From Lima to Lake Titicaca, a round up

Since Huaraz I have been on a trip across a lot of Peru and through Huanchaco, Lima, Huacachina, Nasca, Cusco, Arequipa & Lake Titicaca. Excluding the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu which I have to talk about seperately, this is what I have been up to...

After leaving Huaraz Marley, Dakota, Wyatt, Ruby and I thought we could really do with getting some sunshine, and where better to go than to head to the coast to a little village called Huanchaco? Huanchaco is a little surf village located near Trujillo on the coast of Peru. It took us 9 hours on an overnight bus and although it broke down we got there in one piece. We stayed at this cool hostal owned by a Scotsman who was very friendly and appears to spend his days chatting, smoking and drinking. We were all very eager to get some sun and surf and were not left dissapointed by what Huanchaco had to offer. On day one we headed down to the beach and got some surf lessons which was really good fun. We rented boards again on the second day but it was A LOT harder to ride the waves without some instructor help. I definately want to try some more surfing on my travels.

Sunset above Huanchaco

We had some lazy days here and enjoying the Peruvian delicacy of Ceviche which is marrinated raw fish. Wyatt, Ruby and I also visited the ruins of Chan Chan which is the largest adobe (mud built) city in the world. It was built by the Chimu people over 1500 years ago and was very impressive to see and hear about how many human sacrifices they made!

Wall deco

Lima was the next stop for New Years. I enjoyed Lima and although it is not an awe inspiring city it is a stark constrast from Huaraz: Small town streets are replaced by wide open large roads, the multiple small house shops on each streets are replaced by the occasional Metro, the numerous hole in the wall restaurants have become McDonald´s and Burger King´s, the architecture has gone from unfinished brick and wire messes to grand stone carved fascias and Huaraz´s Plaza de Armas is now outshone by an inumerable number of plazas.

3D Fountain light show

I was staying in Miraflores which is one of the most westernised and modern areas of Lima. In reality Lima is a sprawling city of over 10 million people and most live very poorly. New Years was spent in the hostel I was staying which was a lovely grand house with a great outdoor area. We had a barbecue and lots of drinks before celebrating New Year there and heading to a party street in Barrancho for some dancing. Also in Lima I visited the Fountain Park which has 13 different fountains in it and shows a really impressive 3D laser projection and music show against the lit up backdrop of the largest fountain. I can´t not mention the erotic pot collection I saw at the Larco museum too!

Very wierd pot!

By the end of my stay in Lima I was travelling by my self for the first time which was kind of liberating and it was on to the delights of Huacachina. Huacachina is a small lagoon and village surrounded by sand dunes. It features on the 50 Soles Peruvian note and is a cool place to stop by in for a couple of nights. On the second day I went sandboarding and dune buggying in the dunes which was good fun.

La Laguna

On top of the dunes

Nasca was the next stop, I had always wanted to see the Nasca lines so I booked myself a flight over them. Although the flight was delayed until the next day and there was an extra cost of $30 it was well worth the trip. The lines were created in the sand by the Nasca people around 1500 years ago for an unknown purpose. There are about 13 lines depicting animals and birds and other shapes and due to the scale of them they can only be appreciated from the air.

The Hummingbird

Next up was an overnight bus to Cusco. I spent four days in Cusco and really enjoyed it. It is a beautiful city 3000m asl and set in a bowl between hills. It´s importance is that it was the Capital of the Inca´s and so the most important and sacred of places in the pre-columbian era (before European invaders).

Cusco´s main Church

After the Spanish conquest it was kept as the capital and the sacred Inca sites were torn down and Catholic churches were built on top using the same stone. The Spanish churches are very impressive in grandeur and the intersting thing is that their architecture and paintings were reated by local people who incorporated parts of the traditional Inca culture in to them. The painting of ´The Last Supper´in the main cathedral shows a guinea pig in the middle of the table and Judas has the face of the first Spanish Conquistador Francis Pizarro! The nighlife if pretty cool in Cusco and I stayed at Loki which is a party hostal and went out a couple of nights.

Puma paw, Sacsayhuaman

The thing about the Inca´s which is impressive is the symbolism and meaning which is attached to everything they do. They have three main symbols they revere: The Condor represents the Heavens, the Puma represents the Earth and the Serpent represents the Underworld. Cusco was built in the shape of the Puma and they built the holy site of Sacsayhuaman as the head. Up to 20,000 people worked to build the site and transporting up to 70 tonne stones to build the 7m high walls. The way they cut and configured the stones also made the site earthquake proof. Arequipa is another atrractive city but is very different from Cusco. Its main centre and buildings are built from a white volcanic stone. The area around Arequipa is very volcanic and a nearby volcano started erupting during the Inca´s perdio of power. To pacify the gods the Inca´s sacrificed five children on the volcano. I vistied the museum to the ice mummies and got to see one of them which was pretty cool!

Also near Arequipa is the worlds deepest canyon ´Colca Canyon´. I went on a three day trek to the canyon which was really fun. Day 1 was a 3am start by bus to the canyon. You get out at a view point near the top to spot for Condors which can have a wingspan of up to 3m. Then the trek down the canyon starts and it is a winding path down to visit and stay in one of the villages further in to the canyon. I was in a group with 4 other people who all got on well and one guide. The guide he told us a lot about the local traditions, plants and life which made it really interesting.

Victory after the final climb

Day two was a really chilled affair as we only had an hour and a half of walking before we made it to the oasis at the bottom of the canyon where we would be staying for the night.It was a blue sunny day and we came in to a lovely palmed area with a beautiful pool shimmering in the sun. It was a great place to stay for a day and very relaxing. Day 3 was the hard part of the trek as it was the climb up to the top of the canyon. We started the climb at 5.30am in the morning without even breakfast in us! I was pretty happy with myself as I was the first person to make it up to the top out of all the groups of people climbing it. Once at the top it was time for rest and breakfast and after that the journey back to Arequipa, it was a very enjoyable trip.

Next up was Puno and Lake Titicaca which would make up the last part of my Peruvian adventure. Lake Titicaca is the worlds highest navigable lake and stands at 3,800m asl. It is famous for its beauty and the floating islands made of reed. I decided to go on a tour to visit the islands on the Peruvian side and spend a night on Amantini with a Peruvian family. As a lot of things are in Peru the islands are very commercialised with eager Peruvian women ready to sell you food, drink and artesanal products. This did not however detract from the experience. We visited the floating islands of Uros first and it was really interesting to see how the islands were first created.

A few from the top of Amantani

We then sailed over to Amantani where we would be staying the night. I was paired with this Dutch guy to stay with one family. We were put up in a small but nice room in there house and few well. We got to speak to them a bit but there was not so much interaction. In the afternoon we walked up to the top of the island to where they have ceremonies to Pacha Mama (Mother Earth). The view across the islands and lake was very beautiful and was the best part of the trip. The evening was funny as a traditional fiesta was organised for the tourists. Our family gave us a traditional hat and poncho that the men wear and took us to the hall. Once there we were treated to a live band and the wife of the family whisked me and Emile for a dance. Everyone looked pretty silly in there costumes.

Traditional dance wear

The next day was a write off as the weather was foul. We visited the other island on the lake and had lunch before heading back. It was then time for the next country of my travels, Bolivia............

Christmas in Huaraz

Ok, time to pick up on my blogs and remember back to Christmas. Last years Christmas was my first abroad but it was a lot of fun. The build up to Christmas seemed a lot shorter and that was the big difference this year. None of the normal Christmas songs and grey cold and snowy days. The decorations in Huaraz were only put up 2 weeks before Christmas which was nice in a way as the whole thing was a lot less commercialised.

To celebrate Christmas with the family and other volunteers we had a Secret Santa. Names were drawn and I got Essy who is the Delgado´s 11 year old sun. Essy had been complaining about the dissapearance of ´his´hot chocolate once the volunteers and I found out about its existence, so I thought it would be funny to buy another pack for him. He is also in to skate stuff so I got him a skater wallet. We gave out the presents on the 23rd and each person had to stand up and describe the person the gift is for and everyone has to guess who it is. I was Mariah´s Secret Santa and she gave me a small stone carving of a figure from a 3,000 year old site called Chavin.

The unconventional Christmas tree and gift giving

In Peru Christmas is celebrated on the evening of the 24th and originally the Delgado´s were expecting there to be as many as 40 people in the house for it! Coming for Christmas appears to work like this... you don´t invite family in join you, instead they decide if they want to visit or not and then tell you. Also if they come then their friends and other family could also come along. In the end some of their aunt´s, uncles, cousins and parents came and there were 8 family members and 8 volunteers making 16 in total.

For the Christmas dinner the volunteers all chipped in for it and bought another turkey and made desserts. With the two turkeys compined we had 17kg of meet for 16 people! Ruby who alos comes from England decided to make a traditional Christmas Pudding complete with brandy. Eggnog, stuffing and other desserts were also cooked up.

Sometime in the evening Luis took the turkey´s next door to be cooked in the giant bread oven [see Thanksgiving blog]. At that point there were only five turkeys in the oven BUT later on this multiplied in to 30 turkeys being crammed in to it! The volume of turkey´s being cooked caused a delay in the meal and we did not eat in the end until 1am.

At 12pm in Celebration of Christmas day we heard the noise of 1000s of bangs from outside the house and the other volunteers and I ventured on to the roof to have a look. The whole city was alight and ringing with the sound of fireworks. Every house had some type of explosive it was letting off in to the night sky. From where the house is you can see all of the city below and it looked very impressive. The celebrations died down after about 30 minutes and then it was time to eat.


All together at the table

A traditional Preuvian Christmas meal is a little different from our own. The start of the meal is the traditional the turkey which was fresh from the oven with lots of stuffing, potatoes, carrots and beetroot. Then up next was Panetone with hot chocolate. Panetone cakes are huge in Peru and they were even giving mini ones away with mobile phones! By this tme we were pretty stuffed but then we had all the puddings to come. The lights went out and in the dark the Christmas Pudding was lit. There was a lot else to go with it and we were pretty full by the end. We got to bed around 3am or so.

The day after was a relaxed affair. We had a big lunch with the considerable amount of turkey that was left and a bottle of champagne was popped open. The day would also be a sad one for two reasons. Two years ago on the 26th of December the Delgado´s daughter at the age of just 20 died of cancer. Nothing was said on the day but we did not see Haydee (the wife) until it was time for us to leave. The second less significant reason was that it was time to leave Huaraz.

I had a really great time in Huaraz and as a beginning of my travels I could not have wished for a better place. I met a really good group of people who I became really good friends with and will keep in touch, I got to improve my Spanish and became friends with some of the locals, I got to live with a greta family who taught me a lot about the culture and their own values, and finally I got to go on a lot of treks and adventures.

School´s Out!

My primary reason for coming to Huaraz was for the volunteer work with Teach Huaraz Peru, however, that may not be abundantly clear from my blogs so far. With the end of the school year I think it´s time to settle that. But firstly the last day of school…

The final day of school at Soledad was hilarious. There were classes running most of the day but they were just the final oral tests with students on what they have learnt. From early afternoon onwards the kids ruled. Children brought in there own decorations and food and drink to celebrate the end of school. Wyatt and I helped some of them string up party tape across the ceilings of one classroom while the children got the ghetto blasters going with reggaeton songs. The students for some unknown reason are allowed to start fires in the back playground and they used them to brew up a chocolate and milk concoction in giant pans. Several classes appeared to have done this and we helped with one of them. By mid afternoon the kids had the run of most of the classrooms and there were no teachers to be found.

Some of the kids and Roxanna

Cooking up a treat

Child safety at the school doesn´t really exist. Cast your eye across the back playground and it isn´t hard to see the bits of wood with nails sticking out or the pieces of concrete and the occasional piece of glass. One day several windows were smashed out due to the student’s ball games and the glass was just lying around on the ground outside the classrooms. Someone had cleaned it up by the next day though. From going to one of the other schools I know that they aren´t all as bad as this.

My time at Colegio de la Soledad has been fun and interesting. The school, as you can see from the photo´s is very poor and caters to students from less wealthy backgrounds. Classes generally start on time but have an influx of students during the first 15 minutes. I was helping to teach students from 12-17 years of age and each class would only receive an hour and a half of English lessons a week. This made it very hard to have a real impact on the kids we were with. Lessons involved teaching the kids basic things such as verbs, adjectives, as as comparisons, time etc. Sometimes half the class time would be taken up testing kids on what they should have learnt for homework. This could be quite frustrating sometimes as you knew there was little benefit you could add. The teacher I was with was called Nancy and she was really nice and very interested in expanding her English knowledge. I also worked with some trainee teachers which was fun as they were lively and gave something different to the classes. Kids really played up in classes and were allowed to walk around the classroom during lessons, chat to other students, throw things at each other and do other work in the class. I don´t however know if this is a reflection of the general school teaching culture or not. There were some good kids there though and you could tell the ones that wanted to learn and were engaged. Overall my experience at Soledad wetted my appetite for getting more involved in helping to teach. I have been more assisting than running any lessons and I would like to have another volunteer teaching experience which offered me greater responsibility to do this.

Professora Nancy

Outside of the school classes which ran from 1-6pm I decided to help out at some evening classes at The Language School. Both classes were a mix of students from the ages of 12 to 30. Percy was the teacher and he was really grateful to have us helping out. The second evening class was a lot of fun as the students were more our age and we went out with them on a few nights out in the evening. Again it was more assisting the students and helping with their pronunciation and lesson subject but you felt they really benefited from you being there.

One of the evening classes

Vallunaraju

Shortly after completing the Santa Cruz Trek Wyatt and I were contemplating another more ambitious but non technical climb. Wyatt had read about a mountain called Vallunaraju which was 5,60m high but was possible to climb without the need actual climbing. We said that we would do it but we left it to the last minute and after we came back from Hatunmachay to organize it. We asked Marian, one of the Germans we had met if he wanted to come in with us on it and he agreed. Guide, transport, clothing and equipment was organised through David who runs a climbing and trekking company. We were still unsure the day before the climb as we had just had a heavy night of drinking but decided to go ahead as it was the only time we had left. We all met that day to sort equipment and buy food. The guide had a real thing about eating rice and did not want any pasta so his nickname for the trip became ´Aroz´ (Rice).

Left to right: Marian, Arroz, Wyatt, Me

So at 6 in the morning we met in Huaraz to begin our adventure. The taxi driver took us 3 hours up in to the mountains in his very rickety vehicle and we got out at the start point 4,200m in the mountains. The climb was split in to two parts. The first part was a 3 hour trek to the camping ground around 4,800m high where we would unpack, eat a lot and sleep until midnight. The second part was the climb from base camp to the top of the mountain. This involved a short 20 minute walk to the base of the ice sheet before putting on crampons and beginning the hike up to the summit. This would take between 5 and 6 hours. The third part was the climb back down to base camp where we would repack and hike down to the taxi.

Equipment:

• Snow boots
• Crampons
• Ice Axe
• Ropes & Carabiner to attach us together
• Head torches
• Warm clothes

The three hour hike was ok but it involved carrying all our gear up steep slopes and it was tiring. We reached base camp around 1pm and I could feel the altitude having its impact on my body. I was very glad we were staying there until the midnight so I could get lots of sleep and fill myself up.

It reached midnight and we got some more food into us and prepared our equipment. We left base camp around 1am and started making our way up the mountain to the ice shelf. Once there we attached snow cramps and readied our ice axes. It was 1.20am and ahead was a 5 hour climb 900m up through snow with potential crevasses to fall in to and only a rope keeping all four of attached together. Aroz led the way, making a route through the snow for us to follow. It was pitch black so we only had the light of our head torches to guide us. This was a good thing because it meant you could not see just how much of a climb we had ahead.

Getting ready for the climb ahead

Progress was slow, I tried to just keep a rhythm going in my head of the steps. 1 step, 2 step, breathe, breathe, 1 step… The altitude made a hard climb harder. We were walking on top of snow which could be waste high if your foot fell on an uncompacted area. Doing that could waste a lot of effort. The slopes would change in gradient and some would require real effort, thrusting your ice axe in to the snow and using it as another way of pulling yourself up to the next step. Gradually the light came up and you could make out where you were going. At one point we got up a part of the mountain only to find we could go no further and had to retrace our steps a little bit to find the right route. We came across a couple of crevasses in our path but luckily they were small. If you look in all you can see is an ice wall fading in to blackness. The scenery of the ice shelf and mountain was amazing though. Our stops to regain energy and breath gradually became more frequent and it becomes harder to get back in to a rhythm the more you take them. The mountain deceives you as you do not see all of where you are going. You will see the top of a snow hill in front of you only to find another awaits you. Eventually we could see the top of the mountain and the guide said we had another 2 hours to go, which didn´t feel so good. The site of the peak carried you forward though. We got closer and closer and it became more of a struggle. Marian the German was suffering a lot towards the end and we all had to wait for him to be ready before we could move on. We could see the top but it kept alluding us. I thought I had made it but there was still another 20m to go, I just had to grit my teeth and press on. Finally, around 7am we were on top and I could collapse in the snow. I think I lay there for about 10 minutes before I could make myself get up and look around. The view really was amazing and we were blessed with an almost cloudless view across the mountains.

Completed

A view from the top

The trek back down was long but manageable. It was amazing to see just how far we had gone in the dark up this mountain. We stayed at base camp for a short time and packed before going down an alternate route to the taxi. Marian was really suffering with a bad headache on the way back down and until basecamp we lacked enough water. The taxi took us back to Huaraz around 5.30pm and we could finally rest.

Post Note. I may have forgetten quite how hard it was but I think I want to to do it again, only higher next time!