Wonder of the world

I'll forgive anyone who has lost interest in where on earth I am; one thing I've realised out here is that it's incredibly easy to get lazy with blogging. I'll do my best to rewind the last three weeks now...

So I finished my last post in Lima having just said goodbye to my little travel group. After Lima I got a bus down to Paracas with Erika, another English girl, to see what had been described to us as the 'poor mans Galapagos'. I think that's putting it kindly because from my experience that man must have been very poor indeed. Basically, you can go on a 1 and a half hour boat ride out to a nearby island where you can see lots of sea lions, various types of birds and you might just be able to see a few Humboldt penguins. You can't get off the boat however and the whole area of Paracas basically smells like seaweed and bird poo. It was cool to see the sea lions and a few penguins but the trip was fairly disappointing overall and certainly hasn't satisfied my aim to one day to go to the real Galapagos. Paracas in general was a bit of a let down- the whole town lost power for a few hours both days we were there and I'm almost ashamed to admit this but on the second day as we entered hour 3 of no internet or power I actually made myself have a nap because there was nothing else to do. 

However, after Paracas we headed a bit further south to another small town called Huacachina which we absolutely loved. To call it a town is probably exagerrating; it is literally an oasis and a couple of streets that have been plonked down in the middle of sand dunes as you can see below (apologies for iPhone photos, I didn't want to get sand in my camera). It was so amazing to see the huge dunes surrounding the town and our hostel was good too (Bananas hostel FYI). We met some really cool people there and after a few drinks at the only bar in town (aptly named 'Huaca-f******-china') we made the decision at midnight to walk up to the highest sand dune we could find. It probably took about an hour to get up there and we were joined by some lovely local dogs who we like to think were protecting us on our journey. The view from the top was amazing and we could see the lights from lots of towns for miles around. Unfortunately nobody had a decent enough camera to get any good photos up there but that night is probably one of my favourite memories from the last month.

The next day we headed out for the main reason anyone heads to Huacachina- a ride in a dune buggy and sandboarding. The dune buggy was so much fun, heading down huge sand dunes is probably more fun than most roller coasters. I also had a young Chinese boy screaming in my ear the whole time which definitely enhanced the experience. Next was the sand boarding which was terrifying. We had a practice run on 3 smaller dunes but even on those I wouldn't even think about standing up, which most other people at least attempted- though there were a fair few painful looking falls on the way down. I resigned myself to sitting down which was still fun but I wish we'd got to spend a bit more time in the buggy to be honest, though that's just because I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to facing my fears of hurtling face first down near 90 degree sand dunes. 

After the sand dunes we had to hurry back to town to get our bus back to Lima as we'd decided to fly from there to Cusco to avoid a nearly 24 hour bus. The amount of sand on my body during that bus ride was ridiculous; I kept finding new patches of skin that needed brushing off and I don't think I got all of the sand out of my hair for a good few days after. 

We spent 2 more days doing not very much in Lima, although I did go for a wander and find the Parque de Amor. The centrepiece of this park was of a couple kissing and it seems that it encourages life to imitate art- the park was full of loved-up couples. Despite this it was a lovely place to stumble across, with love quotations written out in mosaic tiles all over. A little further down from the park also seemed to be a popular launching point for people to go paragliding- there must have been 20 different people flying around at one point. In the end I think I did like Lima, despite the bad reputation it seems to gain from travellers, and I'd recommend a visit there to anyone going through Peru.

The next day Erika & I headed to the airport for our flight to Cusco, feeling very smug at reducing a 24 hour journey to just 1 hour. I had a really good feeling about Cusco as soon as we left the airport. It's a great city with a lovely old town and little streets full of shops selling the usual souvenirs. There are old women in traditional dress holding baby llamas in adorable woollen hats everywhere and a legitimate way for these old women to make money is to charge gringos 2 soles (40p) for a photo with them. Somehow I managed to resist but those baby llamas really were adorable. 

There's a market in Cusco which sells pretty much anything you could wish to buy, though much to my horror there was also one section where I witnessed a man hacking up a whole pig with a saw. There's also a black market where you can buy pretty much anything counterfeit and, luckily for me, you can get your phone screen fixed cheap- moral of the story don't leave your phone unattended while charging in a hostel because other people really don't care if they knock your phone off and leave it smashed on the floor. 

We also went on a walking tour in Cusco, although it wasn't exactly so much about Cusco as it was about the culture of Peru generally, as well as telling the story of the tour guide's life. We found out that when he was younger he had no choice but to help in the production of cocaine in the jungle (something he was not proud of) which I think startled a few of the older members of the tour. 

Of course the other thing people do from Cusco is go to Machu Picchu. I was so indecisive for ages about how to do it, I didn't want to do a 5 day trek and I wasn't feeling the popular jungle trek which included 4 hours of downhill mountain biking. In the end me and Sarah, a Canadian girl I've met along the way, decided to do the cheapest way possible which is to get a 7 hour bus to a hydroelectrico station then walk 2-3 hours down the train tracks to the town next to Machu Picchu. At one point on this walk the train that the richer travellers can afford to take passes you by but the walk isn't too bad if you can handle the flies swarming on you. 

We had a pretty early night in Aguas Calientes and the next morning we were up at 3.30am to get in the queue for the bus up to Machu Picchu. We got there at the perfect time because a few minutes later we saw the queue was getting so long and we managed to get on the second bus of the day. Machu Picchu itself is really amazing. I honestly can't fathom how the Inkas managed to build the town, though it is considered that they were the most intelligent ancient civilisation. We didn't get a tour guide there but we tried to be sneaky and just latch on to various different groups to hear snippets of information. The mountains surrounding the site were amazing too, the looked really mystical with the fog surrounding them. All in all, of course I'd say that Machu Picchu is a must see if you're in Peru- and don't let people make you feel guilty about not doing a proper trek if its not for you!

There's also lots of llamas in Machu Picchu- Sarah was unsuccessful in getting a decent selfie unfortunately.

 

The last few days have been fairly uneventful; we stayed a night in Puno on the way to cross the border into Bolivia but I decided against the floating islands there as I'd heard they were very touristy nowadays. I did however, inexplicably, find life size replicas of the animals in Ice Age so of course I had a photo next to them. 

Then I decided to get the bus all the way to La Paz as I know a few people here at the moment. I've not done too much here so far apart from find a lovely little coffee shop where I got a nutella latté, so clearly I'm being very cultural so far. The city doesn't seem like it'll be my favourite but I'm planning on doing the walking tour today so hopefully I'll see some good parts of the city. 

I'll try not leave it 3 weeks for the next update, but don't hold it against me if I fail!

Glaciers, lagunas..and shopping malls

Yet again it feels like so much has happened since I last checked in. Last time I was feeling guilty for being a lazy traveller and enjoying too much hammock time- you'll be glad to know that last week was pretty much the opposite of that...and that this week has kind of taken it full circle back to laziness. 

Beth & I left Mancora with 3 guys that we met in Montañita; 2 brothers from Wisconsin called JB and Jim and a Swedish guy named Olov. I had no real plans for the north of Peru having done very little research and the guys had a few places they wanted to stop on the way to Lima so we thought we may as well tag along. First stop was a couple of hours in Chiclayo on the way to Chachapoyas. The less said about Chiclayo the better; both Olov and I were convinced we were going to get food poisoning just in time for our night bus, but luckily I discovered that my stomach can apparently cope with raw chicken. We arrived in Chachapoyas in the early hours of last Tuesday having survived what felt like travelling inside an oven and all crashed in our dorm until lunchtime. The main reason people stop in Chachapoyas is to go to Kuelap, an old pre-inca ruin town, but by the time we all woke up it was too late for us to go so we spent the day wandering and being fairly underwhelmed by the town. Olov even let me paint his toenails bright red so I think that says it all. 

The next day we woke up bright and early to head off to Kuelap, a good 2-3 hour drive away. For some reason Olov had dressed for a day at the beach so when we woke up from our minibus naps to see rain he was a bit concerned about his choice of attire. Luckily the restaurant we stopped at to book our lunch for later seemed to be selling woollen vests (they were just hanging on the wall like decorations) so he did the only thing he could do and bought one, which gave us all a much needed boost every time we caught sight of him. Multiple Peruvian tourists asked him for photos- we weren't sure if they thought he was some sort of Swedish celebrity/model or if they just thought he looked ridiculous. The ruins themselves were interesting to see but the day was slightly dampened (excuse the pun) by the gradually increasing rain as time went on, with us all eventually running through the ruins as fast as we could back to the minibus to get out of the pouring rain. 

Then came the journey back- we had another night bus booked for 7.30 and had been told we'd be back well in time to make it. In true South American style we arrived back at our hostel late (about 6.40) and had to run across town with our backpacks in tow, somehow getting to the bus station just in time for our next uncomfortable sleep. We were treated to Taken 3 in Spanish however which was possibly even worse than the English version. 

We woke up the next day in Trujillo. Somehow we got incredibly lucky as the bus station had showers which I think we all were relieved to see as we knew we had to get another night bus later on- if you ever want to feel gross I recommend you take a night bus. I'll never moan about taking a 4 hour megabus back home again. There's not much going on in Trujillo so we opted to get a collectivo to the next town over, the seaside town of Huanchaco, where we spent the day chilling on the beach and playing many games of gin in a bar next to the sea. 

Fast forward to the night and we found ourselves boarding our fourth night bus in 8 days to Huaraz. There were a few others that we met in Mancora, including CeCe who I met in my first few days in Bogota, on the same bus as us too. There's almost something comforting in knowing that you aren't the only one whose going to have a terrible nights sleep-sadistic but true. 

Huaraz is a town people go to to use as a base for doing various hikes in the surrounding mountain range, the cordilleras blancos.  If you know me I know what you're thinking- I am not and never have been a hiker. However my time in Huaraz gave me some of the best experiences I've had so far. Last Saturday we decided to do a hike to a glacier. People recommend doing this hike first in order to acclimatise, as it goes pretty high (5200m) but isn't a very long hike so isn't too unbearable. I can say that now because I've already done it, but let me tell you altitude sickness is a very real thing. It's such an unpleasant feeling- the path we had to walk up really wouldn't have been challenging at sea level but at that altitude your head is spinning, you can hardly catch your breath and your legs start to feel like lead. The glacier was totally worth it though- I've never seen anything like it in real life, it was amazing to see. The only slight downer on the day was when I crouched down to take a photo of Beth and somehow lost my balance, causing me to fall backwards into a large puddle of freezing cold water. Not my finest moment. However on the same day I did also see a lamb wearing a tiny knitted hat, so it's all swings and roundabouts really.

(Beth, Olov, JB, me, Jim)

The next day I reluctantly decided to join the others on their 5am wake up call to do a hike to Laguna 69. This one wasn't quite as high, getting up to about 4600m, but was about 3 hours up and 2 more back down. It started off okay- I didn't feel the altitude right away and the path was clear. After about 45 minutes it started to hit me and suddenly the guide was directing us to scramble up steep rocky shortcuts. He didn't strike me as the most sympathetic guy (he told us if we felt really unwell to just go back to the bus because if we took too long to get back they'd just leave without us) so I forced myself up. I spent most of the second half of the hike there by myself, probably in the middle of our 30 person group. I had to stop pretty regularly to catch my breath and there were a few times that I seriously considered giving up, as I tend to do when I'm bad at something. But I kept on going, literally talking to myself and telling myself it was all in my head, and somehow at the top of the toughest part of the hike I turned the corner and caught my first glimpse of the brightest, bluest water I've ever seen. It was 100% worth doing and is probably one of the biggest physical challenges I've put myself through but I'm genuinely really proud of myself for making myself do it. The walk back down was much better but still very rocky- of course, again, I ended up on my bum at least once- but we all made it back to the bus intact and very ready to have a celebratory ron (spanish for rum) or five. 

The next day was spent recovering and waiting around for our next night bus to the capital city, Lima. 

We've been here since early Tuesday morning now and I'm sorry to say I have no real photos of the place and haven't been very successful at sight-seeing. Lima is just like any other big city in the world- it couldn't feel less Peruvian if it tried. Everyone can speak English, every big fast food chain is within walking distance of the hostel and the local supermarket is probably better than most of the ones in England. A few of us decided we deserved to step out of our backpacker bubble and went to a huge mall a few days ago; they had a Clarks, a River Island, a massive H&M, every food option possible...I honestly felt like I was walking around Westfield in London. Beth & Olov had hair cuts in a proper salon without living in fear that the hairdresser would just guess what they wanted. All in all it was a very successful day- I bought jeans, 2 tops and mascara for less than £50. Other than that my days have been fairly uneventful apart from a bit of wandering round nearby districts and sampling the traditional Peruvian alcohol, pisco, which I will simply say I don't think is the best choice for me to continue my impressive ability to never really get hangovers. 

Yesterday everyone went their separate ways; Beth flew to Cusco, Olov opted for the 21(!!) hour bus there, JB carried on down to Paracas and Jim got on a flight back home early this morning. These guys are all some of the best people I've met while travelling and I feel lucky that my path happened to cross with all of theirs. I'm sad (and a bit scared) to be alone again but the great thing about travel is that now I have friends from all over the world!