Flavia & Gregory go LA

Trujillo was a touch and go stop. We got there on Sunday night - everything was closed because of Sunday and we struggled to find a place where to eat - on Monday afternoon we went to Chan Chan and by Monday night we were on a night bus to Mancora.

Chan Chan is a pre-inca site and is known as ´the mud city´. It is built entirely in adobe, that is - mud - and it is quite large, though only a small part is well preserved and displays the original mud drawings and patterns. We went on an organised 4-hour tour - which was a very wise decision, since the site is spread out and they take you to see the most important spots which one otherwise would probably not do.

Trujillo cathedral

Chan Chan

The journey to Mancora was pleasant, we managed to sleep and we were there by 5 am. The mototaxi driver that was there to receive the early passengers showed us a couple of hotel brochures and this is where we ended up staying:

http://www.vivamancora.com/penalinda/

View from our room:

Needless to say that we are enjoying this. There is absolutely nobody around and all you can hear is the sea. Great!

We left Lima for Huaraz on 12th June. It was another 8-hour trip on Cruz del Sur, but this time we brought our own food...

Huaraz is the biggest town in the Callejon de Huaylas, which is a 180 km valley about 400 km north of Lima which lies between the Cordillera Negra on the west side (no snow) and the Cordillera Blanca on the East side (many beautiful snow capped peaks). This is an area of really high and beautiful mountains, with Huascaran being the highest in Peru at over 6700 m. This is where the events of Touching the void happened!!!

We stayed in Huaraz just a couple of nights, to give us the chance to do a small trek up into the Cordillera Blanca. We chose to go up to Laguna Churup, which is described as a 5-hour moderate trek... While Gregory was not really that much for it, I insisted in going since I was feeling better and probably wanted to prove to myself that I really was so...Erm erm. The trek was NOT moderate. Thankfully we decided to pay double fare and get the combi to drive us all the way up to the last point, saving ourselves a couple of hours. From there it was still a painful 3 hours uphill, till we got to the last rocky wall before the lake, which turned out to be a lot more than moderate!! Until that point I was thinking we had wasted our money to hire a guide, what for, the path was fairly marked....But no, we did not waste our money at all. The climb up the rocky wall was not one that we would have attempted on our own, in fact even our guide relied on her cousin to help us all up to the laguna - her male cousin had come along to practice as he was studying to be a guide, and we were all so glad he did! On top of it all I was not as well as I thought. I had stomach cramps throughout the day and my legs turned out to be a lot weaker than I thought they would be. So Gregory was very right after all...for once :-))! Anyways, we did make it up to the top and the laguna was a nice reward. On the way back we stopped at a lodge for a drink and then missed the last combi back to town, so that we then had to walk most of the way down (15 km??). That was not what we hoped at all after walking and climbing rocks all day, but it did give us the opportunity to observe the local community while we were waiting for a vehicle that never turned up. As usual, lots of animals coming back home from the fields, old ladies overloaded with huge loads on their backs, children playing marbles in the dirt road, etc. It was a good day, despite my bad shape.

Next day we decided to move 60 km up the valley and booked a room at Llanganuco Lodge, which is a new place owned by a English young man up in the mountains above Yungay, near the famous Laguna Llanganuco. This laguna was actually the reason why we came to Huaraz in the first place, after seeing a picture of it in the book.
Yungay is one of the smaller towns in the Callejon de Huaylas, together with Carhuaz and Caraz at the end of it. Also, Yungay is the site of the single worst natural disaster in the Andes ever: in 1970 a earthquake loosened 15 million cubic meters of granite and ice from the Huascaran mountain, coming down at a speed of 300km/h and burying the town and almost all of its 18,000 inhabitants. Today the area has been turned into a Campo Santo and a new town has been built 2 km from there.

Llanganuco Lodge is about 18 km up the valley from Yungay, and it is a really beautiful place. It is being created by Charlie, a young chap from England who got fed up with chartered accounting and decided to give it all up for the mountains. Presently only two buildings are ready,the kitchen/lounge and one of the bedrooms building (one dorm and two double rooms - queen and king). We got the king room at discounted rate since the dorm was occupied and it was just such luxury! The biggest bed we have ever slept in, with a huge fantastic down duvet and the best view one can imagine! This is the website, though the buildings dont actually look like this yet:
www.llanganucolodge.com
Charlie´s mum, Ianina, is currently helping out and is the current chef at the lodge, so not only we had a great room and a great view, but we also had great food.
We spent 3 days here - the second day we just lazied around, given that I could not move as my stomach is still NOT ok, though a lot better.

On the last day we went up to the Llanganuco Laguna. Now,we were simply meant to walk along the mountain and reach the control entrance to the national park... except that on the way there we came across a really angry bull who was fighting with all other members of his herd. So we got a bit concerned and decided to walk away, but there was a ditch that we couldn´t jump...so... so we ended up walking away from where we were meant to be and soon we got lost in the shrubs. At one point I got a bit concerned because we seemed to become more and more entangled in the vegetation, not seeing a way out. Finally we did, thank god! We got down to the road we could see from our lost spot and found our way to the control point, paid our 5 soles entrance fee and got a taxi up to the laguna. To this laguna one can take a taxi, isn´t it great.

Once we got back, we had a drink and then descended from the lodge to Caraz (10 km away from Yungay), where we stayed at the most basic hotel we have had so far (just to make up for the luxury at the Llanganuco Lodge...) and then in the morning we jumped on a bus to Chimbote and then Trujillo via the Cañon del Pato, which is a really crazy road. Basically, the road follows the river all the way down to the sea through a very deep canyon with some really scary drops and many tunnels. Very scenic and worth the concern, though at one point we did slow right down on a road indent that I did not like at all!! 7 hours later we arrived in Trujillo in one piece, ready to visit Chan Chan the next day.

The climb up to the Churup laguna...

Laguna Churup:

Llanganuco Lodge and views

Laguna Llanganuco:

pic nic with the cows

The laguna

El Cañon del Pato

We left Cusco on June 8th, with some relief. Somehow, something was not square in Cusco. Maybe the fact that I wasnt feeling well?!! Possibly the altitude there made things even worse for me, 3,500 m above sea level is not that great when one is feeling rough. Or maybe it was just the karma of the place. Cusco is extremely commercial and most people on its street are out there to get at your money in whichever way they can. Trying to sell you tours, postcards, artesania, chewing-gums, flowers, you name it. Even the doctor managed to neatly sting me with a $75 bill!! Thinking about it, it was such a major rip-off. And I dont think that staying at Casa de la Gringa helped either. Yes, true, they had a cosy lounge with heater in the evenings, but that was just to make up for the tiny cramped oppressing room we had. The staff there were great and caring but still...it was the very same owner who recommended the thief doctor to us! Whatever it was, we are happy Cusco is behind us. Beautiful place as it is, full of history as it is, we much prefer Lima!!! We got here yesterday and have been fairly busy meeting the people and seeing a new doctor and having blood tests done. The new doctor charged us 50 soles for the consultation, actually visited me, checked my tongue, ears and belly, prescribed me yet another antibiotic and sent me off to a clinic to have blood and urine tests done, which cost the whole of 28 soles ($9) !!!! Well, the results have come back today (same day as well) and it is all fine. Yep, all fine, except that I still cannot digest what I eat and, incredibly, I still not have any appetite. I cannot wait to find out how many kgs I have lost!!!

Last night we went to meet Rob to catch up and book the Galapagos islands. In the end we got carried away and - together with the fact that apparently there is very little choice with cheap boats as we have entered high season - we have decided to go on the Sea Cloud yacht, which is VERY nice and VERY expensive. Check this out> http://www.discovergalapagos.com/SeaCloud/index.htm
As a result of booking this very expensive cruise we have decided to give Los Roques a miss, given that it would be another huge luxury package which frankly we cannot afford. We rather invest in the Galapagos.... So this is our first major change in itinerary - we will fly straight to Barbados from Ecuador and forget Chavez' land for now. Sorry Daniela!!

Here in Lima we have also met with Nader, Lella's Peruvian friend, who is a very fine artist and person. He has invited us for lunch on Monday and so we have decided to stay in Lima at least until Tuesday, given that the hostel where we are staying is very comfortable and inexpensive. Hostal Malka - nice and quiet, good location, has a table tennis table for Gregory's convenience.

Here are a couple of pics of Cusco and Gregory's birthday.

This was a restaurant we went to where all profits go to benefit street children. The whole restaurant is decorated for children and it looks like a kindergarden! very nice, the owner, Yuri (pictured below) is only 28!

Hello everybody

Yes, we are still alive, even though just about!!! We have been off line for a few days due to a couple of significant events, the first one being that we went on the Inca Trail, the second that I have been sick ever since arriving in Cusco.

It all started in Arequipa, we think. We took this super expensive Cruz del Sur overnight bus which looked like a spaceship. Fantastic bus, we got a cama seat for the modest price of $33 for an 11-hour journey from Arequipa to Cusco, dinner inclusive. It is a doubledecker bus where the lower level is furbished with 9 cama seats that look like aereoplane business class seats and recline to a full bed. There are movies on board as well as a hostess who serves you dinner just like in a plane. Except that I have never been sick on plane food!!! By the time we got to Cusco (29th of May) and checked in our hotel in San Blas, I had already started feeling a little strange. Gregory started having diarrea but it kept at that and nothing more, lucky him. For me, it was the beginning of two days of no food and feeling terribly. Nausea, fever, vomiting, and the Inca Trail booked for the 31st of May!!! OK, let s give Cruz del Sur the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was not their cold rice that caused all this, maybe it was something else. We cannot tell for sure, but one thing is sure: I will not eat bus food ever again!!!

On May 30th we decided to call the doctor, who prescribed me antibiotics and other tablets and assured me that this would sort me out to go on the Inca Trail the next day. The problem with the Inca Trail is that, ever since they have limited the number of trekkers to 500 a day, making the bookings not transferable, if you fall sick on the day you are due, you lose your chance to go along with all the money you have paid. This ensures that lots of people who are not feeling well still go on this fairly demanding trek as they are, like me. I felt like a wreck for most of the day before departure. When I realised that the antibiotics and annxed tablets hadnt given me my appetite back and I was still unable to swallow anything at 5 pm, we went down to the SAS agency to discuss our options. We were greeted by the most unsympathetic representative on shift, with whom we ended up arguing. At that point the situation wasn't great, since we had already paid $1,020 to do this thing and Gregory was so annoyed and disappointed that I could not go that he didn't want to go any more!! Thankfully, by about 6 pm I started to feel like a human being again. I think it was the dose of rehydration salts that gave me new life, possibly. So we went along to our 7 pm briefing session and I decided that, if I was still breathing the next morning, I would try to go along.

And I did. It was really hard, I was fairly sick throughout the trek, with different problems on different days. I think the worse was the morning of the second day, which is supposed to be the hardest day of all, since you climb from 3,000 m to 4,200 m at Dead's Woman Pass (...). I woke up with a tremendous nausea, went to the loo about 4 times and by 7 am I was done in. I went to see Ernesto, our lead guide, and declared that I didn't know if I could make it. He said ‘let’s give it a try’ and so off we went, 4 hours of a million steps ahead of us. Well, not only did I get to the top of the pass, I got there before 3 other people in my group!!!!!! What the hell. It was a kind of surreal hike uphill, going really really slowly, step after step, and frankly I still wonder how I made it up there in my very sick condition. I must say, on a few occasions I did think of the guy in Touching the void and that gave me the motivation I needed. If he crawled down a mountain with a broken leg for a week, surely I could climb up to Dead Woman´s Pass with an upset stomach? Gregory, god bless him, carried my rucksack for me. And one should see what the porters carry!!! The biggest packs I have ever seen, all the way up and down the mountains for 4 days. Not only the size, they run with it!! Yes, they run, because they need to be ahead of the group to plant the tents and make lunch-tea-dinner and await the tourists with a welcome and cold drink. I did actually feel a bit uncomfortable with the whole concept, these people serving us constantly and a complete separation between them and us. OK, there are a couple of opportunities where presentations are made along with applauses etc, and the tips giving at the end etc, but generally the whole business is one of great segregation between the Quechua-speaking porters and the rest of us. As usual Gregory diverted a little from the general trend, having bought a small Quechua-Spanish dictionary which he endeavoured to use while on the trek, mixing with the porters more than anybody else. Then, at the final greetings session he declared in perfect Spanish: Lo siento, no hablo suficiente quechua. Pero…La proxima vez!!!

So… the Inca Trail. What can we say. It is amazing, 50 km of a fine ancient paved path crossing beautiful mountains, passing a great variety of vegetation and many ruins, and fantastic food none of which you have to carry. And then, on the fourth day you get up at 4 am to ensure you are at the Sun Gate for 6 am. We had great weather and on day 4 the sky was clear and rays of sun came out from above the sun gate and slowly revealed Macchu Picchu!! When doing the Inca Trail, Macchu Picchu is reached from the top, which is a fantastic view. It looks so tiny!! Then the sun illuminates it and you realise that you have the finest Inca city in front of your eyes. From down below (400 m from Macchu Picchu to the bottom of the valley) you cannot see a thing.

We stayed in Aguas Calientes (Macchu Picchu Pueblo) an extra night as we had booked it as part of the tour, thinking the hot springs would be good for us. We did not even attempt going there, given that by day 4 in the afternoon I had a sore throat, fever again and could hardly walk. At any rate, all the people who went said it was quite pathetic and the water not even hot. The next day Gregory managed to change our train ticket for an earlier one and got me out of bed back to Cusco for about 5 pm, which was nice. Back at Casa de la Gringa hostel, which really feels like home, especially now that I am not feeling great.

So here are some pics...

Day 1. The gentle beginning...

Day 2. I did explain to Gregory that he was free to take the picture but I was not in a position to smile...

Towards Dead Woman´s Pass

At Dead Woman´s Pass

Inca tunnel

Yes, this was the food!!

First impressions? Big and quite nice, the second largest and most important city after Lima, made out in baroque, neo-classical styles and colonial architectures. The main square has a beautiful cathedral and close by there is the famous monastery of Santa Catalina, which we did not visit because of principle: $10 to enter!!!!! We went to the website http://www.go2peru.com/spa/gal_santa_catalina.htm
and saw it from there....

The good news for gringos travelling to Arequipa is that it is low altitude - 2335 m.a.s.l and the air is very pleasant, despite the traffic the weather is quite ambient (day and night) for this time of year. As far as accomodation goes, you have the full range from cheap to expensive. We stayed at the Casa De Avila, www.casadeavila.com, a medium expensive colonial hostel ($20 double room with bath and breakfast), with an attached English school. It is clean, beautiful and has fantastic services, really friendly staff and an owner who speaks very good English. Highly recommended and worth every penny.

One of the museums in Arequipa hosts Juanita, an ice Inca mummy who was found in 1995, still frozen. The Inca had sacrificed her, together with other few kids, at the top of a 6,800 plus meters high volcano to please the gods. She rolled off the top and laid frozen in a cove and so they found her, still with her internal organs from hundreds of years ago!! We went to the Museum Andino to see her in her refrigerator, unfortunately they do not allow photos so no pics to show you. Lots of mummies have been found around here actually, some on the way to the Colca Canyon, where you can see their burial coves mid way up into a vertical hill side - so inaccessible you wonder how they hell the Incas managed to put the mummies in there??

We went on the 2-day tour to the Colca Canyon, which was a great decision. Possibly the best part of the tour is getting there!! The road is very scenic and they make lots of stops to look at things. We chose an agency - PeruBolivia - who offered small numbers (we were 9) and for $20 plus tourist ticket and no meals we had the full two days with accomodation in a basic hostel called Ricardito, which was OK, though cold. It seems that all hostels there are cold, unless you pay a great deal more $$ for a really good one. As one tends to spend very little time in the hostel, possibly it does not make a lot of sense to spend a lot of money for a better standard. Anyways. We saw lots of vicunas and lamas and alpacas and the road is dotted with children and ladies with baby lamas who hope for some money in exchange for a picture. We took a clandestine one and did not pay, but did not feel too rotten about it. While I was trying to take a picture of a church, some kids run in front of it and then run back to demand payment!! Cheeky - well Flavia did not comply, hope they learn not to be cheeky?? The Colca place and Chivay, the town nearest to the Canyon, are heavily touristy and on the way from Chivay to the Cruz del Condor you even see women dancing in a town´s square at 6:30 AM !!!! !! How insane is that??!

The tour base is Chivay, capital of the Colca valley, where one arrives at around midday. They take you to have lunch and then rest in the hostel for an hour before going to the thermal springs, which are quite nice. There they have ladies dressed up in local costume serving you from the border of the pool.... we had a pisco tea which was very strong.
Then you go back for dinner at a peña place, ie a dinner with a local dance show which is actually quite good fun. The dance shows a couple whipping each other and doing other strange things, then they fish a couple of tourists out of the lot and make them perform the same dance with local partners - I almost got picked but managed to hide behind a Belgian fellow traveller and saved my skin!!!
The next day we got up at 5 to leave at 6 for the Cruz del Condor, which is the highest part of the Canyon where the condors have their nests. The canyon is over 1,000 m deep, by the way, the deepest in the world!! When there is enough hot air the condors fly high up above the cross, sometimes at 5 meters from people´s heads!! We were not so lucky, they came up but not that high up and so we could only look down at them at a distance. Still quite impressive, they are huge, reaching 2.8 meters in wing span. The older ones have white collars and white wing tips, the youngs are all brown.

Guess what this is?? peruvian specialty...

Arequipa town

Road to the Colca Canyon

Peruvians (and Bolivians) pile up stones as an offering to the spirits of the mountain

Clandestine photo...

We did see a condor or two from close by, not that unlucky after all..

On Tuesday we left Titicaca in Bolivia for Titicaca in Peru, landing in Puno after a 3.5-hour enjoyable bus ride over the border. Like our Peruvian guide on Titicaca reiterated many times today, 60% of the lake belongs to Peru, and 40% to Bolivia. It is a huge lake, over 170 km long and 60 km wide. Fairly big...

Puno is BLOODY FREEZING. The town itself is quite ugly and made up of very many brown unfinished houses that cover the hill onto the lake bay. It lies at 4,000 m above sea level and it seems to have an extremely rarified type of air - both of us have been suffering various altitude problems since we have gotten here.
We ended up in hostel El Manzano, which was recommended to us as inexpensive by a Canadian lady we met at the Calvario hill in Copacabana. It is actually not too bad, the people there are extremely helpful and the place is clean and indeed inexpensive ($11 for both with bath and breakfast). We booked a tour to the islands for the next day, as recommended by the nice French couple who we met in Tarabuco, who are ahead of us and sending us tips. Aren´´t we lucky!!

It was a good tour - 2 days and 1 night to the local islands. Like Luis mentioned, it was ´good tourism´. Meaning that you spend the night with a local family and end up buying artesania from the people who actually make the goods. And a real eye-opener as to how bloody lucky we are in the developed world.
The family we stayed with was on the Amantani island, which lies at about 3.5 hours by boat from Puno. We got there at midday and were introduced to our respective families. Ours seemed pretty poor - lots of very dirty kids roaming about in the courtyard, 2 small enclosures with smelly pigs and sheep, a tiny primitive kitchen and straw beds. No electricity of course and no running water. They invested a lot of money into making 2 rooms habitable for tourists, so that they can have guests every now and then and make some dollars - the agency pays them 25 soles each ($8) for the overnight stay, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Apparently the community shares out the available tourists on an even distribution system so that everybody gets some in turn, which is great but clearly there aren´t enough tourists going to this island: our family´s ´guestbook´ showed that the prevous lot had been there a month earlier. 4 guests at $8 each once a month is not exactly going to help much? Anyways. When we got there, in the sheep stall there was a very young lamb. When I asked the family how old the lamb was, they said: what lamb? Then they looked and informed us that it had just been born!!
We were served good basic food, lots of quinoa soup and potatoes and a root called oca (or oka?) that they dig out from the ground and leave to dry before boiling it. Given the hygenic conditions of the place, I was expecting food poisoning in the night, but it didn´t happen. Some other tourists were sick overnight, but we were lucky. Or rather, the 3 other kids were unlucky, since they were the only ones. The first thing the family did was to pull out their hand-knitted hats to sell to us. We felt compelled to buy at least one for $7, with which money you can buy 3 or 4 back in town, but it really did not matter there how much they wanted. was keen to know about how much we earn and how much our cameras cost, and get pictures taken so that we can send them to them possibly along with anything else that we can spare, like kids clothes and shoes etc. It did not feel good whatsoever. After Cuba, where a similar encounter make me cry for about a week, I think I lived this one fairly well, but certainly I have not been able to take this very well either.

In the evening they dressed us up in local costumes and went down to the local square for a party with local music. It was good fun to see all of us dressed up and dancing with the village. We bought them beer and coca cola (which cost more than what we pay them for the entire stay) and danced to what seemed to me like the very same song over and over... but it was good! At one point a small child of 5 or so approached me and mumbled something...till I realised he was asking me to dance!! That was really funny, and I could not even decline!

This morning they accompanied us down to the boat and from there we went to the next island, Taquile. This island seemed a lot richer, somehow. Here, tourists tend to stop for a trout lunch more than family stays. So we had a good trout lunch with the unmissable quinoa soup and then salied on to the Uros Islands, which are just 25 mins from Puno. These islands are really curious: they float! They are made with the lake´s totora, long reeds that they pile up and bundle together to make their islands! The place looks predominantly yellow and really cute. We stopped at two of them, bought some artesania from the ladies, and then returned to base. By the time we got there the sun was gone, which was a pity, since when it´s out it brings out the yellow of the reeds.

Tomorrow we are off to Arequipa, apparently the Peruvian equivalent of Sucre in Bolivia. Both called white cities because they are ´colonially´white and beautiful. CORRECTION: called white city because the colonial houses are built in sillar, which is a vulcanic white stone.

Our host family

The food, oca and potatoes

The brand new lamb

Amantani party

Uros Islands