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!
Well done Hannah that sounds awesome!!!! Love catching up on what exciting things you are doing out there!!! xx
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