Sunday 4th December – What’s a Power Ballad you say. Well let me introduce you…
After a painless
nine hour overnight bus journey, only interrupted briefly in the middle of the
night to do the Ecuador-Peru border crossing, we arrived in Piura in northern
Peru at 8 a.m. Then it was a quick walk
up the road to get a Movil bus at 9 a.m. to Trujillo. This is the first luxury bus I have got in
South America. I have been told about
them but finally after suffering the buses in Ecuador it’s great to have a bus
that serves food – airplane style – and has seats that almost turn into beds.
The journey takes
seven hours before reaching Trujillo.
The Peru landscape is a stark difference from Ecuador. Ecuador was mountains and windy roads. But here in north Peru it’s a flat almost
desert like terrain. And a welcome
relief. At least now I’m not panicking
about whether the bus driver is a lunatic and going to take us on a rapid
descend of a cliff face by missing a bend in the road.
From Trujillo we
headed straight for the beach town of Huanchaco. Sunshine and sand – the perfect therapy after
over 15 hours of travelling. The hostel
we wanted to check into was full, but they offered us a room across the
road. Not exactly a hostel to say the
least. It’s was a room above a shop that
someone has squeezed a few bunk beds into with a kitchen area above. It’s very cheap, it’ll do. And do it did later in the night. After heading for a bite to eat, and having a
few drinks, it’s was time to introduce the guys to a Power Ballads night. Rinath didn’t know what Power Ballads
were. After explaining, I had to let her
know how much fun they were. We all
headed back to the so-called hostel and very quickly the kitchen area became
the party area. With laptop and speakers
ready, it wasn’t long before everyone was clenching their fist and screaming
along to I Want To Know What Love Is and many more classics. What a fantastic night – we probably kept the
whole town awake until 4 a.m.
Monday 5th December – Going Nowhere
The plan today was
quite simple. Relax by the beach, eat,
get bus to Huaraz. The only part that
was in any way a success was the relaxing on the beach. The beach was odd, I think an artificial
one. At least the sand part. Dig down a little bit into the sand and all
you could find were rocks. While playing
frizbee this became a serious obstacle.
Diving wasn’t an option unless you also wanted severe pain to be an option.
Once the fun was
finished on the beach, we went to get some food before and overnight journey to
Huaraz for me, Brian and Edwin. Helen
and Rinath were planning more beach time.
Peru is most certainly a place where you should never leave anything to
the last minute, or for the last hour, maybe even last half-day. Both last night, earlier today and now, the
food was not in any way fast. It took an
average of one hour for anything to arrive.
But finally we headed for the bus, much later than expected. After we got to the station and asked for
tickets, the people behind the desk basically laughed at us. Apparently you have to book the tickets a day
in advance. Desperately wanting to head
south we went to another bus company to be told the same story. No trip to Huaraz tonight. It’s going to be another day by the beach,
which although it sounds good, not being much of a beach person and really
wanting to get to Huaraz – it’s a nightmare.
Tuesday 6th December – Second Time Lucky
Being an unexpected
day in Huanchaco, I spent the day just chilling out and catching up on my blog
and photos. Still so far behind. At 9 p.m. we all headed for the bus – Helen and
Rinath now joining us on our way to Huaraz.
But at the last minute Edwin decided to head to Lima instead. So after building up to seven our troupe is
now down to four.
Today was a strange
day. Not really in the best of
form. Not sure why. Anxious about time. But looking forward to Huaraz. Len and Antti who I met in Bogota have
recommended it to do some rock climbing and it’s time to finally challenge
myself once again!
Wednesday 7th December – The Way Inn – and all its oddities
Happy Birthday
Ciara!!
Although these buses
are luxury compared to anything I’ve ever been on, overnight journeys just
leave me wrecked. We got into Huaraz at
8 a.m. after an 11 hour journey and jumped straight in a taxi to go to The Way
Inn. This hostel has been recommended by
a few people and is outside the city of Huaraz in the mountains. But in the taxi it soon becomes clear that The
Way Inn is way out. It takes about 40 slow
minutes along dirt tracks before we finally reach it – perched at an altitude
of 3712m. As ever, the agreed price with
the taxi driver before we set off suddenly increases when we get out. These tactics are getting so
frustrating. It’s happened too
often. But fair play to Brian. He told the driver we either pay the agreed
price or he gets nothing and soon the driver backed down. With all of us feeling shattered, we
check-in, have breakfast and then crash in our dorm – known as The Cave. That’s exactly what it is. A few walls built around some huge boulders. This place reminds me of The Secret Garden
Cotopaxi with its location, amazing landscapes and lack of electricity. And to top it all off Chris who volunteered
in Cotopaxi is now volunteering here.
It’s great to see him again.
After our sleep we
get up at noon and have some lunch. This
is where the weirdness begins. The guys
working in the hostel all seem pretty dedicated to it and have a mission to
make it a self-sustaining business with hydropower electricity and vegetable
gardens to provide food to the lodgers.
When we ask one of the guys (I forget his name) the main mission, his
explanation starts out perfectly normal.
They want to use their technologies to help the local people with access
to water and electricity. But soon this
goes way off track. He begins to talk
about the damage we are doing to the planet and other species, especially
marine life. All good, I agree. But then I get totally lost when he throws in
the line ‘…and the solar cycles’. I was
about to interrupt and ask him what he meant (we have no control over the solar
cycles – it’s the Sun doing its thing!).
The guy has now been talking for 20 minutes and I start to zone out when
he starts giving very biased and fact lacking details about the Japanese
Tsunami and the damage to the nuclear reactors.
How he’s actually got onto this topic is a mystery to me. It all started out with us asking about the
hostel. Then comes the clincher. With my mind wandering, I just come back in
time to hear the sentence, ‘…and we have the technology, the alien technology,
to create free energy. It’s just that
the governments will not let it be used.
They are keeping it from us.’ At
this point I actually physically moved my chair back to leave but then decided
this was too much fun to not listen. But
soon after that the monologue was over and we all left, perplexed and possibly
dazed, to go on our trek – all agreed that checking out tomorrow might be best
for all of us.
After getting lost
on our trek and failing to find a bridge we eventually made it back to the hostel,
had dinner and spent the evening chatting to Chris. I had mentioned to the guys about his walk
across America, so we chatted quite a bit about it. Some great stories I hadn’t heard the last
time we talked about it.
Thursday 8th December – Laguna Churup
After surviving the
night without being abducted by aliens or kidnapped by government forces (I’m
feeling a bit uneasy now I know the truth.
Surely this is highly-classified top-secret-with-a-big-red-stamp stuff
that we should not have knowledge of.
I’ll be sleeping with one eye open for a few days) we get up and prepare
and for a trek to Laguna Churup. Last
night I gave the hostel my laundry to do, which I was informed would be done
overnight when the generator was on.
This morning, knowing we’d be leaving as soon as we got back from the
trek, I asked for it back so I could pack.
And give it back they did – in a big basket, wet, with clothes pegs, and
directions to the clothes line to hang it up.
Jaw dropped and fury raised I angrily made my way over and hung it up
with Brian who was going through the same experience. The next 15 minutes of any conversation with
me contained many expletives. Plus, surely
their alien free energy technology could have at least dried my clothes.
After this early
morning hassle, we made our way to Laguna Churup at an altitude of 4450m. Starting at an altitude of 3712m, it was a
steady but slow walk for about three hours, with towering snowcapped mountains
in the distance, before we reached a waterfall that we had to scale. There were cables attached to the rocks at
the side of the waterfall which helped us clamber up before finally reaching
the lagoon. The lagoon was beautiful. After eating a quick lunch supplied by the
hostel and preparing ourselves to leave I decided I wanted to see what was on
the other side of a high pile of boulders, and I’m glad I checked. It was the rest of the lagoon. What we had been looking at was only about
one-third. We also had a much better
view of the valley below and the distant mountains.
Once we were done we
headed back to the hostel, I packed my now thankfully dry clothes and we made a
quick escape to Huaraz, having a bite to eat at Café Andino and then checking
into La Colmena Hostel, who initially didn’t have a room, and then magically
found one with six beds for the four of us after Helen enquired about what
other hostels were available.
Friday 9th December – Rock Climbing
The first thing I
did today was book a flight from Lima to Cuzco.
We are all heading to Lima tonight with Helen, Brian and Rinath staying
there for a day or two. But I have
decided that I have to get to Cuzco to trek to Machu Picchu as soon as I can
before heading to Arequipa in southern Peru to tackle El Misti volcano. While I was busy sorting my flight Helen and
Rinath went out and found the details of a rock climbing place we could go to. My plan in Huaraz was to stay for a few days
and do a rock climbing course, but during our time here the weather has been
pretty bad with rain in the afternoons each day, so I have scrapped those
plans.
So in the afternoon,
Helen, Rinath and I set off for our rock climbing. After getting kitted out at the tour office,
we got a taxi to the rock face. This is
just about where I freaked out. My
vision of rock climbing was to hit a rock face and climb up. Not this one.
Here we had to abseil down the rock face before beginning to climb
up. This is a whole other situation for
me. Once our instructor, Freddy, had
readied everything and set the ropes it was time to start. No way was I going first, but Helen had bravely
stepped forward and said she would go first.
Even watching her go over the edge was bad enough for me. Then after being lowered down about 15m she
began to climb up. This part I couldn’t
see. But eventually she popped back up
over the top. Now for the next person. Still unsure about whether I’d actually do it
or not, Rinath stepped up and had her go.
Now it was time for me. I
struggled to even decide whether to do it or not but somehow managed to. Nerves shot, I walked over to the edge to
start the abseil down, but I just couldn’t do it. Clinging to the rock and with Freddy telling
me there was nothing to worry about I reached deep down for my last piece of
courage and stepped back, firing a barrage of questions at Freddy about exactly
what I had to do. Finally I started the
repel. Once I had started, the only
thought going through my head was, ‘What was I so worried about. This is so much fun!’. After being lowered to the starting point it
was time to climb up. It was so
tough. Finding any foothold was almost
impossible and with the rain starting the rocks were slippery. But I knew that if any slips did
occur, Freddy would stop the fall. Very
slowly I made my way up. Every metre was an effort and at one stage I was thinking I would never make it and
would have to get lowered to the bottom.
But I summoned every piece of strength I had. As I reached the top my right arm just gave
up. I had no strength left at all and my
mouth was completely dry with nerves.
But after a rest, I managed to reach the last ledge and slowly and
painfully get over the top. I was so
happy. I had done it. Exhausted and not even able to speak, I could
only manage the words, ‘I need water!’.
Another first to add to the list – rock climbing. All thanks to Helen and Rinath encouraging me
on, without which I don’t think I would even have contemplated walking over to
start the abseil.
After our exciting
day, we went back into Huaraz, met up with Brian, had food in Café Andino again
and then went to get our bus to Lima at 11 p.m.
Saturday 10th December – South America – I’m beginning to hate you
I don’t even know
where to start explaining what is probably the worst day on my travelling so
far. So much of this day went wrong.
After boarding the
bus last night we left just before 11 p.m.
It would seem that the people running the bus company have failed to realise that the reason people get an overnight bus to sleep through the 12 or so
hours the journey takes. As soon as we
start moving, the TVs are put on and we are subjected to the most awful music I
have ever heard, accompanied by even more horrendous music videos. It’s all local music and local bands. Each video seems be of the format – show band
singing in some remote location, show band playing live on stage, show a very,
very scantily clad woman dancing to band’s music – repeat for duration of song. This continues until 1 a.m. at a volume loud enough
to make me rip my ears off, or at least put my foot through the speakers. I have failed to find one of these videos on
YouTube to give an example. Even YouTube
have banned them it would appear. Finally
with the music off it was time to attempt to sleep. Since we left I had noticed that every other
vehicle was overtaking us and we were going at a slower than usual speed. Then, in the absolutely middle of nowhere in
Peru, complete blackness outside, the bus approaches a hill, chugs a little,
and comes to a complete halt, losing all power.
The very courteous staff on the bus helped us through this situation by
giving us absolutely no details whatsoever as to what was going on. After hearing a commotion happening below us,
the bus eventually regained power, and slowly moved forward. For a while every upward hill was a struggle
and every downward hill a nightmare as the driver seemed intent on making up
time on the downward hills. Then, for
reasons unknown, the bus finally seemed to start functioning properly and we
were on our way to Lima properly. Time
for sleep. Not a chance. The road was so bendy I was getting swung
from side to side. Thankfully though
these were not mountain roads with a huge drop to one side, this road seemed to
have been blasted through the mountain rocks.
After a tortuous journey of eight hours we finally reached Lima and
about 6.30 a.m. I had a total of about
one hours’ sleep.
At the bus depot in
Lima, a city infamous for its dangerous taxis, we get a Movil (the bus company)
approved taxi driver, Edward, who took us to the Loki hostel. The other guys were staying there, so I
decided I would just hang around there until 9 a.m. when I had to leave to get
my flight. I arranged for Edward to come
back and take me to the airport.
At this stage I’m
becoming delirious through lack of sleep and starting to feel sick – blaming it
on an empanada I had yesterday before going rock climbing. After saying my sad goodbyes to Helen, Rinath
and Brian (Rinath says Power Ballads will always remind her of me – I like
that), Edward arrives and takes me to the airport. Upon reaching the airport I gave him the
agreed taxi fare of 45 Soles. What
happens next I am very angry about, both at myself and at the rip off culture
which is starting to make me hate South America. Edward immediately says, ‘No the fare is
$45’. That’s three times more than 45
Soles. After a stand-off and failing to
find anyone at the airport to back up my side of the story I was forced into
giving him $45 so I could get my bags.
I’m blaming a lot of this on lack of sleep and how ill I’m feeling.
The airport for once
goes to plan, no major incidents to report (well apart from the check-in desk
telling me the wrong gate and me having to dash across the airport to get on my
flight just before boarding closes – but that just seems minor compared to the
rest of my day so far). As soon as I sat
on my seat I passed out. A much needed
sleep. But on waking I noticed that the
plane had not moved – it’s still on the tarmac in Lima. I should be in Cuzco already. After another 20 minutes or so we finally
take off - Cuzco bound at last. After an
hour or so we are approaching Cuzco to land when suddenly on final approach the
pilot pulls the plane sharply back up.
The staff on the plane are as helpful as the staff on the bus last night
giving no explanation at all. After 20
minutes of circling the pilot finally informs us that the first landing was
aborted due to poor visibility and that we would make a second attempt, and if it
that failed we would be returning to Lima.
My heart sank. I cannot return to
Lima. This journey has been hell. I can’t go back to Lima. With all extremities crossed we approached
and thankfully landed in Cuzco.
After collecting my
bag all I had to do was meet my arranged airport pickup with Pariwana
Hostel. I didn’t expect this to go
smoothly, and sure enough it didn’t.
There was no one there to meet me.
After waiting around for 30 minutes in the remote hope that they would
arrive I gave up and jumped in an official taxi (only after asking a couple if
I could share a taxi with them, which they refused to do – I hope they got
their luggage stolen by their taxi driver).
Half an hour later we arrive in the centre of Cuzco and the driver
pulled up in a square, which I know was close to the hostel but it’s not the
hostel. In a mix of terrible English
from him and terrible Spanish from me, he demanded that I give him 50 Soles as
he has no change – the journey costs 25 Soles.
His plan is to leave me, wander around the square and try to get
change. I’m left sitting in his bus and
he eventually arrives back – mission unsuccessful. We agree – an option I explained to him in
detail earlier – that I could get change at the hostel. Once this farce is sorted, the hostel tell me
I was ripped off and after explaining everything to them they seem very
unconcerned that this was as a result of their airport pickup failing.
At this point I am
ready to collapse. I’m exhausted, still
delirious and feeling extremely ill.
It’s 3 p.m. and the only thing I can do is crawl into bed. After getting a few hours of broken sleep, I
try to eat some tomato soup in the hostel but can’t manage to finish it. Then it’s straight back to bed at 10 p.m.
Finally the day is
over. Well not quite. At about 2 a.m. I was woken by two people, a
boy and girl, coming into my dorm. They
climbed into the top bunk beside me.
Suffice to say I didn’t get back to sleep for about half an hour.
Finally, finally the
day is over One I don’t ever want
repeated. Travelling is amazing but it
can only be expected and is an almost certainty that not everything goes to
plan. Today was one of those days.
Onwards and upwards.
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