos, the main Peruvian city on the Amazon. I am gonna be honest. I got screwed by the travel agents. I spent a ton of money and didn't see that much cool stuff. I was going to stay an extra day and hire a different guide to go swim with the pink dolphins and feed monkeys in the wild because I didn't get to do that, but then I decided I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
However, if you do plan to go to Iquitos at some point, I feel the need to mention the following information:
1. The water in the jungle accomodations, not in Iquitos, is yellow. Basically, when you go to pee, it looks like there is already urine in the toilet. And before you ask, I did flush several times to make sure that it wasn't someone else's leftover urine in the john.
2. The rooms have a wall/mosquito net combo. There are actual walls that separate the rooms, but the "ceiling" is just a mosquito net that is pulled over posts, so you can't see other people but you can hear them. That goes for the bathroom as well. You can imagine how hard I laughed when I walked in and saw that after I diangosed myself with a parasite and my stomach still isn't the stomach of steel I once knew.
3. I think the domestic airlines in Peru recognize that the average height of a Peruvian is much shorter than those from, let's say the states. So, they take the beat up old planes that we used in the states, add some more rows, and off they go. Usually, I am ok in planes, but here, I felt like a giant. It's like when Jeff (that's my brother who stands just under 6'5" or 195 cm for those on the metric system) doesn't get his exit row seat. Highly uncomfortable.
I am in Lima for the last time and soon I am going up to Huarez to get back to good old fashion outdoorsy stuff like hiking. Can't wait.
Pictures coming soon.
Love,
Lauren
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