For the hostel website, click here. To email Talbot: talbot_wallace@hotmail.com
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2- Huaraz, Peru
August
17, 2003
Hola Gringos,
You´ll have to forgive me. I am a little out of breath from trying to play basketball with some of the locals here in Huaraz. A little foolish considering that this town is only at 3100 meters (that´s about 10,168 feet for you Americanos)! I am having a great time! The town is beautifully nestled amongst the finest trekking the South American Andes have to offer.
I have just return from a four day excursion. But let´s start where we left off last time in lovely( yeah right) Lima. Be forewarned, this episode is a long one. It took a grueling 14 hours to fly from San Francisco to Lima. I met a really nice older lady from Guatamala that was also flying to at least Costa Rica. I had gotten an awesome deal with Taca airlines, a Costa Rican group. But there was one small catch. I had to make 2 connections- one in El Salvador and the second in Costa Rica. The cool part is on the return flight, I get to stay in CR for two weeks for free on the layover. It was a grueling flight though. San Salvador had a very small airport with only 30 minutes for the connection, but no problem. Only one hour from there to San Jose, which had a much bigger and modern airport for the four (arghh) hour layover. There was Burger King and Papa John´s Pizza that was way overpriced, but I bit the proverbeal bullet and got a personal pan for $6! The flight to Lima was a little better with the exact same movie that was on the 1st flight. I never really dug "Sabrina", but whatever.
Arrived in Lima around
7pm and had no worries with customs. Decided to pay a little extra and take
the tourist bus into Lima (cost $8) which is kinda spendy for Peru, but I
am a big believer in paying a little extra at first to be on the safe side
until you get your traveling legs and wits. The bus took me directly to Miraflores,
the slightly more mellow touristy area of Lima. Lima is a huge, spreadout,
gateway city of 9 million poor souls. It reminded me alot of Bangkok, Delhi,
and the other ¨"dodgey" gateway cities to the third world. About
a third of Peru lives in the capital. My plan was to spend as little time
there as possible and get the hell out of Dodge! The hostal was actually ok.
Upon my arrival I realized how bad my Spanish was bc hardly anyone Hable Ingles!
In my travels I have learned that most communication is actually nonverbal
and it is amazing what someone can comnunicate by just pointing to stuff and
saying hablo Espanol un poco, por favor. There was a friendly Swiss guy in
my dorm room that played a mean Ben Harper on guitar. I took off for a quick
bite. A little out of my
element and green I walked around Miraflores and found it to be quite managable.
I was surprised to discover a large middle class of Peruvians. The streets
were quite loud and dirty with an absurd amount of casinoes. To my delight,
I stumbled upon a KFC and grabbed an Americano Grande Combo, por favor. Like
I said, my first day I take it ez and reley on more familiar standards. Grabbed
some dinero from the ATM and went back to ¨Friend´s House¨to
crash.
Saturday, I went directly to South American Explorers, a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible tourism by being: a clearing house of info, a meeting place for Gringos, as well as a good place for storing valuables. An American woman and her son were there and were happy to give some advice on some tours and whatnot. They were also happy to expound their tale of horror of being in a taxi and having someone knock out the window and steel the kid´s bag that contained, you would never guess, a Playstation. That kinda sucks. There were all sorts of nightmare stories of theft and muggings. Most actually originate from Lima Centro, so needless to say I wasn´t really keen on going there. After getting the scoop, I purchased my bus ticket for Huaraz to leave the following day. Walked around and noticed a lot of construction, most noticable-ahh the evil empire- Starbucks!!! Actually a Vanilla latte sounds damn good right about now. Hung out at the hostel and played guitar for some French Canadians. This British girl tried to talk me into going out, but I didn´t want any part of it. I´ll save my Soles (Peruvian Currency) and brain cells for Huaraz, thank you very much.
Sunday morning I got up around 7 am to shower and catch the early bus. In lesser developed countries, hot showers are kind of a luxury, so in Peru they have this weird electric knossel that is plugged into the wall. I like to call it "the tourista death trap", because the fuse is right there, and all one would have to do is reach up from the WET shower and touch the wire or the switch. Ingenius device really! The water was lukewarm at best but I was happy not to get a shocking shower. I caught a taxi right outside the hostel to the bus station. The bus to Huaraz was actually really nice. Tourista Imperial for the Cruz de Sur cost only about 47 soles ($14) and was an entertaining 8 hour ride. They had 3 Americano movies, lunch, and even played BINGO. It was a good way to practice my Spanish numeroes. It took a good 2 hours just to get out of the Lima shantytowns. The outskirts were quite desolate and poor. We also followed the Ocean and finally made our ascent up into the mountains. I had made reservations at the Hostal Churap and got a really warm welcome from the owner, Nelly, whom spoke great English and offered me some cafe. The only downer was that she had a large group and was full so I stayed next door at her sister's and had a room all to myself. It takes a while for one to acclimatize to 3100 meters and I had a horrible headache that night. It was really nice to sleep in a little and when I finally got up, the petite hostess, Lili, fixed me some cafe con leche y sucre (with milk and sugar).
I made my way next door and checked in to my room. All I could do is rest and relax in a hammock in the courtyard, with my book that I picked up at City Lights (in SF), "Why People Hate America" which I feel is a must read for everyone back home. Later that evening I met a British bloke named Matt and we went out for papa rellena (potatoes stuffed with meat) which was quite tasty. Matt and the other bloke in the dorm, James, talked me into going out to the Gringo bar, Extreme, for some foosball and the special Peruvian drink, Pisco sour, which has Pisco(local liquor) limes, and egg whites. The locals swear by them and I thought it tasted similiar to a Margarita. Matt was meeting up with a local Peruvian girl named Candy who was pretty nice though she spoke very little English. Me and James made our way back to the hostel with a tourista policia as our escort.
The next day was a little more exciting. The three of us grabbed some breakfast and I made my rounds on researching to do a trek. The easy choice was the Santa Cruz trek. Known by many as the most popular and beautiful trek in the Cordillia Blanca, if not Peru. There are tons of trekking agencies to chose from. I did not have much equipment so I decided to get the package deal that includes transportation, a guide, tent, sleeping bag, mat, and last but certainly not least two donkeys and an arriero (mule driver). I also had a hella time finding some thermal underwear. Silly me, I thought I could buy everything here, but I did not follow the 2nd rule of traveling-never assume anything. I did however finda local named Yuri, to make me some for only 50 soles but he did not show up.
Me and Matt met up and did a nice hike up into the hills to see some of the local villages and some ruins. The walk was great and I finally remembered why I had come in the first place. The city of Huaraz is surrounded by over 13, 5000 meter mountains. Combine that with the local colorful dress and friendly people and you soon find yourself really digging the place. The Wilcahuain ruins were a little dull but we ran into some cool local kids who are guides and actually knew alot about the pre-Incan Hauri. We chipped in a propino (tip) and caught a taxi back to the Hostal. I looked all over but could not find any thermals and finally went back to Yuri and begged him to make them. I offered 80 soles out of desperation, but he only wanted 60 but I insisted on giving him more. The thermals turned out to be better than anything I could ever buy, perfecto! I grabbed some pizza and fries to store up on the energy food for the next few days of trekking.
Got up really early at 5am the next morning. The previous night I checked in with Nelly and Juan, the owners, to make sure that they would be up at 6am so I could put my extra things in storage. 6am, then 6:15, then finallly 630 came and went but no Juan. My tour started at 630 so I had to wake them up. I felt really bad, but what was I going to do. Peruvians are really polite and nice, but much of the time they just tell you what you want to hear to shut your gringo mouth up. I was a tad late but of course we were on Peruvian time which means whenever they get around to it. My trekking partners were two young British girls-Amy and Abbie and one Aussie "Sheila" Heather. We had to switch to two different taxis. It was about a three hour trip on the way up to the trailhead. My guia's name was Dario and he was 24 and spoke some English. The ride up was amazing! Had to stop at the entrada to the Nat'l Park and pay the 20 bucks to get in. We also stopped at two muy verde (very green) glacial lakes. I basically had my mouth wide open the entire bumpy, precarious, and uncomfortable ride(I was stupid enough to down a whole 1.5 liter of Inka Kola Real and had to pee for what seemed like an eternity). We finally got off in the small village of Vaqueria to meet up with the Donkeys and arriero. Dario and the arriero got in long winded arguement with some of the locals over something.
We finally got under way and only hike about 4 hours. The valley that we started in was fairly moderate. The Santa Cruz trek is about 45 km (30 miles) which takes 4 days and 3 nights. The beautiful thing was that I did not have to carry my bags, the burro took care of that for me. I was a little concerned bc I recently hurt my back in helping Jeff Thorne move as well as the altitude. We passed though a village were a bunch of kids came up and wanted to hold our hands. It was really cute and of course they asked for some popinoes. I never give money, but instead always carry candy with. So the cuties got some of those delicious Starbucks mints that I use to get for work. As we continued into the valley, the size and shape of the jagged 5000 m (16,000) Andes mountains that surrounded us just took my breath away(along with the high altitude). We had a supurb camping spot and the sunset was tremendous with orange and red washing off of the white glaciate peaks of the Andes. Dario and the arriero (Vicinte) took care of dinner which was nothing to write home about. Meals were quite simple, and not really Peruvian- mostly spagetti, cheese sandwiches, and veggies. The most noteworthy part was the mate de coca (tea with coca leafs). Coca has been cultivated in the Andes since pre-Inca times and is perfectly legal. The locals either chew on the leaves, or boil it in tea to help aleviate problems with the altitude. It kinda numbs the mouth and kills any headache you may have. The southern night sky lit up brighter than anytime I could remember. It got really cold, really fast and we all crashed around 8pm.
Thursday morning we got up bright and early-630am. We had a tough day ahead of us. We camped at 3800 m (about 12,500 feet). I had a pretty tough time cause I had only been at that elevation for a few days. It was a little embarising letting the two donkey pass by, they aren't exactly known for their speed. After about 4 hours we finally reached the pass, Punto Union at 4750m (15,580 feet). Not to shabby for this Gringo. It is really tough to articulate how beautiful it was. You'll just have to see the pictures. We made camp down in the valley below the 5830 m mountain, Tauliraju. An American couple from Berkley stopped by our site for a spell after dinner. The next few days composed of walking downhill into the valley beside of incredibly green lakes (Laguna Jatunocho and another known for it's ducks) cows, and horses. The valley got dryer and hotter as we descended. Mario turned out to be a pretty fun guide. He would make a bunch of jokes in Spanish how he was the mountian man and he never gets tired, or cold and doesn't need sleep. I egged him on a little and added that he had two esposas(wives), he got a real kick out of that.
The last day I don't know what it was but I woke up and felt like I was in a dream. Everything was so surreal and I couldn't think clearly. No, I don't think it was the mate de coca either. I think the altitude has a funny effect on you sometimes. My legs felt rubbery and I basically went on inertia. Heather turned out to be a really cool tent partner and had traveled extensively in Latin America, so she was eager to chat about it. The British girls had spent a month volunteering in Ecuador. So they all gave me some good travel tips. Saturday we finally finished the trek and Dario got a taxi that we all crammed in for an hour and half ride on some pretty dodgy dirt roads with cliffs that went straight down. We had to grab a collectivo (a van that should only fit about 12 people but they manage about 20 on average) and ran into the Americans again! I got back to the hostel and had the most beautiful hot shower of my life! We all met up at Montrek for some Pisco sours and cervezas. Me and heather went to the Breasta Rojo (red breast) for some pollo (chicken) and a night cap. I was still in my drunken altitude state but the Pisco sours actually did help.
I will pick up with
the rest of Huaraz in a few days. I am leaving to fly to Cusco( the capital
of the Inka Empire, and departure point for Manchu Pichu ) on Wed. Wish me
luck.
Happy Trails,
Talbot