Hey all
Just realised that we've come through two countries without updating the blog so here goes avid listeners!
After our legendary Galapagos 'holiday from travelling' we flew back to Quito, the largest city in Ecuador and home to the biggest concentration of travellers I have ever met who had all manner of elaborate mugging stories. In Quito we spent a couple of days exploring the unique Old Town. There was a great buzz in the city as it was Quito Day (ok I made that up, but it was some kind of special Quito holiday with bullfighting and general mayhem to celebrate) and a Quito football team had just won some kind of South American cup. We bussed south to Banos (´Baths´) and enjoyed the, um, baths, along with seemingly the entire population of Ecuador. We also biked down a steep mountain highway to visit a stunning waterfall and dice with death riding through a pitch black road tunnel.
We made a quick stop in the pretty colonial town of Cuenca before an overnight bus to the Border From Hell. Ecuador and Peru historically do not get along (we're talking full on invasions here) and possibly for that reason the borders are 4km apart. The bus drops you off somewhere...are you in Ecuador? Are you in Peru? You don't know but there are a million guys willing to take your money to 'help you out'. To cut a long story short we went back and forth between borders and eventually got tricked (seriously) into taking a taxi 20km out to a sign that said Estacion Autobus. It was just a sign. There were no buses. At this stage we had not eaten or drank water for over 12 hours. We had no Peruvian money because of the trickery and tomfoolery of the dude who brought us here but eventually we found an old man who was willing to accept American dollars to drive us 5 hours into Peru in his car. Let me just say that when we arrived in Piura and I saw my first toilet for 24 hours I could have kissed it.
Having made it this far we pushed on, arriving in Huanchaco on the north Peruvian coast at 6am. We hung out here for a while watching the hostel's pet tortoise march round and round all day long trying to break into rooms (I have a great photo of Matt retrieving him, hissing and wobbling his big feet, from under my bed).
Next on to Huaraz, in the Cordillera Blanca - the highest mountain range in the world outside of the Himalayas. The town, like a lot of towns through Ecuador and Peru, mostly consists of ugly rectangular, half-finished besser-block buildings, due to a combination of a couple hundred years of earthquake damage and ever-present poverty. Despite this these towns are filled with colour and interest. Indigenous ladies here wear awesome brightly coloured full skirts and fuschia pink cape jackets with little hats - in Ecuador they are bowler hats with peacock feathers, in Peru sort of fedoras with tall crowns. We bought two beannies for $2 each from a lady knitting them in the street. In Huaraz we stayed in a really nice homestay where we were plied with mate de coca (tea made out of cocaine leaves...it's not dodgy don't worry just green tea that helps you with your energy levels, digestion and altitude sickness) and an amazing mountain lodge in the Cordillera Blanca itself. The lodge, called the Way Inn, was in its low season and we were the only guests, it was very cosy.
From Huaraz we took a long night bus to Lima and stayed for one day....in a mall. Yep, we went to the Quiksilver shop, ate Chinese at the food court, ahhhh new experiences and cultural enrichment... I needed a bit of Western consumerism after a rather traumatic experience the day before, anyway. We were in a local restaurant and ordered the cheap Menu Del Dia. The soup arrives, noodle soup, yum. I tuck in. I have maybe 5 or 6 mouthfuls when suddenly uncover an entire chicken foot, nails and all. I let out a traumatised gasp/whimper while Matt giggles like a small child...further investigation reveals neck parts and an internal organ of inconclusive origin. People at neighbouring tables chomp their internal organs and neck parts with delight but as lunch doesn’t pick up from there, I insist we decamp to a soft gringo café for avocado sandwiches to recover like the ball-less tourist that I am! Theoretically, OK, the animal is dead, right? The least we can do is use all the parts. That doesn’t make me feel better.
Anyway so from Lima yet another overnighter to Arequipa. We take them for granted now but these buses are quite amazing with full reclining seats, pillow and blanket, dinner and even herbal tea included. When you get on they record your passport, take fingerprints, pat-down and metal detector and even film you in your chair as some kind of security measure or perhaps to identify the bodies.
Arequipa is fantastic. It is quite a big city but interesting, easy and safe to walk around with beautiful colonial buildings. We went to a university museum to inspect the frozen body of a 12 year old girl sacrified by the Incas on a volcano outside the city, before chomping some local alpaca steaks and just a few glasses of the Peruvian national drink, Pisco Sour – highly recommended! We took a bumpy but scenic bus trip through the altiplano, spotting alpacas and vicunas on the way. A vicuna is a smaller, prettier type of llama – in the old days they would chase them until they were exhausted, pluck the soft fibres from their bodies and then let them go. When the Spanish arrived, they decided it was easier to just kill the vicunas (kind of like shooting your entire flock of sheep each year instead of shearing them…) and because of this retardedness vicunas are still a protected species.
We stayed in a small village and visited Colca Canyon early the next morning in the hope of seeing Andean Condors. The Canyon itself is amazing – more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon - and when the sun hit the bottom over 3km below and the condors began floating upwards on the warm draft it was pretty exciting. We were extremely lucky and saw at least 8 or 9 condors, including two that swept past within a few metres of my face. These birds are just massive, huge vultures with a wingspan of over 3 metres. The lookout was filled with school kids who seemed to think Matt was some kind of international celebrity. (He thinks Johnny Wilkinson. You be the judge.) They lined up to use our binoculars, asked him over and over where he was REALLY from and then he had to pose for photo after photo - group photos, photos with the teacher, close-ups on camera phone, it was hilarious. On the way out Matt bought an alpaca wool beannie and a jumper with a llama pattern knitted on from a really sweet local lady.
It’s so hard to know what to leave out and what to include here so sorry that this one was so long – I had some free time to write it as it is pouring with rain and hailing outside! We’ll do a nice short update after the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, which we are starting in a couple of days. Currently in Cuzco in a party hostel full of Aussies who are too cool for school in their ugg boots and aviators.
Hope all is well whatever you are doing, and happy birthday Bob for the 17th love!
Xxxx
Matt and Ash
