Week 26: In This City

Aside from Cusco, Cuenca in Ecuador was probably the one place I stayed in for the longest. It is a colonial town (surprise surprise) with lots of lovely architecture and seemed like an appealing place to stop for a week or so and learn some (more) Spanish.

One of the main rivers at night

After a day of exploring the town and sorting out some Spanish lessons, I went on the Monday to my first one-on-one class. It was quite interesting to see how my knowledge and use of the language had developed and been influenced by so many different countries and cultures. My teacher sometimes told me things which completely contradicted what I had picked up.

Quaint plaza #714

In the evening I went to a cooking class with 2 other people from my school where we made some sort of well-known regional dish, which I can't actually remember the name of. I used the following day to read up on my notes and have another wander around the city, as there were so many hidden plazas and beautiful buildings. Tuesday night was free salsa classes at the language school, which turned out to be a lot more popular than the cooking class. It was really good fun (as we all know you don't actually have to be good at dancing to enjoy it, much to my advantage), and was topped off by a visit to an almost-pub with its own brews. I had to leave in a bit of a hurry as I was supposed to be meeting a girl from my hostel for dinner. I got stood up. Again.





Thankfully, I decided to do the usual meeting-other-travellers trick and just took a seat in the bar with two girls I had seen around the hostel. Lifesaver. Hannah and the-other-girl-whose-name-I-unfortunately-can't-remember were very welcoming and after a few drinks we all decided to go out to a club. I, as usual, decided I knew the way (I actually did), and we got there pretty safe and sound. It was a fun evening with a lot of impressive casual salsa but a little bit too many creepy South American men. I also bumped into the girl who had stood me up at dinner who, to be fair, did apologise profusely.

The main plaza

The next few days were filled with swimming at the local pool where Hannah and I got chatted up by a rather strange 17-year-old boy who claimed to be a football player, drinks in the bar, lessons and school and after school hot chocolates as well as ice cream. Another of the after school activities I partook in was a visit to a local guinea pig restaurant (yes, my second of the trip). And sorry to tell you this but we did see them on a spit roast. I even took a video. Later in the week after one of my Spanish lessons I went for some private salsa lessons which were fun but also frustrating because when all the attention is on you, it isn't always possible to just breeze through and hope nobody will notice.

A lot of artsy street work going on in Cuenca

One evening Hannah and I did manage to get into a bit of an argument with an ignorant (North) American. Naturally I can barely remember what it was about except that we all knew he was wrong. Unfortunately many of the high number of American expats in Cuenca who see themselves as "free spirits" when they really aren't, fail to educate themselves and many, even after years of living in the country, barely speak a word of Spanish.

Charming buildings

I did meet one nice American though, a girl called Davi from my school, who I was going to visit the national park with but didn't. On my last evening I was lucky enough to bump into her and we went for a delicious ice cream. (Always end on a high note. Ice cream is always a high note.)

Another very important point to mention about Hannah is that she basically convinced me that I needed to go to the Galapagos islands, something I had been telling myself for 6 months I wouldn't do. Anyway I made a few phone calls and...

Week 25: I Feel The Earth Move

Only 2 months later than originally planned...

My journey frmo Cusco, Peru, to Vilcabamba, Ecuador, was one of the most epic I have undertaken yet. From the bus station in Cusco I took a 22 hour overnight bus to Lima, the capital, arriving in the late morning. I had about 4 hours to kill before taking yet another overnight bus of 19 hours to Piura, in the north and close to the border with Ecuador. In the 4 hours I managed to somehow delete the pictures on my camera from the preceding 2 weeks, I blame the computer, but on the upside I booked my ticket to go to Shambala festival, near Bristol, over my birthday this year with my friend Carys. After another couple of hours wait I managed to take a bus from Piura to Loja which incorporated the border crossing and took 9 hours. The final leg was a local bus from Loja to Vilcabamba of 1.5 hours.



I arrived in the evening and as I'm sure you can imagine, was in dire need of a refreshment. I sat in the bar where a met an American lady named Sheila, who lived in Cuenca and was on a spiritual journey to Ecuador. It was extremely interesting to talk to her about her journey and the way she looked at life and the things she did, as I have never really met anyone in the same place as she is before.

A hostel with one hell of a view

Luckily I had a whole dorm and a double bed to myself so I slept like a log that night, and had a big lie in the morning which I fully deserved. A bit later 4 belgian medical students who were living in Cuenca arrived for their weekend break. I mostly spent the day by the pool and reading as I needed to recuperate after time sitting cramped on the bus.

The next day the belgians left early for a walk, and I met Sheila and another girl to go into town. We had a delicious mexican lunch before wandering round the shops and stalls, where there was some really beautiful jewellery, so I had to really restrain myself. We then had "afternoon tea" (cheesecake!) in the inner courtyard of a lovely hostel, before heading back to Izhcayluma, our well-run hostel up on the hill with beautiful views.

In the evening we had a fire outside the bar, with a couple of drinks, and chatted with the belgians and a few other people. I went in the pool while it was raining because that is the most fun time to go.

Incredible vistas of rolling hills

The next day all of the Belgian students left apart from one guy, Bob, we went for a hike together up to a  beautiful ridge, unfortunately I forgot to change the memory card in my camera so don't have any pictures (still waiting on Bob to send me some). The end of the walk was a little bit tedious as we were hopping from rock to rock on the river and trying not to break an ankle or get wet.

A bit of low-res photography on the old iphone 3

Bob had told me he was going to hitchhike back to Cuenca, where he was studying, and as it was my next destination, I asked if I could join him. So in the morning we walked down to the main road from the hostel, laden with out bags, and managed to pick up a ride within about 10 or 15 minutes. The guy told us he would drop us in town. When we explained to him where we were going he said he had an appointment at the hospital but that if we were willing to wait he would take us into Loja. He dropped us in the city about an hour later and we grabbed lunch at a chicken place (there's a disguise), it was one of my worse experiences and I thought I wasn't going to be able to get it all down but I just about managed. We walked along the road a while until it turned into the main road north to Cuenca. We had been standing for about 20 minutes and we just about to give up and grab a cap a few miles further north where we were more likely to get picked up, when someone pulled over. The guy took as as far as a town called Saraguro, although I had to grip the JC handle all the way as he was rather erratic. From Saraguro we were picked up within a few minutes by a camioneta (4x4), although he told us he could only take us about 10km, and we soon realised it was a local collective taxi, so we were going to have to pay. He dropped us at the end of his route and to our surprised didn't want any money from us. We walked 100 or 200m up the road to where we would be a bit more visible (who realised there were such tactics to hitchhiking?), where a few cars and trucks passed us by before one guy obviously made a last minute decision to take us and stopped about 50m up the road. We ran up the road and climbed up into the cab of his truck. They were full-time truckers transporting motorbikes through Ecuador. It was really interesting talking to him in Spanish particularly about how much he loved his country ("Ecuador has everything... Sea, mountains and jungle, why would I ever need to leave?"). After another couple of hours, which would have been less in anything a bit smaller, but it was fun all the same and thankfully at no point did I need the toilet!

Excited to be setting off on my first ever hitchhike!

He dropped us just outside of Cuenca and Bob knew the local bus to take to get to my hostel, and so he could get home. After a quick turnaround we met up again with the other girls I had met in Vilcabamba, and another couple to go for dinner and a few drinks. All in all I had thoroughly enjoyed my first hitchhiking experience and would certainly think about doing it again.

I hear you ask, why the blog title? On the second night I was sitting on the toilet (necessary detail, sorry) when I was sure I felt the whole room shaking. It had nothing to do with me I can assure you, as I saw the lightbulb swinging in the main room and was sure there had been a tremor of some kind.
The following day I was sitting at the computer adjoining the restaurant when I felt the room shake, but nobody else around me seemed to react. I did later realise that it was another tremor, I hadn't just been imagining it. Earthquake experiences 3 and 4!

Week 24: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

Having not quite recovered from my eye infection, I decided to start my trek regardless, as I was feeling much better and ready to face the world (apart from the fact I still looked like a pirate). On the way to the pick up point I bumped into a... erm... friend? of Steve's, and then continued on for the drive up to the starting point of the mountain biking.

Unfortunately for me, it was my left eye that was the issue and therefore on the ride down I couldn't tell if anyone was overtaking me until they were almost past me, and if I wanted to overtake anyone I had to twist my head round exorcist-style to check that I wasn't about to have a fatal collision. However it was all pretty incident free, apart from getting absolutely soaked going through rivers which crossed over the road. By the end I had perfected a technique to not get wet, but by that time everything was soaked anyway.



We had our lunch stop in the small pueblo of Santa Maria, it was probably chicken and rice but the lemonade was delicious. After lunch some of the boys went white water rafting and the rest of us were left to explore what little of the small town there was, and thankfully our hostel had a pool table so we were able to entertain ourselves for the afternoon.

In the evening we returned to the same place for dinner. There were two spanish guys (with an uncanny resemblance to the two heroes from The Road to El Doraado) and it was one of their birthdays that day so we organised a cake for the evening, and afterwards headed to the only bar in town (I think it was actually called that) for a couple of drinks and a little bit of dancing.

In the morning we had a pancake breakfast before setting out on the actual day of trekking, which was, I must admit, not all that strenuous. Halfway through the day I had to remove my eye patch as sweat was pooling in it, attractive I know...
We had quite a few stops on the way in the morning, including at a lady's house who had rescued a monkey from the jungle. It stole the insole of a guy's shoe, which was pretty funny because I'm sure it was a real mission to get it back. About another half an hour later, and one hangover vom from a spanish guy, we had another stop to learn about some of the medicinal plants of the forest, and also the amazing jugo de maracuya (passion fruit juice) touched my lips for the first time.

Lunch was pretty chilled out and even though I was raring to go again we had an enforced break to let everyone's food go down. The rest of the walk was pretty easy apart from one serious uphill for about ten minutes. When we needed to cross the huge chasm above the river we pretty much had to pull ourselves across in a trolley. It was fun and a little bit nerve-wracking.

At the end of the walk we arrived at the hot springs of Santa Teresa, which were very welcome, especially once a bit of a chill had descended. We spent an hour and a half or so there before heading to our hostel in the town. Myself and the other girl in the group, Christiane, had a twin room to ourselves which was a bit of a privelige as the boys had to share a bigger dorm.

After dinner, we had a few drinks and were hoping to go dancing but the one place in town had closed, so the woman at the restaurant cleared the floor for us, even though they had already laid the plates for breakfast, and we danced to the one CD they had, which was played over and over again. We eventually braved the rain to run home, and one or two of us stayed up on the balcony chatting till it really was time for bed.

The next day certainly wasn't a highlight as they had told us ziplining was "optional." Read: it isn't really, if you choose not to do it we aren't even going to give you a guide for the day and make you walk in the blistering heat with no shade on the road for three hours. Shouldn't have told us it was optional.

At lunchtime we arrived at the meeting place, from where everyone else went on the town of Aguas Calientes close to Machu Picchu, as I had only come for the trek I went home on the bus. I waited up for Matt and Gemma to get back to the hostel, and as we were all pretty shattered everyone went to bed.

I can well and truly say the next day was reserved for recovery but I did go for a walk in town, and the group had said we would meet in the square at midnight to go for a drinks. Apparently they had all decided against it.




Saturday was pretty eventful as after breakfast we went to the Inca Museum in town, which was good value for money and I highly recommend to occupy you for an afternoon. In the evening we hosted a bit of a dinner party (baked potatoes, again) As well as Matt and Gemma, Steve, Ant, Harry and a friend from their hostel also came. We went to a bar afterwards for a coupe of the well-loved caipirinhas, and afterwards to a club called Temple, where it was cheaper to buy a whole bottle of rum to share so I had to keep it in my pocket (didn't even think that was physically possible.) Then some of us had to help some others home...

As we had got in quite late we didn't rise too early as I am sure you can imagine. It was raining most of the day so we stayed in and watched films (The Patriot and The Guardian) and I caught up on a bit of Breaking Bad. Not a particularly cultural day I know.

The time to part from Matt and Gemma was approaching fast, although all of us kept trying to put it off, but we decided that on Tuesday we would finally have to split. And so it was that on our last day we crammed in lots of culture. First we went to the markets in the morning (where Gemma and I mostly just cooed over tiny baby clothes - and I bought quite a few for my little nephew!), then we visited the Temple of the Sun, a former Inca palace, which was very interesting particularly as we splashed out on getting a guide. In the evening we went to a well-named Indian restaurant for curry. It was the first time I had had lamb in a number of months and was absolutely exquisite, the joy went on even longer as none of us could finish our meals so had doggy-bags for lunch the next day.

The Inca Sun Temple

D-Day had finally arrived and after a hectic morning for me of running back and forth to the post office to send a parcel of goodies home, we all headed to the bus station together. In the taxi Matt and Gemma gave me a really thoughtful gift. I promise you, I didn't cry, I would never do that.

After some delay and lots of hugs(!) we finally went our seperate ways. Matt and Gemma to the East and Bolivia, and for me it was time to finally leave Peru before my visa ran out in 10 days time. I had half-planned an epic journey to get to Ecuador. It was going to be a right mission.

Sad on the inside

Week 23: Relax, Take It Easy

Right I hope those of you who like picture books aren't too disappointed by this. The reason I haven't posted a blog update in so long is because a load of my photos got messed up by a computer in the bust terminal at Lima. Then I just got lazy after that. So this might not be the most interesting blog in the world but I hope you enjoy it after a lengthy absence.

The main plaza in Cuzco

I must admit, I have been putting off writing this week's blog, and considered skipping it altogether but thought I would probably just confuse myself. So we didn't do a lot this week. And when I tried to back up my pictures from the last few weeks, they sort of... deleted themselves. Which is a real bummer. So not only did we not do very much, I don't even have any pictures of the very little we did do. So I scoured facebook and that will just have to do.

It all started off quite eventfully, you may recall my mentioning that we decided not to get any snacks for our bus from Arequipa to Cusco. Serious error. The first I knew that anything was amiss was waking up at about 0430 and peeking out the window to see a zombie-like crowd of Peruvians staring at me. And then one of them banged on my window which gave me a bit of a fright.

From there it only got worse. What was supposed to be an eight hour journey turned into an 18 hour journey. A series of road blocks caused by protests over building a new airport. (Unlike at home they were protesting because the government had promised to build an airport and hadn't.) About 3 fires, 7 delays, a moment of panic whe the bus started driving off while Matt and I were still outside and half a watermelon each we finally arrived in Cusco (round 2 for me). After fighting for a cab because of the protests, we arrived at our extremely nice hostel/guesthouse, Mama Simona.




Half an hour of turnaround time to take a shower and we were straight out the door to treat ourselves to some well deserved food. On my suggestion we went to a well-known cafe called Jack's, where we indulged in steak sandwiches and chips. Gemma was particularly pleased with the tea. Although we were all pretty wrecked from the bus journey, we decided to go for "one drink" (we all know what's coming next), one drink turned into a few more and by half 10 we were dancing in a club with locals. We went to bed about 1am.

Imagine someone putting this in front of you after an 18 hour bus journey!

The next day was a bit of a write off due to the combined events of the day before. Although I did manage to watch The Cider House Rules (Honestly, whoever wrote the script obviously hasn't read the book).

I am quite a big fan of free walking tours in cities (free = tip-based) so the following day we went to one of two in Cusco, where we visited a number of sites including walking up to San Blas, the slightly more "hip" area of Cusco, one might say. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and informative and the tour happily finished off with a free tasting of Pisco Sours (yummy). During the tour I had an epiphany regarding dinner for the evening and so later Matt, Gemma, Steve and I sat down for BAKED POTATOES with a variety of toppings. It's the simple things in life...
After dinner we met up with Harry, who we had done the Colca canyon trekking with, and Ant, who everyone except me knew already from travelling or home.

After another day of wondering the city we (Matt, Gemma, Steve and I) headed to a bar in San Blas which had been recommended to us on the walking tour, as apparently there would be live latin music there that evening. Apparently. Clearly there was not, there were a few mediocre cover bands but that was about it. I tried shisha for the first time(!) we had coconut flavour which was pretty good. There was an awesome picture but along with all the others from this week it got fried. We ended up yet again at a place called Mama Africa (the very same place we had visited on the night we arrived). There were some particularly stunning dance moves (Gemma...) and over the night we all made it home almost without incident (Steve...)

I would be lying if I said that the next day wasn't a full-blown hangover day (sorry Mum), although we did manage to watch a few films and feel quite sorry for ourselves. Although on a very exciting note (or boring...?) I finally bought a pair of jeans after 5 months of travelling, my jealousy of other people was just becoming too much.

Before we were all really soaking wet

Sunday, on the other hand, could only mean one thing... Carneval! Although nothing compared to Rio, we still had a very fun day which mostly consisted of a giant waterfight in town with water bombs, shaving foam cans and silly spray. And also, sadly, some kind of horrible corn starch powder. (Someone came up from behind and threw it in my eyes, on later reflection they may well have been trying to rob me, thankfully our team system worked and Matt, Gemma and Steve had my back and brutally attacked my offender.) A couple from the hostel, David and Becky were lucky to bump into us and joined the group. After a few hours of fun we decided to go and get a beer (naturally), it was at this point I started to feel something might not be quite right. As we popped into the supermarket on the way home my left eye started weeping profusely. Although we had planned to go out again later in the evening, I was from that point onward hostel-bound for 2 days, apart from one small and extremely dangerous venture out to visit the pharmacy, I am quite surprised I didn't get hit by a car as I only had about 40% vision. I postponed my trek and spent the next day lying in bed with a flannel over my face, for once it wasn't self-inflicted.

Matt and Steve working it for the camera

Matt and Gemma left that morning to head off on the Inca trail, despite some errr... traveller illnesses, they were unable to postpone their trek so had to suck it up and soldier on. After a day of rest I felt ready to head out on my trek.

Week 22: The Wild Rover

Up until now I had managed to avoid backtracking completely. However there were a few things I had missed in the south of Peru which I kept telling myself I would do on my return trip. The trouble is, when I get to go away again, I will inevitably want to visit new countries and places. So I sucked it up and got on the bus back to Lima. Originally we were going to do 2 overnight buses in a row but we decided to stay one night in Lima.

Awesome library at San Francisco church

On our arrival we obviously went in search of food as we had arrived so early, and found a good cafe which was pretty popular, that I had noticed the last time I was in Lima. We had some excellent food before setting about doing something a bit cultural.

We visited the catacombs at Lima, in the church of San Francisco, where there were basically a shed ton (thousands) of skeletons, and an extremely awesome library. The really big books in the foreground are made out of llama skin. In the evening we stayed up for a couple of drinks and made some friends. (Some of us more than others... mentioning no names... Steve...)

The following day Steve and I went to the cinema to see Twelve Years A Slave - it was in English - just because I love going to the cinema and wanted to do something normal. The effect was slightly ruined by the fact that in the very quiet, reflective moments, we could hear the screams from another film showing next door. When we got back to the hostel Gemma told us she had booked us in to the "Wild Rover" for when we arrived in Arequipa. Initially I thought she was joking, because it's a pretty big party hostel, but no. That evening the 5 of us (we had picked up Trey, an American from our trek in Huaraz) took a taxi to the bus station, which was a bit stressful as we thought we were going to miss the bus. Which was pretty silly of us, because of course the bus was about 40 minutes late.

Not a bad place to break down

Undoubtedly we had chicken and rice for dinner, although I have probably blocked it from my memory. It was a real treat that they played a video of Belgian singer Helmut Lotti over and over again. I particularly liked waking up to it as I had only heard it for 5 hours the previous evening and really wanted to lsiten to it a bit more. The journey was pretty uneventful until about 8am when a tyre blew. It was a surprisingly nice stop as we were on the pan-american highway and only a couple of hundred metres from the sea, with the desert on the other side.

After 19 or so hours we eventually got to Arequipa, and settled into our hostel. That evening we had a few drinks in the bar. The rum was truly awful and I am not entirely sure they had any right to call it rum as I won't mention who (me) but someone was actually sick. Believe it or not. Grim.

At the start of the trek

The next day we had a day of relaxing/eating nutella. The food at the hostel was pretty good actually, particularly their "Irish Stew." And the chips weren't bad either. We made plans for the following day to start our trip to Colca Canyon, possibly the second deepest canyon in the world with a depth of 4160m (13,650ft). 6 of us left the hostel early in the morning to go the bus station. There were 5 of us from the Santa Cruz trek - myself, Matt, Gemma, Steve and Trey, and then we picked up another straggler, Harry, who Steve had met before.

A pretty nice sunset at the oasis

It was a 6 hour bus ride from Arequipa, on which I almost wet myself. We had decided not to do the "conventional route" as apparently 800 people do it a day. (We saw about 5.) So from the village of Cabanaconde we made the toas-smashing descent to the "oasis" of Sangalle at 1300m in a couple of hours, and everyone got a fairly early night after a few games of cards and dinner.

It didn't feel like paradise by the time we reached it

Crossing the river in the morning

In the morning we rose pretty early, had pancakes for breakfast and then began the ascent from 1900m to the village of Malata at 2450m. It was good to set off early in the shade, and about 20 minutes before reaching the village to see the sun flooding the valley. From the village we walked across for a stop at a viewpoint where we scoffed lots of fruit and biscuits, then down to the tiny lodge at Llahuar (2130m). After a hot day of walking in the sun the cool river was extremely welcoming. To make it even better there was a hot spring right next to the river, and we had the whole place to ourselves from our arrival at midday until about 1800. While everybody else went to lunch I had some time to just reflect on my surroundings and enjoy the river (read: skinny dipping). In the evening after dinner I donated some immodium to an American girl. (I've now gone through 2 packets and haven't taken any - they have all been donated to other people!)

The sun about to flood the canyon

A view back on the terraces

In the hot springs

Taking an unconventional shortcut

Loving life

Once again in the morning we had an early start for the final ascent of the trip, 1160m back up to Cabanaconde to get the bus back to Arequipa. Steve almost fell off a cliff which was a bit worrying, but apart from that it was just a bit of a slog to get back up. I couldn't really find my rhythm so struggled a bit. Once we were at the top it was still a bit of a walk to get back to the village, which seemed like an age, especially as we had run out of food (but thankfully not water, as one of us had the hindsight to buy a couple of extra litres... which everybody else drank).

More river

Once we finally got back to the village we bought our bus tickets and then went to a restaurant to see if we had time to eat. Of course they told us that yes there would be plenty of time for us to have lunch. Of course they did. We didn't. I ended up dropping half my chips on the pavement as we ran for the bus, and having to eat my spaghetti out of a takeaway box as we bumped along an unpaved road. However it was very welcome, just a bit messy.

Surrogate family love

Finally on the flat after a hard morning's climb

A view back on most of the route

Celebrating with a sprite

Look away if you like cute animals

We celebrated with a few drinks in the evening before heading to bed. The following day was another amazing day of food gluttony. Brace yourself, because for the first time since I came away I HAD A ROAST DINNER. That's right, I was extremely excited... look how happy I am! We had originally been recommended this place to try cuy (guinea pig) as it is a Peruvian speciality, but on seeing a plate of roast pork belly on the table next to us, my mind was made up. I tried the cuy as well, it tasted quite similar to chicken and was quite a lot of effort for the amount of meat that was on it, but quite a novelty. That evening everyone except Matt, Gemma and I took the bus to Lima. Before they left we indulged in some excellent sportsmanship and played a few games of table football, a pasttime I thoroughly enjoy and I was particularly delighted after a tie-breaker between Matt and I ended with a spectacular own-goal on his part.

When my roast arrived... so happy!

I know it looks like it, but I promise you I didn't lick my plate clean...

In the evening we sat at the bar for a while before I had a brainwave, and less than 15 minutes later the three of us were curled up under my duvet on the sofa in the TV Room of the hostel, watching Snow White and The Huntsman and eating nutella out of the jar with a spoon. It was bliss. The film left much to be desired although apart from Kristen Stewart had an okay cast. (I had been wanting to watch this film for some time as a while back whilst on holiday in the lake district, my mum had stumbled onto the film set by accident, I wanted to see if I recognised any of the scenery from around the holiday home.) After our extremely successful evening we all decided to call it a night.

Ready for some downtime after days of trekking

We had splashed out and paid for "cama" ("bed") seats on the bus. I.e. posh seats, but as our bus wasn't until the evening we chilled out in the day and watched The Conjouring, and even though we watched it during the day I am not ashamed to say Gemma and I kept having to hold each others hands, and I successfully resisted the urge to buy another jar of nutella. We decided not to buy any snacks for the bus as it was only an eight hour journey, however this turned out to be a grave error. Tune in next week to find out why...

  

Week 21: Understand Your Man

"Trekkers gain major bragging rights as they push over the Punta Unión pass (4760m), which appears from below at an angular notch in a seemingly unbroken rocky wall above.  The panoramas from both sides of the pass are captivating."

Errr... Maybe not...

Old old ruins

 However I will get back to this later. Our stay in Huaraz began with arriving at the bus station in the cold at 0530. We made a bee-line to the hostel in a heavily overpriced taxi and crashed out for a few hours. After a short kip I got up and breifly saw Andy and Kate - who I had previously met in Chachapoyas, and also saw the insane view from the terrace of our hostel. We spent the rest of the day recuperating after our bus journey, acclimatising to the altitude, and (what a surprise!) eating. Mainly fried egg sandwiches.

Probably eating

Jesus in the snow

  The following day we went to the oldest ruins I have seen yet. The site of Chavín is approximately a 3 hour drive away from Huaraz, and the temple was built between about 900 and 500 BC. It was pretty cool as we could even go inside some of the old tunnels, which were in amazing repair, and a great place for a photoshoot. On the way back over the pass it started snowing, which was so strange as we had been in the sun all day. In the evening Andy and Kate left to move on to their next destination as they had already been in Huaraz a while, so we stayed up playing cards in the evening before they left.

Peru's Next Top Model

The totem from Chavín

Obviously after our stressful day we needed another day off. I went to the supermarket and spent almost my whole daily budget on food. You can see my lovely collection in the picture below - can't believe I found diet coke, m&ms AND nutella. (I shouldn't have bought the nutella, because it started something that couldn't be stopped. Over the next 10 days or so I managed to eat... 4... or so... jars of nutella. Whoops!) To be able to justify the splurge on food I cooked dinner for the three of us that evening. We also decided it would eb a good idea to do a day trek in the area to acclimatise before going on the 4 day Santa Cruz trek, so we signed up to go to Laguna 69 the next day.

I should not be allowed to go food shopping unsupervised

It was an early start the next morning for the trek; after 2 hours we had a "half an hour stop" (read: one hour) for breakfast, where we played the classic game of "guess the nationality" before buying our entrance tickets, and driving on into the heart of the park. On the way we stopped at Laguna Llanganuco, which was an incredible colour set against the mountains, and surrounded by what would come to be called the "filo pastry" trees.

Laguna Llanganuco

  The walk started off through the valley which was quite pleasant, but it was the only bit that was pleasant. The next stage was a gentle zig-zag up the hill which was pretty doable, but the third and final part was an absolute killer. It was far too steep at far too high an altitude to be enjoyed. We had to stop every couple ofminutes to regain our breath and rest our legs, as I could feel every individual muscle screaming out for oxygen. I would like to say it was worth it when we reached the top, but I will say only that it was "atmospheric" (misty). All the same it had been a rewarding experience. The drive back was impressive as we left the valley.

A view of Peru's highest mountain

On Sunday we had a pre-emptive pancake day (also because I wanted to gorge on more nutella) and booked the Santa Cruz trek for the following day, which also included buying a ton of snacks from the market.

Yet again we had an early start for the trek, as we were picked up from the hostel at 0600, driven two blocks and then sat waiting in the van for over half an hour before we left. (Sorry why did I get up early again?) We were the first people in the van and waited as the rest of the group arrived. This comprised Elisabeth (we just kept on bumping into each other!) who was with two Germans, two Koreans (one of which - Marco - was a flipping ninja), two Americans (one of which had been on the Laguna 69 trek) and last but not least Steve from London, whose name I forgot a few blogs ago (and then I promptly told him I had done this).

Not at the top!

Finally at Laguna  69

The drive to Cashapampa at the beginning of the trek took a couple of hours, and on the way we stopped at a small village for breakfast, which nobody got, although Steve and Matt both splashed out on some moonshine (home brew spirits). Matt's was infused with dead fly. When we first met our guide Abel, we didn't know what we had let ourselves in for. His first speech was in the van and I naively, thought it was a good start, I clearly hadn't been listening properly as I didn't hear everything he said when others repeated it later. (At the end I am going to compile a list of my favourite quotes). Abel was a central feature to our trek, and none of us could really understand what he was about - hence the blog title.

The valley at the entrance to the park

Speech number 2 was at Cashapampa before we set off. I would like to say it was a speech but it was definitely more of a lecture. He said that clearly none of us had been trekking before, and that we all should have booked with the right company. As if everybody in Peru doesn't tell you that they are the right company and no, of course, they aren't outsourcing! Per-lease!

Anyhow we set off on a bit of a grumpy note but it fired my engines up for the trek to come. The next speech was about an hour in, we stopped for about half an hour while he talked about the "Black Pope" (if you know who or what this is please feel free to comment as we would all like to know exactl what he was going on about). However it wasn't all bad as on our next stop I asked him about condors and he proved to be very informative.

A rare moment of cheerfulness

The rest of the day I mostly spent walking ahead with Trey, one of the Americans, as we both had a bit of a stride on. For once "Peruvian Time" proved to be less than normal time, and we arrived at the camp so far ahead of time that we weren't actually sure it was our camp.

Obviously we had chicken and rice for dinner, although surprisingly it was the only time. Steve drank a bit much moonshine, as he had fallen over and hurt his back and it was needed to numb the pain a little. He doesn't remember it but he gave us a brilliant preview of his beatboxing skills.

The sun floods into the valley

The beautiful if cold lake

Tuesday was a day of very serious ups and downs. It began with a walk through the valley, which was gradually revealed by the sun rising above the surrounding mountains. Interestingly we reached a part of the valley where there had been a landslide in recent years - so recent that in the guidebooks the area was still described as lush and rich with wildlife. and it was almost like a desert. Part way through the valley we reached a large lake. You can guess what we did there - darn right we went swimming in it! Naturally I had forgotten my bikini so I don't think I need to say what I did - my knickers took all day to dry off. It was pretty chilly.



One of my favourite parts of the day was taking my shoes off and crossing a river 4 times, which it transpired we didn't need to cross even once, I especially liked that every time we crossed a part, abel told us we could put our shoes on as we wouldn't have to cross it again. After this escapade, and my shoe filling with water because I was too stubborn to take it off again, I had to have some quiet time where nobody was allowed to talk to me and I had an inner battle to stop myself from strangling our guide. It was the first time I have needed such quiet time since beginning my travels.

You can see the extremechange in the land from the landslide

The lake Steve threw his shoe into

After a lunch stop which I think everybody needed to calm down, we opted to do an extra leg and walk up to Quitacocha lake. It wasn't an easy walk and yet again we had to cross a stream (or did we?!) and unsurprisingly our guide was nowhere to be seen. On the way it was okay but on the way back across I slipped on a rock and ended up thigh deep in the stream. Needless to say I had a very full shoe but I managed to save my phone. The lake wasn't the most impressive I have seen - it looked sort of like one of the old quarry lakes in the lake district, only a bit more blue and with glaciers above it. Okay, still pretty spectacular. Abel told us there was a "more challenging way" to get to the lake, which Trey, Steve and Marco took. By "more challenging" I think he actually meant "perilous and not actually a way." Marco did some ninja moves to get across to our side, and Steve managed to throw his shoe in the lake. Email me if you want to see the video. After the descent some of us in the group were slowing down so the rest waited at the bottom. On the walk to the next campsite it started raining and everyone was feeling pretty miserable by then.

I put all of my clothes on and was still cold

When we finally reached the campsite, we were all frozen to the bone and hungry. Thankfully though we didn't have to set up the tents as we had the night before, as the donkey drivers had done it for us. After dinner we pretty much all headed straight to bed. I was completely freezing, as you can see I put on every single item of clothing I had. To top of the night's entertainment all of the cows in the surrounding area came to see our camp. Bryan, the other American,w as sharing a tent with Steve, and with all his shouting thankfully the majority of the cows gravitated towards them (and peed on their tent.)

At about 0300 we heard Bryan, Elisabeth and the Germans getting up, as they had decided to do the trek in 3 days, which turned out to be a bit of a shamble (not their fault) and a lot of hassle. They didn't depart until about 0500 and ended up just doing our 2 first day's trail in reverse. Also they magically didn't have to cross the river 4 times.

Getting my stride on

The rest of us got up at about 6 and began the ascent to Punta Uníon, as described beautifully by the Lonely Planet at the beginning of this blog post. I plugged my headphones in and just got my march on - for me it was the easiest way to get it done, although it was a serious struggle towards the top partially due to altitude.
 The descent was almost as difficult as it was really slippy on the way down. We eventually reached the campsite after the last "3km" (3km my arse - took as over an hour.), although Abel didn't bother waiting for the last people, even though it wasn't easy to get to the campsite.



Trey and I pitched our tent under a tree, and although that night it was a little bit warmer, I also got elbowed in the nose. Dinner was early but the best yet - spaghetti with veg, sardines and tuna.

Triumphant at the top

Now seems like the best moment to insert my list of favourite quotes from our guide, Abel, as it was that evening that he said my favourite yet.

"You guys know the Black Pope right?"
"You know how Machu Picchu was built? Telekenesis"
"It's your fault the sun isn't shining, you need to be more positive"
"You should have booked with the right company"
"I'm looking around, none of you guys have been trekking before"
"I know your personalities"
"Mountains are mountains"

 Us "Abel. Should we put our shoes on? Or is there another river to cross"
Abel "Yes put your shoes on. Only a little one."
*10 metres later and we have to cross the river again*

Just the two of us in the dinner tent:
Abel "Are you in love?"
Me "Errr... what?"
Abel "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Me "No"
Abel "Why not?" (Not too bad so far. I have had this "but why don't you have a boyfriend?" thing since I arrived in South America. Apparently "I just don't" is not a sufficient answer)
Me "Err... I don't know"
Abel "I'm sorry to say this... but do you like girls?"
Me "no"
*Awkward silence* --> I leave.
Maybe beacuse it's been a while since someone asked me if I bat for the other side.

Jump shot at the continental divide

The view from the top

Anyway that's the majority of the rubbish he said. Rant over. The last day was only 2.5 hours which seems particularly pointless to me but after the ascent we shared some beers at the top whilst we waited for the transport back to Huaraz. Which it transpired would take 6 hours. We took a winding stony bladder shaking mountain pass for 2.5 hours before we reached the continental divide again, where we had some awesome views and some of the boys climbed up a bit higher and had a snowball fight. We stopped at Laguna 69 to pick up some stragglers and then we had the best bus journey ever.


We hooked up two speakers to my phone and then blasted some brilliant music with some even better singing and in particular some incredible Michael Jackson noises. After two hours, a lot of MJ, some Dolly Parton, Bohemian Rhapsody, the full length version of I'd Do Anything For Love, some good synchronisity and some doubtful harmonising, my phone battery died. Much to the relief of the remaining 11 people on the bus, I expect.

Before we ate...

Once we were dropped off in Huaraz we all had a quick turn around in our hostels before meeting up again to go to a gringo restaurant called "Trivio" which reputedly did the best burgers in Peru. The Sword of Damocles was hanging over Steve's ehad here, as he had really built this up for us, despite never having eaten there. Thankfull for him, the burgers lived up to expectation. Everyone was umm-ing and ahh-ing over which extras to have with the burger, so I just ordered all the extras with mine.

During... (very happy bunny)

...and after! Defeated!

Best Valentine's breakfast

The following day the four of us - Steve had moved to the same hostel as Matt, Gemma and I - had a chill day which we thoroughly deserved after the trek - Matt cooked us poached eggs and I went to the supermarket for bacon.I think it was the best breakfast of my trip so far. We ate laods of popcorn and sat on the terrace chatting and chugging some rum and beer. In the evening we had some pasta and Trey came over, but had to leave early to catch his bus to Lima. One of us (I won't mention who) stayed up after everyone else having a disco on the terrace - I heard it was really fun.

A terrace with a view... those are mountains, not clouds in the background!

Our last day in Huaraz began with another amazing poached egg and bacon breakfast. In the morning we booked our bus tickets to Lima for that night and I spent the rest of the day catching up on my blog and other admin. In the evening we had the good fortune to pass a Bratwurst/Chorizo stall on the way to the Bus Station so had a bit of a feast before jumping on the bus to Lima.

Sunset over the city