Travel Tuesday: Peru, the Highs and the Lows.

Four months down, two more to go!

From the surf town of Huanchaco we took a night bus to Piura in the North. We arrived at the little town really early in the morning and had to wait outside the bus station until it opened. It was weird watching the sleepy town come to life, which took an incredible amount of time as it was a Sunday morning.

People started to sweep the pavements as the sky started to change from black to grey, then the street vendors would cycle their rickety carts down the road and start setting up, and eventually people came out of their houses to buy breakfast from the bakery down the road.

Eventually the cleaner unlocked the gates of the station and let us sit in the waiting room while he swept around our feet. Nick, and a girl from Belgium who we had met on the bus tried to catch up on some sleep, while I read through all the things we’d done in Peru, trying to ignore the stench of stale pee coming from the waiting room.

On reflection, Peru was a weird country for me, there were lots of amazing things to see and do here, more than the other countries we had been to. But, for some reason, it was probably my least favourite of the countries that we had explored, from Argentina, to Chile, and Bolivia. So here are a list of the highs, and also the things I think made it a little less favourable for me.

Machu Picchu was definitely one of the things I had looked forward to on the trip, and it lived up to every single bit of expectation I had of it, although I had secretly tried not to get too excited as I thought I’d seen so many pictures of it that it might not be so great in real life. The walk there was one of the easiest you can do and I still found that a challenge! But once we were at the top it was amazing!

On the down side of Machu Picchu was Cusco. This was something I really did get excited for, every traveler told us how beautiful a city it was. And they were right. The buildings were grand and old, the streets were cobbled and narrow, and at night it was really beautiful. BUT, there were so many tourists there ready for their trip of a lifetime to see Machu Picchu that prices were just too high, locals kept you at arms length and everything was fabricated to make money. I know that the locals need the business, but it felt more like a show rather than seeing the genuine side of the city.

Lima was fantastic, and it was definitely our hostel in Barranco that made it so memorable, the people were great and it was so close to the beach. Barranco was a really nice area to just wander around, whatever time of day. I liked the fact there were two clear sides to the city, the new modern side which was good for shopping and restaurants, and the old side which was great for sightseeing.

My absolute favourite place in Peru had to be Nasca. We only spent a night there, but it was great to really learn about the lines, about the scientist who dedicated her whole life to trying to understand more about the lines. I think the heat in Nasca helped too, after a very chilly month in Bolivia.

Last, but not least, I have to mention Colca Canyon. It was so beautiful there and I think gave me the biggest sense of achievement and I really felt I deserved a dip in the pool at the bottom of the canyon! A must do for anyone who goes to Peru!

Peru was a good place to keep up the Spanish, as in Bolivia, not too many people spoke English and would much rather talk in their native language. This was good for us, as in other countries like Chile and Argentina we really struggled to find people to talk to us in Spanish, everyone wanted to practise their English.

It is also the country we will always remember for being sick in! I came into it really sick, spent time in hospital in Puno, and time in bed in Lima and Huaraz. Huanchaco was where we tried to give ourselves the time to try and beat it.

So despite the illness, and the feeling that people did keep a wide berth from the tourists, we still made some amazing memories. This was the low point of the trip for me though, it was 4 months in, with 2 months left. It was almost a whole month of being ill and thoughts started to cross my mind of cutting the trip short and heading home to try and get better, rather than doing a tour of the inside of hostel rooms. However, we stuck together and helped each other through it.

And even though it did smell of wee, I was excited to be in the bus terminal, waiting for the next, and penultimate, chapter of our journey to start.


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Travel Tuesday: Surf's Up In Huanchaco

We were in chilly Huaraz, it was 8:50 and we were killing time waiting for our bus at 10pm to go to Huanchaco and Trujillo on the North Coast of Peru when Nick flicked the TV on. On every station there were news reports about the earthquake that had hit Chile, which meant they were predicting a tsunami to hit the area we were going to. We looked at the map and the route the bus took was the PanAmerican Highway which ran along the coast, all night. Not good. We had to either risk going, or lose the money for the bus. We asked the lady at Joe's place and she seemed pretty sure that we would be fine. Risking the value of a ticket over our own lives we decided to take the bus.

I was so scared all night, I don't sleep well on buses, but this was even worse. I kept peering out of the window into the still darkness, expecting to see a huge mass of water heading towards the bus out of the blackness. But we arrived safe and sound at Trujillo bus station at 4am and jumped into a taxi. The taxi driver explained that nothing had happened, and that he had been on a fishing boat the night before and although it had been a little choppy, it was fine.

We decided to use the Lonely Planet for once and chose a hostel Naylamp which offered private rooms, dorms and camping too. We didn't really get to look around as it was still dark, but the sleepy guy on reception ushered us into a deluxe room and we were amazed. The room was built up on a hill and overlooked the sea. It was ensuite and had the towels folded into amazing origami shapes on the bed. I know, it's the small things, but when you're travelling luxuries are few and far between. I would strongly recommend this hostel, it was really clean, next to the beach, spacious and also did great food.

We woke up pretty late and ordered breakfast to our room, lemon pancakes and chamomile tea! After that we went on a hunt for a pharmacist to try and get rid of the bug that was hunting us once and for all. Finding a pharmacy proved a harder task than we thought, considering how small the town is, there are not many signs, so you have to peer into the shady shops to see what they have on offer. The lady gave us some medicine and a huge bottle of strawberry medicine and told us to drink it all in 24 hours. Quite a challenge! We spent our first day just enjoying our room, the camping area meant there was lots of green space with hammocks, and with the beach just a stone's throw away we wandered by the sea that no longer seemed as menacing as the night before. We had dinner at the Dutch owned vegetarian restaurant next to the hostel, filling up on falafel and apple pie and were in bed by 9:30.

Feeling much better after resting and our medicine we decided to do something touristy and go to Chan Chan. This is the biggest remaining ancient mud city in the world. As we walked down the path to the visitor centre, we could't believe how huge it was and how long we actually had to walk for! The yellow sandy walls contrasted with the blue sky and the sea beyond. Each King would build his own temple in the city and when he died it would be closed off with all of his treasures as his grave, and his predecessor would start to build his own grave temple. Pretty cool.






The next day we went for a surf lesson. Nick was definitely on his way to becoming a pro, I was more like a beached whale with my mobility on a board. The teacher would send me off into the wave and shout 'GET UP! GET UP GET UP!' but I was just enjoying the ride and found it really hard to get up and keep my balance. After a couple of attempts, the teacher helped me get in position and said softly 'If you don't get up this time, I will kill you!' Well that certainly gave me motivation but in my panic I fell off after a second or two. I swam reluctantly back to him and he said 'Just Relax!' I pointed out it was hard to relax when he had just threatened to kill me, he laughed and propelled me away on the next wave. Needless to say, it didn't happen for me!

We spent our last day in Peru in Trujillo, the city next to Huanchaco, and were a little sad that we hadn't spent longer there as it was really, really pretty. We grabbed some dinner at a fancy restaurant and started our huge mission to get to Ecuador. Vamos!


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