27 February 2013

Week 22 - Mancora, Vilcabamba (Peru, Ecuador)

After Rhys had finished his first day of Spanish homework he was too fried to go out for dinner so I ended up heading into town myself and ate at a lovely little café away from the blaring bars along the beach road with a good book and cuba libre for company.

Our second day of Spanish classes started at 9am for 3 hours. We couldn’t have picked a better location, sitting in the hostel common area with views over Mancora and out to sea and a 4 month old puppy called Lola to distract us. (Lola became our best friend after staying at the hostel for 6 nights and took a liking to running into our room and stealing anything she could find from toothpaste to socks, flip flops to Rhys’s pants and running off with them to the reception area. One morning when we’d slept with the door open because of the heat she came in to wake us up by biting Rhys’s feet, oh how I laughed!). After Spanish Rhys headed into town for tacos while I studied and we spent the rest of the day relaxing outside our cottage in the sun. We headed to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and some happy hour mojitos.

Spanish lessons on day 3 started getting more complicated with past tenses and the like. It’s amazing how tiring 2.5 hours of studying a language can be. Before the lesson, Rhys stayed in the room playing computer games while I went to the beach to watch the surfers and to make the most of the sun – every day we were in Mancora it was blue skies and in the region of 32C. I headed into town for dinner by myself again while Rhys played on the computer and went to a little place serving BBQ fish.

We were both glad when it got to the final day of Spanish lessons, I don’t know how people do 4 hours a day for 5 days, it was really hard. The last day was mostly conversational though so we started to put what we’d learnt into practice, role playing going to the market and buying bus tickets. I spent the morning before the lesson on the beach while Rhys stayed in the room with the computer but that afternoon Rhys came out with me for a walk around town to buy bus tickets and we had a super healthy dinner back at the hostel of red wine and Doritos.

Our last day in Mancora was Spanish free. On the advice of the girl working at the hostel we caught a local bus to Los Organos, 15 minutes south and then a tuk tuk the last couple of kilometres to a working fishing pier at a place called Nuro. Nuro is a small handful of smart houses along a desert like strip of beach. We paid 5 soles (£1.25) to be allowed on the fishing pier and to be able to jump off and swim with the green sea turtles. It was incredible. There were only a few other people there as it’s not in any guide books (yet) and most of the time it was just me and Rhys in the water. At one point when the fishing boats came in, there must have been about 20 turtles swimming around us and nudging us, each with a shell a metre or more across. They were after the fish discards that the fishermen were throwing in – so it smelt pretty bad and you didn’t want to get the water in your mouth but it was so so worth it to be able to swim with so many turtles. After the turtles we got a tuk tuk back to Los Organos and had lunch at a restaurant on the beach before hiring surf boards for an hour. The waves were not for beginners, when you caught a wave but lost it before you could stand the power of the waves made you feel like you were in a washing machine, it was a bit scary. That night to say goodbye to Mancora we went back to the Mexican restaurant and ordered a ridiculous amount of BBQ chicken wings. 

We were up early on Sunday for a direct bus to Loja in Ecuador, only when we got to the bus terminal we were told there was a problem with the bus and it wouldn’t be running so instead of the nice direct bus we had treated ourselves to, we were taken to the Eppo bus terminal and put on a bus to Sullana where we had to get a tuk-tuk across town to another bus office (the address of which no one in Mancora seemed to know). We dug around for the last few Soles we had to pay for the tuk-tuk before being told by a woman at the bus office that we couldn’t board the bus without paying 50 cents. We didn’t have 50 cents, just a 50 Soles note that they wouldn’t change. Eventually they accepted a US dollar bill and let us on to the bus. The border crossing was thankfully easy although we were running extremely low on water. Rhys ended up running off the bus at a stop on the Ecuadorian side to grab some from a stall. The bus finally arrived in Loja and we bought a ticket to Vilcabamba, 70 minutes south. Rhys went to get cash and got chatting to some people and we ended up missing the bus and changing the ticket for the next one 30 minutes later. Arriving at Vilcabamba in the dark there were no taxis at the bus station and we were told there would be no taxis at this time of night. After despairing for 15 minutes a taxi pulled up and we finally made it to Izhcayluma, a hostel retreat 2km out of town owned by German brothers. We were so happy to get there and the guy on reception was kind enough to ask the kitchen to stay open for us as we hadn’t eaten all day. The Bavarian goulash was incredible. After dinner we headed to bed to recover from the journey.

The next day we had a chill day. We had pancakes for breakfast and a huge fruit salad before walking into town to explore. There’s not much in Vilcabamba itself, people tend to go there for the hikes and the horse riding in the surrounding national parks and hills. It is however full of American expats. We shared a BLT for lunch and had some anti toxin juices (yuck) before buying a carton of wine and some supplies for the following day and heading back to the hostel. We moved rooms into a huge 6 person, 2 floor dorm and spent the afternoon relaxing in the hammocks overlooking the tropical gardens, drinking wine and playing cards with our dorm mates. After dinner (more Bavarian fair, this time stroganoff) we headed to the bar where we played pool against the owner and his friend and Rhys met his match in table tennis. Rhys also managed to get bitten by a dog (no actual damage to him, just his jumper) when he startled the old dear while she was asleep.

The next day we decided to go on a hike in the surrounding hills. The hostel has mapped out about 8 walks and gives you a print out of the trail with detailed instructions of where to go. As you walk around the trail they have even gone to the hassle of spray painting boulders and branches so you can’t get lost. The walk started following a creek across the valley before joining a country road which we followed up hill for about an hour and a half. Although not the prettiest bit of the walk it’s always nice to actually see how the locals live, to see their houses and schools and the like. After the road met the new highway we started climbing, under a barb wire fence with permission of the land owner and through a local farmers pastures until we reached the ridge line. We spent about an hour then just walking along the ridge at the top of two valleys, it was stunning although a bit precarious in places. The rain started just as we started our descent and all of a sudden the path was slippery and we had to speed up and really concentrate to get down into the river bed without any injuries. The last part of the walk followed the river bed for an hour, ducking under barb wire fences and climbing over tree branches as we went. The walk was supposed to take about 5 hours but we were back at the hostel in 3.5 hours. We spent the rest of the day relaxing before playing cards and a new game Dobble with our dorm mates. Turns out Rhys gets quite raucous playing Dobble.
Walking in the hills around Vilcabamba.
Rhys walking along the ridge, Vilcabamba.
View from the restaurant, Izchayluma, Vilcabamba.

20 February 2013

Week 21 - Huaraz, Huanchaco, Mancora (Peru)

Early during our first day in Huaraz, two girls checked into our dorm, Priya and Ash, and said they’d booked on to a 10am tour to Llanganuco lake. Since we quite fancied visiting the glacier lake too we decided to join the tour. Big mistake. After a 3 hour bone shaking drive via Carhuaz and Caraz we arrived at the Huascaran national park by the shore of a small and not overly impressive lake. As the guide only spoke Spanish we had no idea where we were and what we were supposed to be looking at and thought it was a break to get some lunch. Back in the minibus our next stop was the actual lunch stop where we had to wait for over an hour for everyone else to eat. The tour continued driving up into the valley and into Yungay before stopping at the site of a memorial park where an avalanche had wiped out a village before stopping at a cemetery, a dulce de leche shop and a pottery barn. We were glad to get back into Huaraz, it wasn’t quite the scenic lake trip we expected. Only then did we realise there was a lovely 2 hour walk at the lake that would have taken us around to see the second lake. Partly our fault and partly a rubbish tour, they didn’t even give you time to walk to the second lake.

Anyway, that experience and a quick explore of the area near the hostel made up our minds to get out of Huaraz rather than staying to do any further hikes (we’d fancied the Laguna 69 hike but couldn’t bare the thought of doing the bone shaking drive into the mountains again). We booked a bus ticket out the next night then headed into the centre for pizza to celebrate. Huaraz isn’t a pretty town, it’s very modern, busy, dirty and dusty.

As there aren’t any particular sites in town other than another cathedral we spent the day waiting for our bus in the hostel on the roof terrace where we probably had the nicest views of the city anyhow. The bus journey back down to the coast wasn’t half as scary as on the way up although pretty much everyone on the bus was struggling with travel sicknesses. We had a bit of a surprise when we arrived in Trujillo at 4:30 in the morning rather than at 6:30 per Lonely Planet. We jumped straight in a taxi and headed to Huanchaco, a beach resort about 5km out of Trujillo, where we checked in to our room and went to bed.

That day, and the next day were chill days. We walked along the beach, ate in the European Chocolate Café, drank £1.25 Mojitos and generally watched the world go by. It’s not the most attractive of beaches (Rhys found a syringe) so we made the decision to keep moving north to Mancora and booked a night bus for our third day.

On the third day we caught a bus to Chan Chan, the largest Pre-Colombian city in South America and the capital of the Chimu Kingdom (at it’s peak in the 15th century before falling to the Incas). Back in town we spent 3 hours sitting on a concrete bleacher watching a BMX and skateboard competition. Some of the BMX riders were incredible, these guys just have no sense of self preservation. We ate in the Chocolate café again that night (having also had lunch there!) before heading in to Trujillo to catch our bus.

We arrived into Mancora at around 7am and walked up the hill to our hostel. It’s beautiful. We’re perched on the hill top with views over the beach and town. We have our own little bungalow with a hammock and chairs out front. The worst of it is the noise from town carries and it’s pretty loud here at night and every time you go into town you have to climb the hill to get back to our little haven. Mancora is extremely touristy with bars, restaurants and markets everywhere but it’s exactly the kind of place we’d been looking for to stop for a while with a beautiful beach, blue skies and every day sunshine. All up we’re intending to stay for 6 nights. The first day we explored and sat by our bungalow enjoying the view before going out to an expensive steak restaurant for a treat.

Today we had surf lessons at 10am. Before we even made it into the sea Rhys had kicked a rock and taken a chunk out of his toe and on his first attempt at surfing he hit the rocks in the shallows and took a chunk out of the other foot. After that though he was awesome. It took me a little longer but I got there in the end and our teacher (who only spoke Spanish) was very persistent and wouldn’t give up on me until I got it. After an hour we were knackered and headed back up to our hostel to bandage Rhys’s feet.

This afternoon we had a Spanish teacher come to our hostel for a private lesson. It was so nice to actually use my brain and learn something, being on holiday for 5 months does have its downside… After 2 hours we were fried, we’ve booked in for more lessons over the next 3 days. Rhys is sitting doing his homework now so we can go out for dinner (I did mine hours ago while he was playing Pokemon, no suprises there).
Huascaran National Park, near Huaraz.
Chan Chan, near Huanchaco.
Watching the BMX competition, Huanchaco.
The view from our bungalow, Mancora.

13 February 2013

Week 20 - Arequipa, Huacachina, Paracas, Lima (Peru)

We arrived in Arequipa at 6am and grabbed a cab to the hostel we had booked only to be told we couldn’t check in until 11:30am. We curled up in the communal area to watch Sons of Anarchy on our laptop and wait. Once checked in we headed in to town to explore and to search for a Spanish school. Arequipa, although still beautiful, didn’t live up to Cusco. It’s very busy and they love using their car horns. After checking a couple of places and realising we really needed to start a course on a Monday we gave up (we’ll try to find somewhere further up the coast). Rhys headed off to find Burger King for lunch and I sat on a little terrace in a café on a pedestrianised street and met him back at the hostel later. That afternoon I headed out to visit the Jesuit Inglesa de la Compania, a church with an incredibly ornate façade and with a chapel covered in murals of tropical flowers, fruits and birds. Back in the main Plaza I stopped for coffee and cake before heading back to the hostel to find Rhys. For dinner we headed back to the cobble stone pedestrianised street behind the cathedral for tacos and mojitos.

The next day we walked to the Monasterio Santa Catalina, a convent occupying a whole block of the town surrounded by high walls. Founded in 1580, 30 nuns still live there but a large area of the complex has been opened to the public. Lonely Planet calls it ‘meditatively mazelike’ and you can’t help but agree. With it’s winding streets and bright blue and terracotta walls and red geraniums and orange trees it really is a peaceful haven. After a coffee in one of the courtyards we headed back to the hostel before our night bus to Ica.

We arrived into Ica on time and caught a cab straight out to the oasis town of Huacachina a couple of kilometres west. The whole village comprises of a small lake and about two streets but the draw is the huge sand dunes that surround it. After checking in and chilling at a bar with a pool we booked a sand dune trip for that afternoon. We climbed onto and strapped into a dune buggy and headed into the dunes for a rollercoaster ride. The buggy dropped us off at a couple of spots and dished out sand boards and we spent the next hour or so shooting down the dunes either lying or standing on our boards without anyone in our group getting any more serious an injury than a bit of sand burn. That night we ate BBQ and played dice with a couple of people from our trip.

Since Huacachina was pretty quiet and after sand boarding there wasn’t too much to do we decided to head further north to Paracas, 4 hours away. After check in and a quick exploration of the tiny town, Rhys recruited two of the other people from our dorm and we headed to the sea front for dinner and on to a bar with live music for cocktails. 

When we woke we were escorted to the dock and on to a boat for a trip out to Islas Ballestas, nicknamed the ‘poor mans Galapagos’. After a brief photo stop at the ‘Candelabra’ – a giant etching in the hills, the boat continued and we spent about an hour cruising around the islands arches and caves, watching the noisy sea lions and the thousands of birds, mostly pelicans, cormorants and boobies (although we were a little disappointed by the lack of blue feet). After heading back into shore, and spending half an hour queuing for our boat to dock, we went back to bed for a quick nap to sleep off the previous nights cocktails before the afternoon tour of the national park. The park was a big desert filled reserve and other than a stop to look at shell fossils, it wasn’t really worth the visit. We stopped at a few view points and an incredibly busy cove and a supposedly red beach.

The next day we were on the move again and headed up the coast to Lima. Although we’d hoped not to have to stop there the bus times meant it was easier to spend a night. We checked into a quiet hostel in Barranco, a bohemian district to the north with lots of colonial houses and restaurants and bars. By the time we got there it was late afternoon so we headed out to an amazing sandwich shop where we caught the end of the football on TV. On the way back to our hostel we stopped at Starbucks for some home comforts - frappuccinos and muffins. 

Our bus out of Lima was at 11am. The only scary bus ride we’ve had since we’ve been away. On leaving Lima on the freeway the driver had to slam on the brakes when we came across about 60 sandbags sprawled across the road and 4 police man trying to shift them. Another truck didn’t manage to stop in time and went straight over them causing the police man to jump out of the way, the truck pulled up a hundred metres further down the road with smoke coming out of it, we carried on. Then we turned off the freeway and started the winding road up into the mountains. It had rained and there had been a lot of landslides with rocks lying all over the road so we had to keep weaving into the incoming traffic lane on blind bends to avoid them, veering too close to the steep drop for our liking. Then there was a tree in the road that we had to stop for and call in so they’d come and clear it away. We stupidly booked the front seats on the top deck thinking we’d enjoy the view but seems being able to see what was happening made it all the worse. Arriving into Huaraz was a relief more than anything. It was late at night so we hailed a cab and checked in to our hotel.
Jesuit Inglesa de la Compania, Arequipa
Monasterio Santa Catalina, Arequipa.
Fountain in Monasterio Santa Catalina, Arequipa.
Sand dunes, Huacachina.
Candelabra, off the coast of Paracas.
Thousands of sea lions, Islas Ballestas.
Islas Ballestas.

6 February 2013

Week 19 - Cusco, Inca Trail (Peru)

Rhys woke up with a hang over after beer pong and spent the day relaxing playing Pokemon. I headed into town to join a free walking tour. I highly recommend it. Rather than being a standard city tour the guide takes you to non-touristic places off the beaten track. We spent 4.5 hours visiting various cafes, restaurants, bars, museums, jewellery and alpaca workshops, tattoo shops and viewpoints of the city. At each stop we learned a little more about Cusco and Peru and sampled tonnes of different foods and drinks from chicha to causas. 

The next day we started the Inca trail – the second time for me having walked it last time I was here. The Inca trail is a 43km (26 mile) trek that combines Inca ruins, mountains and cloud forest, arriving on the final day at Machu Picchu. Having spent 3 weeks or so at altitude we were pretty well acclimatised and decided we’d save money by not having a private porter and carrying all our own gear (well except for tents and food). Although the second day had most of us panting a little on the climb and the steps on the third day required a lot of concentration, I definitely found it easier second time round and me and Rhys were usually the first to reach the passes or the camps.

The first day of the trek was a relatively easy 12 km walk. After being collected from our hostel at 6am, our bus drove for 2.5 hours through the picturesque villages of Chinchero, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo, to kilometre 82 (the start of the trail). After crossing the Vilcanota River the trail climbed steeply up to a small village where the ruins of the Inca hillfort of Huillca Raccay came into view. Throughout the day we had views of the Urubamba mountain range and the snow capped peak of Veronica standing at 5860m. We also passed the extensive Inca ruins of Llactapata, primarily an agricultural station used to supply Machu Picchu with maize. Although the day started slowly as our guides insisted on us walking as a group (there were 15 of us) and we had to stop every 5 mins for everyone to catch up, by the end of the day we were allowed to walk at our own pace and made it to camp in good time. 

The second day was another 12km hike. After following the river bank for a while we dropped into a beautiful cloudforest and then the uphill really started, the wooded area became increasingly steeper and the views more and more spectacular once we reached the tree line, visibility was high and we could see for miles down into the valley. After a second breakfast we climbed the steepest part of the trail to the first pass at 4,200m known as ‘Dead Woman’s Pass’. Once at the top we waited for over an hour for the rest of the group and the guides to catch up before starting the decent to camp. We arrived before lunch and spent the afternoon taking siestas and playing dice.

The third day was our longest day but also the most spectacular, we covered 15km. From camp it took just under an hour to climb up to the small circular ruins of Runkuracay and then another 30 minutes to hike to the second pass at 4,000m. At this point the path started to look more like a paved Inca trail and 80% of the paving was original. The section between the second and third passes was especially beautiful as the path crosses high stone embankments and skirts deep precipices, passing Sayacmarca, reached by way of a steep stone staircase and Conchamarca, a small Inca dwelling situated in the shadows of Sayacmarca, which was probably a tambo for weary travellers on their way to Machu Picchu. The path then descended into cloudforest full of orchids, hanging mosses, tree ferns and flowers. At the third pass we stopped for lunch with stupendous views of several snow-capped peaks including Salkantay (6,180m – our guide said he’s only been able to see this mountain 3 times in his career) and Veronica (5,750m). A few minutes after the pass is Phuyupatamarca, the name means 'Town in the Clouds'. After the ruins came the decent of the Inca staircase of a thousand steps. It takes a long time to walk a thousand steps and your knees are none too happy by the end of it. That night we camped at Wiñay Wayna, the last official campsite before Machu Picchu. 

Our final day saw us up and ready to go at 4:30am. We queued at the campsite gate ready for the trail to open at 5:30am for the final 5km walk to Machu Picchu. The trail wound around a mountain and through cloudforest before coming to an almost vertical flight of 50 steps leading up to the Sun Gate (Intipunku). It is quite a sense of achievement when you finally reach the gate although Machu Picchu still looks tiny in the distance (although I have to say it wasn’t quite the same feeling you got at the end of the ‘W’ since you’re staying in relative luxury with 3 course meals twice a day and are carrying half as much weight our bags weighed in at 8kg). A short walk further and we arrived at the ‘Watchman’s hut’ for the typical photos of the well known postcard view. We had 30 minutes to treat ourselves to chocolate bars and cold drinks before our guide gave a two hour tour of the major sections of the ruins. After the tour we had free time so we headed into Agua Calientes for a celebratory beer while some others stayed to explore the ruins further. We all met up in town for lunch and then a few of us headed up to the (extremely murky) hot springs. After a few happy hour drinks on the way to the train station we boarded for the 2 hour journey to Ollantaytambo from where we were collected by our bus for the drive back to Cusco. Although there was a lot of talk of doing the 24 hour challenge and going to Mama Africas, by the time we got back we were all pretty tired and after a MacDonalds we checked back into our hostel for a good nights sleep.

We were lucky and had a really good group, Tom and Frank from Australia, Stephen and Rachel from Northern Island, James and Charlotte from England, Jeremy & Claudia from Australia and a group of 5 from Switzerand. We also knew 5 or so other people in different groups who we bumped into at camp or along the trail each day. The porters were amazing, for the 15 of us we had 2 guides, 18 porters and a chef, the oldest porter was 68 and known of them stopped smiling despite carrying nearly 30kg and running along the trail. When we got to camp each night the tents were pitched and dinner was underway, we certainly didn’t go hungry – pancakes and eggs for breakfast, soup, 3 course lunch and dinner and popcorn for afternoon tea. We even had a gigantic cake one night for dessert. We were even more lucky with the weather, considering it was wet season it only ever rained when we were in camp and the views were incredible.

The next day as we unpacked our gear ready to return the rentals to the shop, Rhys discovered an Australian passport. Luckily we worked out the hostel Frank was staying at to return it before enjoying the best pork sandwiches in the whole of Cusco for lunch. Rhys had been talking about getting his lip pierced for ages so our next stop was a tattoo shop where he got his lip pierced and I had my nose re-pierced. We spent the rest of the day recuperating at the hostel until 7pm when we headed to the Plaza de Armas to meet up with a few people from the trail and a couple we bumped into again who we met in Argentina for dinner/drinks. As we were walking down a small cobbled street to a restaurant the electricity for the whole city went out. It was pitch black and immediately the shop owners started closing up. We hurried back into the Plaza and headed towards the candlelight glowing from Paddy’s the Irish bar where we ended up staying – the Shepherds Pie was incredible.

Our last day in Cusco Rhys spent chilling at the hostel. I wondered up to the white Christ, a miniature version of Christ the Redeemer in Rio and to look at the outer walls of Sacsayhuaman, a huge Inca site on the outskirts of town. After admiring the view of the city I wondered back down through the San Blas bohemian district before stopping at a little café for a local specialty of stuffed peppers. At 7pm we booked a cab to the Cruz del Sur bus station to board an overnight VIP bus to Arequipa.
Rhys at Dead Womans Pass - Inca Trail.
Me, day 2 - Inca Trail.
Me, Rhys, Ben, James and Reiss - Inca Trail.
Llama, day 3 - Inca Trail.
Rhys, nearly at the 3rd pass, day 3 - Inca Trail.
Rhys, cloudforest day 3 - Inca Trail.
Inca ruins, day 3 - Inca Trail.
Rhys, the inca steps day 3 - Inca Trail.
Our group at Machu Picchu - Inca Trail.
The White Christ, Cusco.