Well we finally made it to Peru –
after an arduous overnight bus journey and border crossing we landed
in Piura at 6am. We swapped the bus for a minivan
to get to Mancora, on the north coast. The trip was a long 3 hours, driving through a
desert-like sandy landscape that seemed to go on forever and dotted with tiny villages made of basic adobe
houses and surrounded by tonnes of garbage.
Mancora appeared out of nowhere in a
dusty haze. It seemed like a buzzing toursit mecca
from where we stopped on the Panamericana, the street was lined with
shops and heaps of noisy and cute looking moto-taxis swamped the
road.
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Eva geared up and standing in front of a moto-taxi. |
Once we stepped off the main road though it was clear that
Mancora was a rustic, rundown village of mostly mudbrick houses and
bamboo and palm leaf bungalows. Except of course for the big tourist
hotels built right on the beach that looked totally out of place among
the rest. We stayed in a bungalow a couple of streets back from the
beach – it was lovely, basic and more in tune with our budget.
Mancora is famous for the beach, it is beautiful and goes on for miles, although a security guard came and stopped us from walking too far as she said that it was unsafe.
There were a few surfers out, but most of the crowd were
there to party hard! We spent a couple of lovely days hanging out though –
we hadn't seen a beach for a while!
One disappointment was the
amount of rubbish everywhere, especially on the beach. Even the big places built right on the edge of the beach had just dumped their building rubble onto the sand. Go figure! Nothing quite like dumping
garbage in your own front yard. ...I just couldn't get it, especially as the beach itself was covered with limes and tomato offcuts, and other rubbish and there
were too many touts selling dried sea horses, turtles shells and
coral. It was a little sad and hard to understand.
After sitting on the side of the road
at midnight to wait for a bus, we headed to Chiclayo. I thought that
it was going to be a small town nearby to some ancient pyramids, but
no. It was a crazy, manic metropolis with cars and taxis jamming the
roads and noise and a sick smell everywhere. We found our way to the
central market and were assaulted by the sights and smells of it. It
was like a maze that never ended and everything that you could
imagine was for sale, from old boots, typwriters and sewing machines
to pigs heads and herbal remedies. We came upon a whole section where
huge fish were lying on trestle tables for sale, covered in flies.
The smell was like nothing else.
After losing ourselves in the market we
finally made our way out, but not before buying a backpack for Eva.
It was lucky we did because half an hour later, our
other backpack got stolen. We went into a swanky modern restaurant
that was recommended in the Lonely Planet. It was clean and sleek
with modern orange seats and huge central water feature. But we got a
little dazzled by our surroundings. We haven't been going to these
sorts of places, $2.00 lunches in local style restaurants are more our thing– anyway, we took our eyes off the backpack for about
15 seconds and it was stolen. Of course it had the new camera and my
phone in it! Bummer! The police were called and we did get a ride
through central Chiclayo on the back of police motorbikes with the
siren going. At least that was a little fun. We were also lucky that they had CCTV footage of the incident and the restuarant manager could speak a little English. He was a really nice guy and actually came to the police station with us and helped interpret. Thank goodness becuase I don't know what we would have done otherwise, he was a godsend. He also invited us back to the restaurant for a free dinner and breakfast as he felt so bad about what had happened. Obviously then, things could have been a lot worse. But we
don't have any photos of Mancora or Vilcabamba in Ecuador.
The pyramids and museums in Chiclayo
did manage to take our minds off our misfortune though – they were
impressive, especially the gold and silver jewelry and the mummies.
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Eva holding a replica of a brick used to build the pyramids |
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Ceremonial mask of the Lord of Sipan |
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Eva standing with the "Lord of Sipan" |
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One of the massive 'pyrmids' of Tucume |
Two
nights were more than enough for us in Chiclayo and we hit the buses once
again – this time headed for Huaraz, up high in the Cordillera
Blanca Mountains, via a quick visit to Huanchaco on the coast off
Trujillo. Another beautiful beach where we saw the sun set over the
sea as we arrived. Huanchaco is more developed than Mancora but
still beautiful. A nice little place to hang out, but we
only had a meal then jumped on an overnight bus.
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Huanchaco Beach |
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Eva sitting in a bus-cama total luxury compared to the Ecuadorian buses - we are on our way to Huaraz in style! |
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The view outside our bedroom in the hostel - beautiful! |
Huaraz, at 3100m, was
beautiful and surrounded by stunning snowcapped mountains. It is a trekking and mountaineering mecca and
it is no wonder, the mountains are calling out to be explored, but it
is not for the feint hearted. We took a bus trip to visit the
Pastoruri glacier, which at 5200m, was very high. Altitude was definintely
affecting both of us. I had to carry Eva the last couple of hundred
metres to get her there. For me it was definintely worth the effort,
although I'm not sure that Eva would agree! She felt sick, had a head
ache and just wanted to go to sleep!
On our way back in the bus,
it broke down! At one point everyone from the bus was out trying to
push it. I wish that I got a photo of that! We were stuck up really
high, about 4800m and all of the kids were sick with altitude and the
guide's cell phone didn't have reception. Luckily one of the Swiss
tourists on the bus was a mountaineer and had a satellite phone,
otherwise we would have been out there all night as there was no-one
around and we were miles from anywhere! Thankfully a minivan finally appeared
to take us back, but not before a couple of the people on the
bus lost it with the driver and the guide. You guessed it, it was the
obnoxious Americans, threatening to sue them! By the time we got home
it was 9pm and we both went straight to bed. My head was pounding.
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At a spring where carbonated mineral water was bubbling up from the ground. It didn't taste too good though! |
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Native Peruvian plants that live for 100 years and flower only once during that time. They were huge. |
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Eva at the base of the Pastoruri Glacier |
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After that Eva said that she wasn't
going to venture into the mountains again – although of course,
being the courageous person that she is, she agreed to go on an
un-guided trek to Laguna 69 two days later. At 4800m we were hoping
that altitude wouldn't be such an issue. The walk was amazing-
stunningly beautiful and it was so lovely to be in nature, away from
crowds and cars. We didn't make it to the final lake, the high pass was a
little too much, but the day we spent out there walking for about 5
hours was totally uplifting and thoroughly enjoyable!
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Not Laguna 69 but another beautiful torqiouse blue lake we saw |
After that fix of nature it was again
time to board an overnight bus, this time bound for Lima. The city of
9 million people that is packed with people, noise, cars and
pollution. Quite a change from the peace and grandeur of the
mountains! Mum is coming in two days though and we
have to be there to meet her!
Peru - it's growing on us slowly!