Day 30 to 38 – Travelling Peru

Here I’m again… Writing this post in the beautiful home my nice CS host in Lima shares with me.

After the bumpy start in Peru, everything works out quite well. I met 2 great guys on the bus to Trujillo – Lu and Hamish. When I (or better we) finally got to Trujillo, the coast greeted us with fog and cloudy weather. At least it was warm – more or less. Huanchaco is a pretty surfer’s town, but was really quiet and almost dead the time we’ve been there. Fortunately there was a lot to see. Around Trujillo are some of the most impressive ruins in this region. We went to see Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna. Following the stories of our tour guide, we realized that the Incas have been very inefficient.
For each king, they build an own palace because they believed in reincarnation and wanted to save the place for the deceased king – that’s the case for Chan Chan.

In Huaca de la Luna the story is a bit different. The Temple was rebuilt every 100 years or so. But they didn’t just destroy the old one, no. What they did is building the new one over the old one – like a Russian doll. So the older temples, inside the newer, were preserved over thousands of years. Unfortunately you can just see the older temples if you destroy the „newer“ ones ;)

After all those lectures in ancient history, we needed some physical education. That’s why we decided to go to Huaraz – the hiking and mountaineering capital of Preu. The bus ride from Trujillo to Huaraz takes 10h, for a distance of just 300km! But the bus and our stomachs have to conquer the winding roads up the Andes.

Unfortunately our bus ride took almost 15h -.- There was an accident which blocked the road in the middle of nowhere and we had to sit (sleep, night bus) it out.
Huaraz is a very authentic Peruvian city embedded in mountains in an altitude of 3000m.
The first day in Huaraz (which started at 3pm, thanks to the blocked road) was reserved for wandering through the tiny streets filled with indigenes people selling, buying, shouting…
The next day we got up at 5:45 to take a collectivo to the starting point of the Laguna 69 (nobody could tell us why it’s called Laguna 69) hike. This hike starts at 3900m and ends at the deep blue Laguna in an altitude of 4800m! That meant our more or less unfit bodies had to climb 900m in altitude in just 3h…
We managed it, but just ;)
On the hike we had a beautiful view on the largest mountain in Peru, Huascaran and on the Artesonraju, which is supposed to be the mountain in the Paramount Pictures opening scenes. While climbing higher and higher, we all could feel the absence of oxygen in this altitude. On steep passages, we hardly could do more than a few 100m until we needed a rest.
But the view of this unrealistic blue Laguna was worth all the trouble!

From Huaraz we went directly to Lima, Peru’s capital. With 8.5 million people, almost a third of all Peruvians live in the Lima. I also met my first South American Couchsurfer in Lima, because I managed to plan 2 days ahead. Unbelievable, isn’t it? ;)

The interesting (or touristy) bits of Lima are concentrated in Miraflores (gringo zone) and the city center. Lima also has a very nice coastline, with a 100m drop just before the ocean. The big green parks and all the shopping malls reminded me more on a city in the US or Europe. But as soon as you leave this „interesting“ parts, you’re back in Peru. Crazy traffic, unfinished buildings, dirty sidewalks…
All kept a secret, so tourist won’t find it -> Tourist information: No Sir, don’t go there, it can be dangerous!
But it wasn’t… Just a few Peruvian’s turned around, wondering what this pale, tall gringo is doing here – ok, I wouldn’t feel comfortable at night J

Ricardo, my CS host, spend the whole Sunday to show me the city. Since he had a car, we visited the more faraway places, like the harbor. We had great seafood and a fantastic view over the bay.

In the evening I wanted to meet Luke, who was flying out of Lima the same night. It is a real coincidence that we met at all. Lu, who was staying in a Hostel in Lima, was sharing the dorm with Luke. They started talking and somehow Lu mentioned my „I got robbed“ story. Luke told him a similar story of his Austrian friend – they then realized that they were talking over the same person - small world, isn’t it J

Today, Monday, I spend my whole time walking through the city (and getting a bus ticket for tomorrow – you know, planning in advance ;) ).

Can’t think of a good finish now – I’m tired…

All the best,

alex

Hiking Laguna 69 ;)

Meeting with Luke

Lima