After taking my detour into Bolivia, I ended up having only 4 days or so left in Peru, with many things on my to do list. I narrowed it down to 2 places. Lima, since of course I had to be there at the end to catch my flight, and Huacachina, since I just couldn't wait to hang out in that oasis town surrounded by sand dunes.
First stop, Huacachina, and it was just as awesome as I'd hoped. I arrived at the main hostel in the tiny oasis town, Casa de Arena, at 4:50pm, just in time to catch the evening dune buggy and sandboarding tour at 5. The other travellers told me to get the crazy driver, since he was way more fun. He was easy to spot, since he looked like a total badass, schwarzenager style. And boy was he crazy, speeding over the sand dunes, bouncing all over the place, making me fear for the dreaded rollover. Instead all I got was a great thrill ride and eyefulls and mouthfuls of sand.
After a dune buggy ride, it's time for some sandboarding! You can either ride it like a snowboard or just go down it on your stomach like a sled. Some of the sand dunes are huge and steep, and when you go down it straight on your stomach you gain way too much speed...quite thrilling. When you ride it like a snowboard it's a bit slower, and it requires a bit more skill that I have yet to master, but still a blast.
For a party hostel, the Thursday night was pretty dead, but I was exhausted anyway from La Paz and travelling. On Friday night I was definitely ready when the hostel opens a discoteca that's apparently very popular with the locals too, so it's quite the party....literally right next to the 18 person dorm rooms I was staying in. Not like the noise mattered, I stayed up all night anyway and missed my planned tour to the Ballista islands at 6:30am, totally worth it.
Earlier in the day, after a day of chilling in the sun and boating in the lagoon, we climbed up the dunes at sunset, and that's when we first saw the discoteca.
Our boat was the one on the left..."movidick"
Here you can see our hostel, with the entire ghetto looking roof part farthest from the street being the discoteca and the rest being the hostel with a pool and bar in the middle.
Yeah it was big. And the dunes were big too. Quite a workout to get up there, but totally worth it. We timed it perfectly to get a fantastic dune sunset and a quick run down the dunes at dusk.
View of the dunes from the hostel dorm
Back to Lima I went, and it was completely different than every other place in Peru, but that's because it was also the first big city I was in. The city and the people had a more modern look and feel, no more old Peruvian ladies carrying their babies on their back with a colorful scarf looking thing. It seemed like everyone's skin was a bit lighter too, when the entire south had a much darker and aged look.
Unfortunately I could only spend one real day in Lima, since I arrived in the evening and had to leave the next night for a redeye flight, but I got together with some other hostel folks and we had a nice tour around the town all day. The most exciting part of the day was when we tried to catch a cab to this ceviche restaurant we'd heard about. Ceviche is pretty much raw fish, scary to eat but quite tasty with how they prepare it. So the cab driver didn't know where this place was, so he kept pulling over and trying to ask people for directions, but we weren't being that successful. I pulled out my smartphone to gps it, but next thing we know we're driving down the street and 2 motorcycle cops come from the other direction and stop us. Our first thought was that we had too many people in the car, since we crammed 4 in the back and 1 in the front, but apparently they stopped him because we were about to go into a bad neighborhood and they were yelling at the cab driver for taking a bunch of gringos this way haha. After asking for our documents and figuring out the situation, the cops decided to take us to the restaurant themselves, since they knew where it was. Yeah we had a police escort.
One cop in the front
Peace bro, thanks for the escort.
Afterwards we walked the long way to our hostel, with some nice views of the beach and a dangerous stairway up the oceanside cliffs. Of course we dipped in cold ocean water for a moment.
The evening consited of going to this water fountain park, which was surprisingly impressive. There was a main fountain with a laser light show and dancing fountains, as well as one you could walk through and some you could just play in. We couldn't resist the temptation of getting wet because it looked like so much fun.
Well, that was the end of my Peru experiences, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of this country. When you look at a map I've only explored the southern half, maybe 40% of the country, and even in that I didn't spend enough time. I have a feeling it'll be like this with many of the countries I visit...
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Stomach problems? Say what?
So I'm still not sure how I haven't had any stomach problems yet. I've had hangover problems and other generic colds trying to get me, but my stomach is going strong.
I'm surprised because I have:
- Forgotten to wash my hands or use hand sanitizer before I eat and then proceeded to eat finger food and lick my fingers. Yes, gross, but when you wash your hands so much less frequently it stops becoming second nature. I really need some pocket sanitizer so that it's easily accessible and memorable, because it's only a matter of time before this gets me.
- Eaten street food that looks less than sanitary. Most of the street food seems pretty safe, even though the people selling it to you are usually touching the food with the same hands they take your money with, but one time I had some delicious chicken skewer and about half way through eating it I saw in the light that it was still a bit raw on the inside. I stopped eating it of course, and it seems I have survived since that was over a week ago.
- Probably done something else unsanitary since it's just not that big of a deal over here. They give you sugar for your tea and coffee without a serving spoon, so everyone just uses their own, which has sometimes already been dipped in their drink or sipped on. It is not the norm for restrooms to have soap available, even if you have to pay for them (yeah total bs).
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Machu Picchu
For the last 5 days I've been hiking the inka trail through the Andes to the ancient city of Machu Picchu. We've had heart pounding climbs, knee jerking decents, and everything in between. We were drinking Coca tea to help with the altitude, since we're at around 14,000 feet on some of the mountain passes. You chew these leaves and then stuff them in the side of your mouth like chewing tobacco. We also drink Coca tea, it's quite a popular leaf around here in the Andes. Here's the elevation chart.
We were 23 people, from Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, and Germany. And yours truly from the United States, it's always interesting being with all foreigners.
Even though it's the rainy season, we've been quite lucky. The first 3 days it only drizzled on us a little bit, and we had a fair amount of sun, enough for me to get burned a little. On the morning of the 4th day, the day we were supposed to get to Machu Picchu, it poured the entire morning and didn't start clearing up until we got to Machu Picchu, which ended up being perfect timing. It definitely provided with some interesting landscape pictures with all the fog.
More of the group.
On the way up to the highest mountain pass on the 2nd day.
Right at the top of the highest mountain pass headed down the other side.
Top of the world!
Machu Picchu is around the corner!!
Made it! And boy do I need a shower.
After the clouds cleared, the usual picture.
Maybe more pics to come perhaps if the Internet and time is nice to me.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Greetings from 11,000 feet
I've already met tons of travelers from a variety of places; Canada, Dubai, Brazil, Chile, Australia, to name a few. Once I got into Lima at midnight, I went through customs with no problem and then found a Starbucks to hang out at. Many people were doing the same thing I was: killing time until their 6am flight to Cuzco. As we wasted the wee hours of the morning away, the airport slowly started to bustle with life, indicating it was time for me to go back through security and catch my local Taca flight. By this time I was already dead tired.
Eventually I made it onto the plane. It wasn't crowded so I moved to an empty two seats so I could rest, but sleeping on an airplane is more like a series of uncomfortable and unsatisfying power naps. I kept waking up to the pilot saying we were delayed because of weather in Cuzco. After about two hours of that, they kicked us off the plane and said they'd fly when they could, oh no!
I had no idea what was going on, people were yelling at employees since apparently other airlines were flying to Cuzco no problem. I just hung around and talked to other travelers, meeting a few people who spoke fluent spanish as well so I could just ask them how the progress was going. After many hours and much commotion we FINALLY got back on the plane at around 1:30pm (it was supposed to leave at 6:40am). I sat on the left side, which ended up being a very good choice. All the nice views of the mountain and Cuzco were on the left side of the plane. We flew in and did a 360 to land. Here's the video:
I expected the doors to open on the airplane to reveal air so thin that I would barely have enough energy to take my packs off the plane! Instead, I thought I felt something, had no problem walking with my packs, and pretty much went along with my day as if I was at sea level. Damn scare tactics, I was so ready with my herbs to increase bloodflow and my sea bands haha.
I continued to hang out with the travelers I met at the airport, and we left the airport and walked across the street to get some local food, what they call a menu (pronounced in spanish). It´s a multi course meal that here included a soup and an entree for only 5 peruvian soles! That's what happens when you're not in airports and tourist central. Of course as we left the airport area we got bombarded by cab drivers and switched multiple times before we got one that seemed the cheapest and most legit.
I dropped my stuff at my hostel, which is pretty nice, and immediately went back out into Cuzco. Some Brazilian girl was couchsurfing and we all toured around with her host as a guide. We even saw the small place he lived in (literally a series of one room apts that went out to this atrium) and took the bus back. Those busses are crazy! The bus stops aren't marked, they're just "known." So he had to just tell us that we were at a bus stop. The busses are really just vans with a sliding door, and there's usually some young kid open and closing the door for people and collecting money. The 10-15 minute bus ride back into town only cost 60 sole cents
Anyway, it's time to pass out so I can function tomorrow.