Peru - Trekking, Bird Watching and Sandboarding ...

Hola!

Well this weeks one is a winner! I might be correct in saying Pips and I went through what has to be the most testing physical exercise we´ve done - ever!

We left Mancora and had a delightful 20hr bus trip via Trujillo to the scenic mountain town of Hauraz. It´s set at about 3000m above sea level so the wise man would get there and plan to spend a couple of days acclimatising. Not us, no way! We arrive first thing in the morning, have a quick clean up then head into town and sign ourself up for a 4 day hike of the popular ´Santa Cruz´loop. It entails 4 days and 3 nights of hiking around some of the highest mountains in Peru.

By late afternoon, the altitude headaches had set in but a massive bowl of pasta later and we were ok. Ish ...

Day 1 - we get picked up from our hostel at 6am and get carted off to the bus stop. The bus, which runs once a day to Yungay, decided after a misjudged speedhump to blow it´s back suspension and die on us. We spent a couple of hours watching them try and fix it on the side of the highway, before a minibus arrived and carted us up to the town we started the hike from. The drive up there was hair-raising to say the least. A climb of about 1200m up this very thin windy road, and a driver who knows not what a brake is. Crumbs! We eat a quick lunch, marvel at the load the poor donkeys have to carry, then set off.

Our group consisted of a varied level of fit people, all a level way above Pips and I. Oops! Immediately we set our place at the back and battled up and down the hills and valleys until we reached camp 1. 15kms later, sore feet and altitude headaches deluxe. This hiking thing is a bit more involved than I thought!

Day 2 - Hell! We set off about 8am and it´s uphill for 3 and 1/2 hours. I´ve run a marathon before and that hurt but this was in a league of it´s own. We climbed up to a height of 4750m and the air up there - just isn´t! The last few hundred meters before the summit of the pass took about an hour, one small step at a time. The prize was priceless though, a view of both sides of the valley and a close up of some very scenic snow capped peaks. Awesome!

A couple of hours later we arrived at camp shattered, and spent the afternoon nursing our feet and teaching the others the card game Shithead. Quality!

Day 3 - peace of piddle. We are pro hikers now! Steep climbs - bring them on! Actually the day was a pretty flat walk but that was made up for by distance, a good 20km in total. More blisters, feet nursing and card games entertained us in Camp 3 till bed time. And I hadn´t mentioned the cold before now but know our -7 sleeping bags were no good! It was COLD!!!

Day 4 - Easy. A short 2hr walk down the valley, following the winding river and towering valley walls, brought us to the end of the trip. And not a moment too soon. We stank, were shattered and in much need of some rest...

Back to Huaraz for some R&R, a jolly good curry at some English´ curry house, then we get on an overnight bus to Lima. It was supposed to arrive at 6am, in time for us to run across the road to this other bus company, and leave on the 7am bus to Pisco. The bus arrived at 5am on the other side of the city. So we quickly cabbed it across and managed to get the 7am. Like legends! Instead of Pisco, we opted to go straight to Paracas.

A small fishing village where you can get day trips out to the Islas Ballestas - the poor mans Galapacos! Not a bad little place, not much going on really except for those tours. So we did the morning one, saw thousands of birds, some dolphins, sea lions, penguins, pelicans, etc etc. Got some cool pics from it which will be on their way soon.

From there to Ica, then a short cab ride to the desert oasis of Huacachina. It litterally is a small town with a lake in the middle, some palm trees and totally surrounded by sand dunes! V Cool!

We chilled there for a couple of days, hiked the big dune just outside town and tried out the whole sandboarding thing. Nothing like snowboarding! Much slower and you get sand Everywhere! We did a buggy tour into the desert too, which included a few sandboarding sessions and a sunset, aaaahh. Oh, and how could I forget, we did a wine tour too. Saw how they make the local drink called Pisco. And had to buy a bottle. To be consumed at a hostel near you!!

We´ve now made our way, on a very posh bus, to the mountain town of Cusco. Looks quite similar to Quito actually but that´s just a first impression. We are here for the next couple of days then join up with an overland truck (Dragoman) that will take us all the way down to Santiago. 27 days later! Bring it on. So more pics, ramblings to come!

Adios for now

Ecuador - Jungle life ...

I´m back! oh yeah!
Just got off the back of a gruelling 12 1/2 hr bus trip to the border from Quito, border hell as our passport stamps were a mess then another 5hrs of cabs and mini buses to our safe haven beach town of Mancora. So ´tired´´ is the word right now.
So. In the last nail biting episode we were leaving the mountain town of Banos for the jungle.
This was an overnight bus to the town of Lago Agrio. Can only be described as though it had just gone through a tank war. There was rubble all over the place, buildings falling down, seriously a dive. Weird though as it´s the main town to access the jungle from up north. You´d think they might want to make it a little more attractive for the tourists. Anyway, we get picked up by a Steven Segal lookalike and driven 3hrs into the jungle, to the main entrance to the Cuyabeno reserve. From there we board this long canoe and head off on a 2hr trip down the windy Cuyabeno river to the grande Laguna where our camp was. The canoe trip was just like you see in the Planet Earth series, with thick tangled jungle on either side and this muddy ominous river carving it´s way through it. Sometimes there were no banks on either side, just more muddy water heading off into the trees.
The grande laguna was pretty...grande! large! Apparently in the middle it´s about 10m deep and I´d say it´s about 1km in diameter with a small island in the middle. In the dry season, that laguna doesn´t exist, only a small trickle running through the middle. Unbelieveable the amount of water that comes and goes there through passing seasons. Luckily we were there as it was almost at it´s fullest.
The camp was fantastic, thatched bungalo sleep huts connected by wooden raised footpaths and a cool dining area. No electricty. As remote as you could hope for really. We spent 4 days there doing jungle walks in the day and night, canoe trips, some fishing for piranha (caught nothing, I suck!) went to some locals village to see their shamen give a talk about the birds and the bees. Interesting!
My top moment of that trip: we took a canoe out one night into the grande laguna, there was no moon so star gazing was tops. The water was so calm the stars were being reflected and it was almost hypnotic watching it. Very cool.
Jungle trip over we get back to Lago Agrio, joy, and make our way overnight to Quito. Of all the large cities we´ve been to over the last few months, I have to say this one rocks the dancefloor! Very nicely set a scenic mountain range, great bars and clubs, and lots to do around the place. We caught a cable car up the main mountain which would have been great if... the clouds hadn´t come in. We got a postcard instead.
Then caught some dodgy buses to Mitad del Mundo (centre of the world/equater). Was quite cool, took some funny pics standing on the south side, then the north side, like every good tourist should!
Then disaster struck! Oh yes. We found we had made our first major travel fault. On entering Ecuador our bus never stoped at border control and we never got the entry stamp. So were basically in Ecuador illegally. The office in Quito advised the only way to sort it was to go back to the border town ( a lovely 12hrs away) and get the stamp done there. We had done pretty much most of what we wanted to in Ecuador anyway so decided to pack our bags, as such, and head back to Peru. Luckily we had met this English couple of whom the girl could speak Spanish. She drew us up this letter explaining to the authorities what muppets we were and could they let us go unscathed. It worked! We had a couple of shaking heads but they let us through and here we are.

We plan to head to Huaraz from here, a hiking town set in this range of 50 something 14000ft mountains. O boy! It´s quite a long bus ride a way so we´re gonna chill here for a couple fo days and recouperate, then adios baby!
This PC sucks and won´t let me upload my pics, but I will find an internet cafe that does and will send some pics along shortly.

Oh, we did find a TV but they only showed the FA Cup final, so I got to watch my team lose like LOSERS. Crisis! And then found out the Sharks lost by 1 point. A very dark day insteed!

That´s all for now, a bit of a long read, apologies but I need to get it out! :-D


Adios Amigos

Pete

Ecuador - Mountain Life ...

Hola from Ecuador!
Beach life has now become mountain life, soon to become jungle life. What a life!
We stayed in Montanita for another couple of days from where I last left off. Our time there was not exactly as pleasant as we'd expected and hence decided to move on. This was mainly due to two factors, well for me anyway.
One: The bowels went into code red, requiring some drastic action! I couldn't last 30mins without a cramp and an incident. We worked out that all my symptoms were those of the side effects of the malaria tabs I was taking. I decided to go off the tabs for a couple of days and sure as, everything cleared up! So keep that in mind future travelers, it's not necessarily the water that makes for an upset stomach.
Two: it so happened we were there during a period when the workers were allowed to blast crappy music from useless tin speakers every night until 10pm, as part of some labor movement thing. We had such speakers blasting from a church spire right outside our hostel, and I might be burning in hell for the plans I plotted in my head to blow up that church spire!
The beach itself was pretty decent although the waves were v poor in regards to surfing.
So, out came the trusty Lonely Planet and off to the mountain town of Riobamba we trooped. The plan was to get on this train that goes from there along the top of the PanAmerica´s, a trip that gives some breath taking views and no doubt pant soiling moments - they make you sit on the roof of the train!
Our plan failed! It's now low season and the usual train was replaced by this converted bus effort that was fully booked by the time we got there. We spent a day wandering around Riobamba anyway, not a bad little place, lots of tiny shops and restaurants. When in Rome do as the Romans do – I bought this Llama sweater thing which makes me look like a walking piñata, but had to be done!
From Riobamba we bused it to the next happening mountain town of Banos. I equate it to Queenstown in NZ. It has all the outdoors activities on offer, from rafting to canyoning to jungle trips. So far we've hired a quad bike and raced off to see this pretty awesome waterfall, went on this bus thing called a Chiva to see the volcano by night, and went to the local Zoo. That was v cool, apart from the Condor enclosure which was way too small for it. They had Pumas, jaguars, boa´s, anacondas, iguanas, etc. Basically lots of animals I´d never seen before so big tick there.
We leave tonight for ´Primary Jungle´, ooooooooo! Meaning none of this 2 day walk down to the local river and learn about a couple of plants nonsense!, this is Rio Napo baby, Amazon deluxe! We're going on a 4 day jungle trip, hoping to get some Piranha fishing in, see some caimans, anacondas, etc. And hopefully avoid getting eaten to death by mosquito´s / and Caimans I guess.
So that's it for now.
Big it up for the Sharks, hope they kick the Bulls butt next Sat. My mission in life is to find a TV to watch that!

Once again, thanks all for the replies, I'm offline now for a few days so will only be able to reply to them next weekend. Have a good week all, be good or good at it!

Pedro e Pips

Peru - Beach Life ...

So where was I....
Oh yes, we were catching a bus up to the beach resort of Mancora. This was an overnight bus, getting us there at the timely hour of 6am. It´s still dark here at that time so standing stranded on a dark street in a strange town wasn´t too fun. We quickly caught a Tuk Tuk (3 wheeled motorbike effort) to the first hostel listed in the Lonely planet. What a dive! We were so tired we took it anyway and passed out.
Now, this part of the email can be divided into two distinct sections:
The first is part where you wish you were here!
Mancora is a pretty small resort town, with scattered hostels here and there and bars everywhere. It has medium sized waves so nothing to rave about but it has sun all day - every day! Winter just don´t come by these parts! We spent the week either sleeping in late, lazing on the beach tanning/listening to every song my iPod has, twice! Every now and then rudely interrupting the beach by going for lunch or watching Man Utd lose like amateurs in the European Cup, crisis, and maybe the odd visit to the sheesha bar till late! Pips and I also did an hours surf lesson where I think I managed to stand up...twice...and stiffen every muscle in my upper body! Looks like I need to work on the old pecs again if I wanna take Kelly Slater down!
We decided enough was enough by Friday, we couldn´t take this heaven for much longer. Time to move on, to Ecuador baby yeah! You can either risk it and try and catch local buses from town to town or you can get someone to organise the whole thing for you, the border crossing and all. We went that route and here brings us to the second part of the email:
The part you are loving being at your desk reading this instead!
Firstly, as I have to tell this part to bring it all into perspective, I somehow got the runs, badly, about Thursday evening. Like every hour or so there was a loud knock on the back door, and I had to open it!
The plan was to get buses up to the beach town of Montenita in Ecuador. This would mean 3 buses over 14hrs.
Bus 1: 6am. Local bus, smelly, loud Spanish music blaring which ended being a blessing as it drowned the power snoring of the lady in front. No sleep. Arrives about 7:30 in the border town of Tumbes.
Bus 2: 8am. International bus company called CIFA. A mutton dressed as lamb bus! Looks good on the outside but . . .
Loud Spanish music blaring again, smelly, hawkers getting on and off at every big tree, yapping dog the row across from us, fluffy lady behind us singing to her hearts delight, oh and another two a few rows up doing the same. What´s all that about! Arrive 3pm. No sleep.
Hot, sticky, bowels in a knot! Find the first toilets and O Boy!
Bus 3: 4:45pm. Local bus, NO leg room, cockroches (crisis!) and hawkers getting on and off. No sleep. Arrive 8pm. Buggered.
We checked into the first backpackers we walked past and got the ´´penthouse´´ suite! Top two floors with hammocks and a super large bed. As our bowels were´t quite right, we chose to sleep in the beds right outside the loo! Top choice it turned out to be!
We did a quick trip down the main street to get some food and water and damn pity were were in the state we were. This place is like a mini Ibiza! Everything was going off and people were getting well and truely into it. I lasted until I took my first bite of a sandwich, then came that LOUD knocking again. Mummy!!!
That was last night, today, got up about 11 and armed with a bog roll and some imodium, we went walking round the town. The beach looks fantastic and the bars and restaurants the same. We had a lunch just now and it came to 6USD for everything. We likey this place!

No plans for long we´re gonna stay here. I´m hoping our bowels sort themselves out soon so we can try this surfing thing again, also so we can getting involved in some of the night life. I´ll have to take some pics and send them with the next email so you can see what I´m on about.

Thanks to all who reply, it´s always great to read how you´re all doing too. Sorry if I don´t reply straight away, but I will!

That´s all for now, until the next one, hasta leugo!

Pedro e Pippa