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!

Chasing waterfalls

Once again I've spent the last few days getting a bit too used to spending all day in a hammock and neglecting this blog in the process. I've been to a few new places and actually crossed another border in the last couple of weeks so this might be a long one. First up: Baños. In the few days I spent there I think I did more 'activities' than I've done since I was in year 7 and we went on one of those adventure weekends.

The bus ride from Quito to Baños was drama-less and we (I'm currently travelling with Beth who I met in Quito:we both understand the importance of dessert after every meal so we get on well) arrived on a night with no trouble. It was dark when we arrived but it seemed like a small, safe town so we walked to our hostel- again no problems. The problems began when we encountered the guy on reception, who I would say is the rudest person that I've had the misfortune to meet so far. He asked if we spoke spanish, to which I replied my standard 'un poquito'. He then said, in spanish, 'why are you in Ecuador then?' and proceeded to tell us everything in very fast spanish, eventually asking in an incredibly patronising manner if we understood or did we need it in english too. I was so shocked by how rude he was that I defiantly said yes we understood (luckily Beth actually had understood it all) and off we went to our rooms. I don't understand this kind of person- why work in a hostel in a very touristy town if you don't want to speak to foreign people who may not speak the language fluently? Long story short, despite the actual hostel being pretty nice I wouldn't recommend staying at Great Backpackers Hostel in Baños purely so you never have to meet this horrible man.
Anyway, I did actually like Baños itself. It's a nice little town surrounded by green mountains and waterfalls and is probably the most touristy place I've been so far. Everything is catered to tourists- restaurants have english menus, more people than anywhere else I've been speak english and every tour operator/massage parlour (they're everywhere)/restaurant has someone outside it trying to get you in there. 

Last Friday Beth & I had a pretty adventurous day; our first activity was zip-lining. I don't think I've ever zip-lined before but for some reason I was pretty drawn to the idea, so we each paid our $20 and off we went. It was a lot of fun and definitely not as scary as I'd imagined, that is until the last line where both of us got stuck just short of the end leaving us dangling over a huge canyon. The woman who was taking us around the lines had to hook herself on and drag me back in, which was around the same time I decided to start wondering if I was covered for zip-lining on my travel insurance...but eventually we made it safely back to the platform. 

We continued our day by renting a quad bike to head up a mountain to 'the swing at the end of the world'; a swing hanging off a tree house which sees you swinging out into a canyon. I'll let you in on a secret though- the photos make it look so much scarier than it is. I mean you probably wouldn't want to fall off the swing, but actually the scariest part of the day came when I attempted to drive the quad bike. I thought I had it and then suddenly Beth was screaming "BRAKE BRAKE" and then we'd crashed into the side of the road. So the important things to take away from this story are 1) I should never drive a quad bike again and 2) so long as you pay up front they'll let you do whatever the hell you want in Ecuador- I think the people in the rental place were genuinely shocked we made it back alive. 

The next day we went a little less life-threatening and rented bikes for the day so that we could go on a waterfall route, ending at a huge one that they call the Devils cauldron. It was such a beautiful trip and I only nearly fell off my bike twice so all in all a much better result than the quad bike. 

The next day we decided to get the night bus to a little town on the coast called Montanita. Every traveller in Ecuador will tell you that Montanita is the place to be if you want to have fun- people liken it to places like Koh Phi Phi with its abundance of cheap cocktails (there's actually a street called Cocktail Alley full of people who will make you anything you want for less than £1) but with a better ratio of locals to gringos. I really liked the vibe of Montanita, and we met a lot of really cool people in our hostel. However I left the town with, no exaggerating, more than 50 mosquito bites. Bug spray was useless, the sandalwood sticks we burnt around the hostel did nothing- everyone was covered. 

We also had a little day trip out to a nearby town called Puerto Lopez to go whale watching which was so cool- they came so close to the boat and at one point I think there were 3 of them all swimming around us. Unfortunately I think I've come to the realisation that boats make me feel incredibly anxious- obviously we had to go pretty far out to find them and the water was so rough. I'm not sure what it is because I don't feel sick but I just feel so uncomfortable and spend the whole time thinking about when I can be on dry land again. Still, I'm really glad I went to see the whales seeing as I couldn't afford to head out to the Galápagos Islands on this trip. Please excuse how rubbish my photos are- I kept turning my camera off just at the wrong time!

I was intending to stay in Montanita all through the weekend but I decided I couldn't cope with the mosquitos anymore and so I decided to tag along with a group from my hostel who were getting a night bus to cross the border into Peru. I actually sleep on the night buses a lot better than I expected I would and so another uneventful bus and a couple more passport stamps later, I woke up in my third country. We're in a little beach town called Mancora being very bad tourists- we're at a hostel which is basically gringo central and encourages a lot of drinking and not much else. I'm currently entering my third hour spent in a hammock today trying to decide whether to go get an alcoholic slushie from the bar- it's a hard life sometimes. 

I'm not sure where I'm heading next- I think I'll just follow the crowd and jump on a bus wherever the group I'm hanging out with are heading. I've been out here just under 2 months now which is just crazy- I can't decide if I think it's going ridiculously fast or if it feels like I've been out here forever. I know one thing: it's been way too long since I last had Bovril. I actually think it's the thing I miss most (friends and family aside of course, you mean more to me than beef) and whenever I next know that I'll be staying somewhere for a while I'll be getting my parents to send me a jar or two. I hope you're allowed to mail Bovril. On that deep note, I'll draw this very long post to a close. 5 points for you if you made it this far!