After our
nightmare border crossing experience, Mancora was just what we needed!
Our first
night the 5 of us shared a dorm and the following morning we all checked into
private rooms in a different hostel called Loki because it was paradise. Loki
is more like a hotel than a hostel; it has fancy white Greek style buildings
with balconies attached to the upstairs rooms. We were on the top floor and had
a fantastic view over the large pool surrounded by deck chairs, the bar,
hammock area and just down the stairs – the beach!! Other than the beach,
Mancora is surrounded by rocky desert.
The only
down side was the bars next door playing super loud music until 5am and all
their different styles of music clashed and competed against one another.
We spent 2
days relaxing, reading, sunbathing & swimming. I could’ve stayed there a
lot longer….
The
temperature was perfect – just enough to want to swim, but not too much that it
was uncomfortable. We watched the sun set from our balcony, went for a walk on
the beach and checked out the town which consisted of one sandy and dusty main
street which was overrun with motorized tuk tuks, buses and trucks passing
through. It’s a total tourist town with mainly shops, restaurants and market
stalls and it’s inhabited by many Australian and American surfers. It was weird
hearing English spoken everywhere again!
Loki hostel
also provided a free Spanish lesson which was neat. I knew most of what they
went through it but it was good having a refresher on the finer details of
basic Spanish.
Our final
day there we relaxed in the hammocks and had lunch with Antonio before getting
ready for our early evening bus. We had paid a bit extra for what we thought
was a “cama” bus, which means “bed”. The bus turned up over an hour late and as
soon as we saw it we could see that the pictures we were shown were false
advertising. It was a double decker bus with the bottom level supposedly being
first class. It had 12 seats jammed into a tiny box of a room with a
suffocating low roof, and they didn’t recline any further than the cheaper
chairs upstairs. There was no air conditioning and what were meant to be each
seat’s private reading lights, were only wires sticking out of a hole. Movies
were shown on a tiny TV but the picture and sound was so distorted it was
unwatchable. The toilet was a hole in a box filled with brown water….We also
discovered that we had paid the same fare to Casma as those going to Lima which
was 5 hours further. To add insult to injury, the two men sitting next to us
had live chickens sitting on their laps which made our little box smell like a
hen house. At promptly at 5.30am, they started crowing…..
After 12
hours of this delightful experience and no sleep, we were dropped off at 6.30am
in Casma. Nothing was open and there was no bus station so we had no idea where
we were supposed to go. We eventually found a bus ticket office which was
closed, we rang the bell until a grumpy half asleep old lady came out and told
us that the only buses that went to our wanted destination Huaraz, departed at
10.30pm…. We found a van offering a ride to Huaraz for 25 soles so we chucked
our bags onto the roof and climbed in! We were hungry, exhausted and in need of
a toilet but none of this stopped us from enjoying the incredible views on our
3 hour journey.
Luckily the
roads were smooth and well cared for but they made me slightly nauseous as we
wound our way up through the mountains – as well as slightly nervous as our
driver went “rapido” and liked to take up both lanes around blind corners. The
countryside consisted of desert and large dry rocky mountains with small
indigenous villages popping up wherever there was a bit of greenery. Once we
reached the top we were rewarded with a sweeping view of the Cordillera Blanca
mountain range and its snow covered rugged peaks. We descended down into the
small bustling city of Huaraz and were dropped off on a busy street where we
flagged down a tuk tuk and spent the next hour trying to find the hostel we
preferred. We gave up and asked the driver to take us to our plan B which was a
nice cheap hotel run by a lovely old lady who didn’t speak a word of English.
We went for
a wonder around the town and booked a day trip for the following day. No one
spoke any English so it was a bit of a gamble trusting what I could understand
but I did ok. We spent the rest of the afternoon recuperating in our room and
were in bed by 8.30pm!
The next
morning our tour arrived to pick us up as Andrew was upstairs getting our
sunblock. I was told to reserve our seats on the bus so I got on and then it
drove off! Our guide said that the lady’s at the hostel would explain to Andrew
where we were but I tried to explain that he doesn’t know Spanish. A tense half
an hour later, after collecting everyone else on the tour, we finally picked up
Andrew and I had to explain to him why I disappeared without him!
The bus was
like a sardine can – and for Andrew with his long legs, it was uncomfortable.
There was one American and two British guys, but the rest of the bus were
Peruvians in Huaraz for the weekend. Like most mass organised tours we spent
pretty much the entire day waiting. 12.5 hours….
First we
were taken to a small town called Carhuaz to buy souvenirs if we pleased, then
onto another town where we had to pay an entry fee to see a concrete cemetery…
The guide only spoke in Spanish so we couldn’t follow much of what she was
informing us about but what I did gather was that the town of Yungay was
completely wiped out by an earthquake in 1970 which caused 15 million cubic
metres of granite and ice to bury the entire town and its 18,000 occupants… How
devastating…
Then we went
further up into the mountains on a gravel winding road, had to pay another
entrance fee and then had to wait an hour as our guide had a discussion with
the staff at the gate. No apologies or explanation afterwards… typical. Finally
we made it to the destination that we had gone on the tour for – Laguna
Llangnuco. By this point it was late afternoon and the clouds had closed in
which weakened the emerald colors of the lagoon. It began to rain and it
quickly became cold. It was a beautiful lagoon surrounded by rough mountainous
peaks and the glacier covered Huascaran Mountain which is the tallest in the
Cordillera Blanca at a whopping 6768 metres; but it didn’t seem that high as we
were already at an elevation of 3860m ourselves.
We were
allowed 45min there and then continued onto the small town of Caraz where we
were taken to a restaurant for dinner. Of course we had no other choice as to
where to eat and this place wasn’t particularly cheap…. Afterwards we stopped
at the guides friends dessert stand, and further on at a ceramic shop… We were
told the tour would be finished at 7pm but we didn’t get back to the hostel
until 9.30pm. It frustrates me that they do this… why not just say that it
finishes at that time, as its obvious they never finish at 7. It’s annoying
that the tours main focus was on the expectation of us buying things as opposed
to actually enjoying the scenery…
To be
honest, compared to the mountains and lagoons I had seen in Canada, I wasn’t
blown away by this one. Maybe if the weather had been nicer and the tour not as
tedious, I may have enjoyed myself more. Huaraz just seemed a long way to come
just for a day tour… It would’ve been nice to invest the time and effort into
the many 4-7 night hikes in the area. That would’ve been spectacular to really
immerse ourselves into the countryside but we didn’t have the time or extra
money, plus it would’ve been difficult to organise an excursion like that with
guides, equipment, trail maps etc with not a word spoken in English…
Funnily
enough being in transit to and from Huaraz is what I enjoyed the most. We
decided not to get a night bus to Lima (as too many of them is just torture)
and it was definitely the way to go. The views on the 8 hour trip were
incredible. It started off as rugged rocky mountains with snowcapped mountains
climbing into the clouds and little streams bubbling past and blended into
sheer cliffs as we wound our way down them passing little mud brick and tin
houses built onto the edges. It fascinates me how these people live in such
remote areas with their days occupied by maintaining their own crops and
animals such as pigs, sheep, cows , chickens etc for survival. Many of their
simple shacks don’t have windows or running water but there is usually a nearby
stream. Despite the simple-ness, some of them even have lights and a satellite
dish! The lady sitting in front of us was a victim the motion sickness and was
throwing up into a bag… but after a while the road leveled out and we were
surrounded by endless rocky desert. Forgive my ignorance, but I had no idea
that Peru had deserts!! It was quite a contrast being surrounded by dry
mountains and having lush greenery at the bottom of the valleys.
It was nice
to have air conditioning on the bus for a change; we hadn’t had this since
Colombia! Ecuador’s buses were very basic, usually with no toilets. The ones in
Mexico were deluxe compared to them. But the bus to Lima was actually pretty
nice – especially in comparison to the one from Mancora! However, we had a
minor drama -The wheel of the bus caught on fire but luckily it only delayed us
in the middle of nowhere for half an hour. We continued on and came across the
wild coastal waters with humongous sand dunes which the road had been built
into high above the sea line. As we came into the outskirts of Lima, little
brick houses were built into the sand dunes – I didn’t think this was possible,
it blew my mind! We almost got off the bus in a shady neighbourhood thinking we
were in central Lima, but thankfully an American who is working in Peru with
the Peace Corps informed us that we shouldn’t be getting off there!
Lima is a
very large and busy city with loads of color, brick buildings, phone &
power lines crisscrossing all over, make shift market stalls on the street
sides, chaotic traffic, large crowds and rubbish everywhere. Lima has a
population of 7.6 million people. In 1746 an earthquake wiped out most of the
city. Fun fact - Lima was the first place in South America to build a rail way.
Peru is the
3rd largest South American country and is known for its large amount
of Inca ruins, especially Macchu Pacchu, but it also has beaches, coastal
desert, Andean mountain ranges and the jungle that is part of the Amazon Basin.
The Cordillera Blanca (where we were) is the highest mountain range in the
world outside of the Himalayas.
For all its
glory, the Inca pre-eminence only lasted around 100 years. The empire stretched
up into Ecuador and Colombia and down in to northern Chile. As is the story for everywhere in South
America, the Spanish took over and killed thousands of unarmed indigenous tribe’s
people, as well as the Europeans bringing in diseases such as small pox which
also killed thousands. Peru gained independence in 1821 and over time was at
war with Chile and Ecuador over border disputes. Politics was very
controversial over the years with corrupt and inept presidents. Over half of
Peruvians live below the poverty line and unemployment is so out of control it
can’t be measured. Teachers, policeman
and students even drive taxis. 45% of the population are purely indigenous so
you can see the traditional dress everywhere you go. The women have a tendency
to carry colorful sacks on their backs full with food or wood which sometimes
are almost larger than themselves!
Interesting
fact to finish on – abortion is still illegal in Peru.
