Over and over again during this trip, I´ve heard negative things about Lima. It´s boring. It´s unsafe and congested.
The areas outside the touristy hotspots - Barranco and Miraflores - absolutely are congested, impoverished and unsafe for tourists. But in those safe zones, where the beautiful houses are protected by big iron gates, is a beautiful, funky town. The restaurants and bars are alive at night, there are people on the streets.
Walking around, I feel far less safe here than I did in other cities, even in Peru. Cusco felt safe, even when I wandered out of the old city and into the real city (in the daytime, but still.) Arequipa I didn´t spend much time in, but downtown felt safe. Lima doesn´t feel like I´ll get hurt, but it does feel like there´s always someone with an eye on my purse. One of the girls in my hostel had a wallet and an iPod stolen from her backpack the other day... you have to be vigilent, and I´ve learned it´s okay to be a little bit paranoid. There´s a difference between watching your own back and being a spaz case, and when you´re all alone in these cities, you have to know what´s going on.
Safety lesson over.
So while Lima hasn´t entirely stolen my heart, it has its good points. The neighbourhoods of Barranco and Miraflores are both perched on ocean-side cliffs , watching as the sea slams against the rocky beaches. Each area has its own feeling, its own vibe, its own beauty. It´s a neat city. I like it.
And I only have one more day to enjoy it, and I´m out of here... my flight leaves early tomorrow morning, so I have to pretend it leaves tonight lest I miss a flight (no comments please... hahaah... eek). And by this time tomorrow, I will be back on Canadian soil. I´m stoked and heartbroken at the same time.
s.
November 16, 2009
November 14, 2009
Colca Canyon
As planned, my group from the Loki hostel in Cusco rolled into Arequipa on Tuesday morning and took over a little hostel near the plaza. Myself and one other in the group were on a different bus than everyone else, and so there was a little confusion initially over where I was trying to go, but by midmorning we'd found them and set up a tour for 110 soles.... amazing price thanks to Nathan's haggling.
We bummed around Arequipa for the day... I see why people fall in love with it. While activity-wise there's not an awful lot to do other than the canyon around the city, the city itself deserves some credit. It's beautiful. Most of the buildings are white-washed volcanic stone, painted all sorts of colours down the streets and in the Plaza des Armas, kept gorgeously, glowingly white. What a pretty plaza. It's a pity I didn't get to spend more time in this city, it was a treat.
Bedtime came early and then morning came earlier... remember in my last post when I declared that I would never again wake before 4 am? I lied.
I got up at 2:55.
I am not kidding.
It's a 4 hour drive to the canyon, plus breakfast at 6 or so, and the condors that nest around the deepest point only fly in the early to mid morning. Thus, we woke up at 3 and slept in the bus on the way there. We were rewarded by 3 condors soaring through the canyon - one of the deepest in the world. The birds were beautiful, hardly bothering to flap. And from that high up, they almost look small.
The first day's hike wasn't too bad... mostly down the canyon's side, which can be perilous only because of the excessive amounts of dust on the trail. A few of us slipped and fell, but never over the edge. We spent the night in a tiny village at the bottom and split two bottles of rum between 12 of us. (We'd bought them at the top because its cheaper and carted them down... we'll call this dedication. Ha.) Nicely drunk, we were still in bed by 10.
Day two was your basic Peruvian flat hike... up and down and up and down along the side of the canyon. Slippery still, but manageable. By noon we were at the canyon 'oasis,' a little resort with a swimming pool, wood huts and a bar at the bottom of the canyon. Perfect. We spent the day lounging in the sun and learning card games from each other.
At night we had a bonfire and more rum. The bartender decided to teach me how to drink like a Peruvian. You take a shot, count to 8, breath three times and THEN you get your pisco and sprite. And when you are doing this at the bottom of the world's deepest canyon, you take your shot of rum out of a bowl. Because sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
He also gave me recipes for Peruvian food and for pisco sours. Amazing.
Again, we stumbled to bed drunk before midnight, only to be woken up at 5 for the hardest part of the whole trek: a three hour up-the-mountain climb to be done before breakfast because if you wait too long, it's just too hot to even bother.
And so for the second time in a week, I climbed a mountain before breakfast. It's almost become routine, really. (Kidding... oh my god my thighs hurt...) In reality it was one of the hardest things I've done on this trip, only partly because of the mild hangover.
About half way up I banded together with one of the Aussie girls in the group and we managed to keep each other going the whole way up... although by the last third we'd essentially stopped talking and just moved to grunting and swearing because we didnt have the energy for words anymore. We did well, in the end. We set a good pace for each other and managed to power through the agony, and we made it up the canyon in two and a half hours, so better than average.
After breakfast we drove to a hot springs, where we basked for an hour and showered (VERY necessary), ate lunch at a buffet (the most full I've been in weeks...) and then drove back to Arequipa.
Instead of staying friday night, we all just hopped on a night bus. Most of the group got off in Ica this morning (If any of you see this, I miss you already!!!!) And myself, Nathan and one other went through to Lima. They went past Lima to Mancora this morning, leaving me on my own again... I'll miss you, my favourite Essex boy!
It was neat to spend so much time with one group of people. I haven't had that my whole trip and it was a welcome change, especially as this group had a fantastic dynamic. Everyone was constantly joking and playing around, keeping the atmosphere light and easy... except when food was late or skimpy, but that's just natural. Ha.
So now I'm in Lima, in the Point hostel by the ocean. I'll be here until I fly out monday night.
S.
We bummed around Arequipa for the day... I see why people fall in love with it. While activity-wise there's not an awful lot to do other than the canyon around the city, the city itself deserves some credit. It's beautiful. Most of the buildings are white-washed volcanic stone, painted all sorts of colours down the streets and in the Plaza des Armas, kept gorgeously, glowingly white. What a pretty plaza. It's a pity I didn't get to spend more time in this city, it was a treat.
Bedtime came early and then morning came earlier... remember in my last post when I declared that I would never again wake before 4 am? I lied.
I got up at 2:55.
I am not kidding.
It's a 4 hour drive to the canyon, plus breakfast at 6 or so, and the condors that nest around the deepest point only fly in the early to mid morning. Thus, we woke up at 3 and slept in the bus on the way there. We were rewarded by 3 condors soaring through the canyon - one of the deepest in the world. The birds were beautiful, hardly bothering to flap. And from that high up, they almost look small.
The first day's hike wasn't too bad... mostly down the canyon's side, which can be perilous only because of the excessive amounts of dust on the trail. A few of us slipped and fell, but never over the edge. We spent the night in a tiny village at the bottom and split two bottles of rum between 12 of us. (We'd bought them at the top because its cheaper and carted them down... we'll call this dedication. Ha.) Nicely drunk, we were still in bed by 10.
Day two was your basic Peruvian flat hike... up and down and up and down along the side of the canyon. Slippery still, but manageable. By noon we were at the canyon 'oasis,' a little resort with a swimming pool, wood huts and a bar at the bottom of the canyon. Perfect. We spent the day lounging in the sun and learning card games from each other.
At night we had a bonfire and more rum. The bartender decided to teach me how to drink like a Peruvian. You take a shot, count to 8, breath three times and THEN you get your pisco and sprite. And when you are doing this at the bottom of the world's deepest canyon, you take your shot of rum out of a bowl. Because sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
He also gave me recipes for Peruvian food and for pisco sours. Amazing.
Again, we stumbled to bed drunk before midnight, only to be woken up at 5 for the hardest part of the whole trek: a three hour up-the-mountain climb to be done before breakfast because if you wait too long, it's just too hot to even bother.
And so for the second time in a week, I climbed a mountain before breakfast. It's almost become routine, really. (Kidding... oh my god my thighs hurt...) In reality it was one of the hardest things I've done on this trip, only partly because of the mild hangover.
About half way up I banded together with one of the Aussie girls in the group and we managed to keep each other going the whole way up... although by the last third we'd essentially stopped talking and just moved to grunting and swearing because we didnt have the energy for words anymore. We did well, in the end. We set a good pace for each other and managed to power through the agony, and we made it up the canyon in two and a half hours, so better than average.
After breakfast we drove to a hot springs, where we basked for an hour and showered (VERY necessary), ate lunch at a buffet (the most full I've been in weeks...) and then drove back to Arequipa.
Instead of staying friday night, we all just hopped on a night bus. Most of the group got off in Ica this morning (If any of you see this, I miss you already!!!!) And myself, Nathan and one other went through to Lima. They went past Lima to Mancora this morning, leaving me on my own again... I'll miss you, my favourite Essex boy!
It was neat to spend so much time with one group of people. I haven't had that my whole trip and it was a welcome change, especially as this group had a fantastic dynamic. Everyone was constantly joking and playing around, keeping the atmosphere light and easy... except when food was late or skimpy, but that's just natural. Ha.
So now I'm in Lima, in the Point hostel by the ocean. I'll be here until I fly out monday night.
S.
November 9, 2009
Peruvian Flat
It turns out mountain biking is hard. I mean I should have known that, but it is really really hard.
Our first day on the MP trek was entirely biking. Granted it was all downhill and such, but out of 5 hours of biking, the last 3 and a half were on bumpy, rocky dirt roads. My bum is still sore. My hands were practically bruised from gripping the handlebars. It poured rain all day and I hav enever been so soaked and dirty.... and it was amazing.
There were moments when I was just pissed off that I was biking in the jungle in a downpour, but at the end of the day, when we rode up to the hostel... I am glad that I didn´t wuss out and take the bus half way through. I am proud that I finished the day in style.
We biked maybe 50 km, to a town called Santa Maria. Dinner was apparently traditional Peruvian (meat and rice.) and tasty, especially after a day like that!
Our group had 7 people in it, which is fairly small. There was a dutch couple, a Belgian couple, a New Zealander and a Brit. I spent most of the time hanging out with the Brit, he and I got along really well. We also made friends with some of the groups doing the same trek at the same time but with different companies. Really social atmosphere, for being stuck out in the Peruvian jungle.
That night I got my own room! Delightful.
Day two was sunny and hot, which was amazing for trekking (rain is less than ideal, shall we say...) although after a while its a bit much. We did 7 hours total. First flat, then up a mountain where we followed an Inca trail (not THE Inca trail.... there are a bunch of them) and then climbed down the mountain.
Now. When a Peruvian person says to you, the next two hours is flat walking, don´t ever listen. The problem is that Peruvians have no idea what flat is. They live in the mountains. Nothing is flat. Peruvian flat, from what I can tell, essentially means it´s not straight up, and the ups will eventually equal the downs. I had a few fights with our guide about this... he laughed at me, mostly.
The other problem with trekking is that bugs love me. Especially sandflies, apparently. I cant so much as look at my legs anymore, they start to itch and it drives me crrraaazy. Yes I used bug spray, yes it had deet, but I think they´re into that sort of thing. Uhg.
But at the end of a long day, we got to spend a couple hours in the hot springs at Santa Theresa, which was divine. I expected just a hole in the ground with hot water, like what we had in Bolivia, but it was a full on resort. Amazing, and just what my muscles needed desperately.
We went out for a few drinks that night, because the hiking day three isn´t too hard, but were still in by midnight. Life is tough when you have to get up at 6.
Day three was mostly flat (remember, Peruvian flat....) and not too tough. A couple of the other groups got to climb up a mountain right near machu picchu and view the ruins from afar, but our giude apparently doesn´t do that in the rainy season, so we relaxed in the town at the base of the mountain, Aguas Calientes, for a few hours. Dinner was Mexican food and bed, in a decent hotel, was early.
And then, on saturday, I got up at 3:45 in the morning for the first time in my life.
I will not be doing that again, let me tell you.
It takes about an hour and a half to make it from Aguas Calientes to the ruins at the top of the mountain, so we started walking just after 4. The site opens at 6 and only the first 400 people in get permission to climb Waynupicchu, the sister mountain that juts off machu picchu, which is a magnificent view.
It´s dark when the walk starts. All you can see is little clusters of people lit up by flashlight, hardly anyone speaks because we´re all too tired and too caught up in the magic of the pilgrimmage. Dawn broke half way up the mountain, and I´d tell you it was magical as well, but quite frankly, I was just trying to drag myslef up the 2000 stairs. It was a tough but fairly short climb, totally worth it over taking the bus. I was within the first 40 people up the mountain, I made it by 5:30 or so, which is a fantastic feeling. The mountain climbing accomplishment, not the 5:30, lets not kid ourselves.
Macchu Picchu gets a lot of hype, and in my travels I´ve heard people tell me both that it was stunning and that it was just a buch of rocks on a hill. I side with the people who claim it deserves its status as a new world wonder. The place is 80 per cent original. The craftmanship of the entire city is phenomenal... massive earthquakes and 500 + years of wear have yet to bring down the Inca architecture. The focus on symbolism, on shape, on knowledge and learning and spirituality is awe -inspiring. Everything means something... although we don´t always know what that something is, everything means SOMETHING. Amazing.
Our guide for the tour was okay, nothing spectacular. The best was just wandering the city and imagining the civilization, the priests who spent their lives in this place, the riches it held once. The climb up Waynu Picchu, 45 minutes of essentially straight up stairs, was taxing after the morning climb, but was worth it for the overhead view of the city. I have some fantastic pictures.
We took the train (and bus) back to Cusco with only a few hitches - some of the tickets were for later than they should have been, and my name somehow got left off the bus list, but there´s nothing a good hissy fit won´t fix... hah.... I am not one to play the throw-a-fit card, but when I´m about to be stranded an hour from cusco anything is fair game. In any case, I got back just fine, showered and drank and danced til 4:30. Which is when I realized, standing in a bar in downtown Cusco, that I had been up for 24 hours, and perhaps this was not the best life choice. Hahah!
Today I leave Cusco. I´ve joined forces with my British guy from the trek - Nathan - and his friends, and 12 of us are descending on Arequipa on a night bus. There, hopefully we can hook up a canyon trek. I´ll stay in Arequipa til saturdya night, get a night bus out, spend one night in Lima and fly home.... scaaaary.
I´ve sent approximately a billion postcards home, to nearly everyone who gave me addresses now, but as far as I know none have arrived. Hopefully soon? Ha.
Take care, everyone, and wish me luck on the last leg of my trip. xo.
Our first day on the MP trek was entirely biking. Granted it was all downhill and such, but out of 5 hours of biking, the last 3 and a half were on bumpy, rocky dirt roads. My bum is still sore. My hands were practically bruised from gripping the handlebars. It poured rain all day and I hav enever been so soaked and dirty.... and it was amazing.
There were moments when I was just pissed off that I was biking in the jungle in a downpour, but at the end of the day, when we rode up to the hostel... I am glad that I didn´t wuss out and take the bus half way through. I am proud that I finished the day in style.
We biked maybe 50 km, to a town called Santa Maria. Dinner was apparently traditional Peruvian (meat and rice.) and tasty, especially after a day like that!
Our group had 7 people in it, which is fairly small. There was a dutch couple, a Belgian couple, a New Zealander and a Brit. I spent most of the time hanging out with the Brit, he and I got along really well. We also made friends with some of the groups doing the same trek at the same time but with different companies. Really social atmosphere, for being stuck out in the Peruvian jungle.
That night I got my own room! Delightful.
Day two was sunny and hot, which was amazing for trekking (rain is less than ideal, shall we say...) although after a while its a bit much. We did 7 hours total. First flat, then up a mountain where we followed an Inca trail (not THE Inca trail.... there are a bunch of them) and then climbed down the mountain.
Now. When a Peruvian person says to you, the next two hours is flat walking, don´t ever listen. The problem is that Peruvians have no idea what flat is. They live in the mountains. Nothing is flat. Peruvian flat, from what I can tell, essentially means it´s not straight up, and the ups will eventually equal the downs. I had a few fights with our guide about this... he laughed at me, mostly.
The other problem with trekking is that bugs love me. Especially sandflies, apparently. I cant so much as look at my legs anymore, they start to itch and it drives me crrraaazy. Yes I used bug spray, yes it had deet, but I think they´re into that sort of thing. Uhg.
But at the end of a long day, we got to spend a couple hours in the hot springs at Santa Theresa, which was divine. I expected just a hole in the ground with hot water, like what we had in Bolivia, but it was a full on resort. Amazing, and just what my muscles needed desperately.
We went out for a few drinks that night, because the hiking day three isn´t too hard, but were still in by midnight. Life is tough when you have to get up at 6.
Day three was mostly flat (remember, Peruvian flat....) and not too tough. A couple of the other groups got to climb up a mountain right near machu picchu and view the ruins from afar, but our giude apparently doesn´t do that in the rainy season, so we relaxed in the town at the base of the mountain, Aguas Calientes, for a few hours. Dinner was Mexican food and bed, in a decent hotel, was early.
And then, on saturday, I got up at 3:45 in the morning for the first time in my life.
I will not be doing that again, let me tell you.
It takes about an hour and a half to make it from Aguas Calientes to the ruins at the top of the mountain, so we started walking just after 4. The site opens at 6 and only the first 400 people in get permission to climb Waynupicchu, the sister mountain that juts off machu picchu, which is a magnificent view.
It´s dark when the walk starts. All you can see is little clusters of people lit up by flashlight, hardly anyone speaks because we´re all too tired and too caught up in the magic of the pilgrimmage. Dawn broke half way up the mountain, and I´d tell you it was magical as well, but quite frankly, I was just trying to drag myslef up the 2000 stairs. It was a tough but fairly short climb, totally worth it over taking the bus. I was within the first 40 people up the mountain, I made it by 5:30 or so, which is a fantastic feeling. The mountain climbing accomplishment, not the 5:30, lets not kid ourselves.
Macchu Picchu gets a lot of hype, and in my travels I´ve heard people tell me both that it was stunning and that it was just a buch of rocks on a hill. I side with the people who claim it deserves its status as a new world wonder. The place is 80 per cent original. The craftmanship of the entire city is phenomenal... massive earthquakes and 500 + years of wear have yet to bring down the Inca architecture. The focus on symbolism, on shape, on knowledge and learning and spirituality is awe -inspiring. Everything means something... although we don´t always know what that something is, everything means SOMETHING. Amazing.
Our guide for the tour was okay, nothing spectacular. The best was just wandering the city and imagining the civilization, the priests who spent their lives in this place, the riches it held once. The climb up Waynu Picchu, 45 minutes of essentially straight up stairs, was taxing after the morning climb, but was worth it for the overhead view of the city. I have some fantastic pictures.
We took the train (and bus) back to Cusco with only a few hitches - some of the tickets were for later than they should have been, and my name somehow got left off the bus list, but there´s nothing a good hissy fit won´t fix... hah.... I am not one to play the throw-a-fit card, but when I´m about to be stranded an hour from cusco anything is fair game. In any case, I got back just fine, showered and drank and danced til 4:30. Which is when I realized, standing in a bar in downtown Cusco, that I had been up for 24 hours, and perhaps this was not the best life choice. Hahah!
Today I leave Cusco. I´ve joined forces with my British guy from the trek - Nathan - and his friends, and 12 of us are descending on Arequipa on a night bus. There, hopefully we can hook up a canyon trek. I´ll stay in Arequipa til saturdya night, get a night bus out, spend one night in Lima and fly home.... scaaaary.
I´ve sent approximately a billion postcards home, to nearly everyone who gave me addresses now, but as far as I know none have arrived. Hopefully soon? Ha.
Take care, everyone, and wish me luck on the last leg of my trip. xo.
November 3, 2009
Cusco
Cusco is a beautiful, if uber-touristy city. It´s practically dripping in history. I´ve seen all sorts of Inca walls, and Spanish colonial churches and buildings and such. A push towards the city´s cultural history means that the Inca flag is all over - not actually the ancient flag, but the new version, but still. It´s neat to be in a place so passionate about its cultural roots... even if it´s partly a show for the tourists.
I leave tomorrow morning on my Machu Picchu trek. Day one is mountain biking, days two and three are hiking. Day four is the lost city itself! I am sooooooo stoked... all of my nerdy tendencies are showing!
I cannot believe there are only two weeks left in my wanderings...
s.
I leave tomorrow morning on my Machu Picchu trek. Day one is mountain biking, days two and three are hiking. Day four is the lost city itself! I am sooooooo stoked... all of my nerdy tendencies are showing!
I cannot believe there are only two weeks left in my wanderings...
s.
November 2, 2009
Bolivian Beach Vacation
So La Paz didn't as such work out. As the bus drove into the city after the bumpiest ride in history (oh, Bolivia.) I started talking to a Californian woman, Cara, just few years older than me, who convinced me to skip La Paz and head right out to Lake Titicaca. We booked a bus and wandered La Paz for a few hour before taking off.The thing that struck me most about La Paz were the markets. Coming from Chile and its gung-ho mall culture, it was a big difference. I didn't see any malls in La Paz, although they may just be farther from the downtown core. Instead, everything you could ever want is in the streets, in outdoor vendors. This existed in Chile as well (usually right outside the mall...) but not with this sort of enthusiasm. And the food market was incredible... several long, winding streets covered in fresh fruits and vegetables. Gorgeous colours. So much bustle.
So we wandered the market and got out of town. We made it to Copacabana, a little beach town on the lake (Bolivia is landlocked, so this is as good a beach as they get) on Friday afternoon. We spent the whole weekend there, first wandering the town and then hiking through a nearby island.
 |
| Remains of a building on the Isla del Sol |
Copacabana (no, not the one from the song, that's a beach in Rio) is a cute little town, but clearly has morphed into the super-tourist hub. Despite this focus on tourism, however, there really was no hostel culture developing.... we couldn't find any hostels with common areas to meet people and hang out, which is tragic. Thank goodness Cara and I had banded together... we got a hotel room and saved a little cash that way. The restaurants were great, but the nightlife fizzled at about midnight... so Halloween ended a little early for us. Ah well.
 |
| Trout restaurants on the beach |
I must say, finding people to hang out with for two or three days is making this trip infinitely easier for me. You get past the backpacker twenty questions (where are from, where are you going, how long is your trip etc. etc.) and have real conversations like you would at home with your friends. It makes the longing for home easier to handle. I've found a few people now that I have been able to make friends with through the trip, and it´s fantastic.
So now, Monday morning, I am in Cuzco, Peru at the Loki Hostel, which is supposed to be a pretty bumping place. I´m exhausted after an all-night bus, but I think with a nap I will have the energy to wander the city today and set myself up a Machu Picchu tour.
S.
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