Adventures in Peru

the last day of carnival, some time after ash wednesday.

a peruvian girl started talking to me in the park. she had a petition, at first i thought she wanted me to sign it. she never asked, she only asked other peruvians. we walked until meeting up with her co-worker who had also made a friend. we all went and got drunk. then we had lunch.

went to the concert in the main plaza. several thousand people turned out.

for dinner we went to a karaoke bar and drank beer instead. then for dessert we drank sangria.

returned to the plaza for the last act. it ended with fireworks.

i think i will need to experience a full brazillian carnival while i still have a liver. i only imagine that it is more grand. that the party lasts more hours per day.

also. going out with peruvians is expensive. the girls do not pay a dime. with 3 guys and 5 girls the guys bought the drinks and payed for the cabs. even when everyone but one girl was done drinking, she ordered another round (for everyone.) then instead of paying for it, she demanded that i pay for it. i thought it was very comical. my spanish is terrible, but i knew what she was wanting me to do. that was one time that acting dumb was a great idea. i ended up chipping in a bit, only slightly more than the value of my drink.
note to bethany. you would LOVE northern peru. everything is turkey turkey turkey. it is on nearly every menu. at almost every sandwich shops. you can get a turkey sandwich 365 days a year. they also make all the traditional peruvian food with turkey substituted.

the ugly:
i lost my traveling hat. i lost it in trujillo. i am really hoping that i left it in the hostel i was at. but i think it fell off getting in or out of the cab to the bus station. i sat down on the bus, and went to take off my cap, it was GONE.

the bad:
i will not be going to iquitos. appearently if i am going to travel there with any baggage i can only do so from lima. the flights from northern peru, where i am, to iquitos are passanger only. who would have thought?
i also learnt that the slow boats are not just unpredictably slow, but it is not a good idea to carry anything onto them. everyone i have talked to that has done it, save for one, has had large amounts of stuff go missing. and me having just started my shopping spree.

the good:
i have no more rush. i get to move at the pase of me. i have as long as i want in cajamarca.
and when i go back to lima i will have a stop over in trujillo, i really hope that the hostel has my hat in a lost and found or something. i would love to get that hat back.

the story of the hat.
i have done many things to keep that hat. including long discussions with people who have stolen it, explaning how my late grandfather/dad/uncle gave me that hat. it worked everytime.
i had to punch an irish girl in the face. the was really determined to keep my hat. she almost liked it more than me. she kept telling me if i wanted it to fight her for it. after she shoved me a bit i punched her shoulder, she punched my face, i punched her face. she gave me that hat. she wasn’t expeting me to actually fight for the hat.
i have climbed over a cliff edge in the colca canyon to get it. the wind took it off my head, i was lucky because it had be caught by a ‘rock’. i removed my gear and climbed down the side of the cliff, grabbed my hat screaming and dropping it again. the same ‘rock’ caught my had again. i also had some thorns in my hand. this time a carefully removed the had to see that it was not ontop of a rock, but a small cactus! sweet jesus.
and now, with 2 weeks left, it is gone.

i spent some time in trujillo. that was good?
i did lots of shopping. they make it so easy, so enticing. closing off streets as it starts to get dark. people filling the streets, eating icecream, sandwiches, popcorn, cotton candy, and shopping. if they don’t have what you want, you are probably on the wrong street.
i also went to a bunch of ruins. chan chan was huge. the full area of ruins was acres and acres. the ’site’ is a partial restoration of the best preserved large ‘temple.’ the other big place i went to was called ‘hauca de la luna’. my guide explained that these people didn’t actualy worship the sun or the moon, they weren’t crazy! then i got to see illistrations depicting human sacriface, worshiping the nearest mountain and feeding bodies to voltures. the site was terrible for taking photos. everything was covered. support posts ran everywhich way. but, the site has not been restored in any way. it is all in the name of preservation.

now that i have shopped, i have 2 bags to carry around on transport days. i also have more than 20kgs. 20 is the magic number that is free. i haven’t ran into a problem on either bus, but the flights i have could be a bigger problem. the flight i would need to take to get into iquitos says no-baggage. we will see about that. i will talk with a travel agent.

the bus ride to trujillo was a trill. i took the cheapest local bus. twisty unpaved canyon roads. long curvy one lane tunels. a broken windscreen. the bus started out fine. throw your bag to the guy dancing on the roof; he might catch it, he might drop it. all that gets tied down and the bus loads with people. noone take the seat that matches the number on their tickets. shortly after the sweaty bus takes off people start to throw buckets of water at it…CARNIVAL. all the windows get closed.
we passes a control check point. the driver was not wearing his seat belt… that is again the law here. people in the front seat of a vehicle always need seatbelts on the highway. everyone else can do as they please. the ticketing proccess took awhile longer than it would in canada. it went at a relaxed pace.
then, this is the exciting part, kids run infront of the bus at full speed on the highway and throw water balloons directly at the oncoming bus. they bus driver slamms on the breaks, swerves around the road without crashing. both from windscreens are cracked in this proccess. the right one had a nice crack from the bottom left to about a quarter of the way up the right side. the driverside window developed an entire web of cracks. about one third of the window was covered with cracks.
this all slowed the journey considerably. we needed to get the policia, drive back to the scene, find the kids, find the parents, get statement, id, drive the police back and continue the journey at a slower pace! all this and we hadn’t even entered the canyon yet. this was on the paved part of road.

the greatest of all catholic holidaysóthe precursor to lent.
throwing buckets of water on people. water balloons everywere. generally boys throw balloons at pretty girls, and girl throw balloons at pretty boys. then you get the wet t-shirt contest. you know you are the hottest because you get the most balloons thrown at you!!!
walking down the street at 11am on a sunday and being offered beer buy multiple drunk old men. its always beer’o'clock during carnival.
the afternoon parade was amazing. it had floats for the army (not salvations), saving animals, supermarkets, banks, indigenous people, incas and other typically catholic things.

i dancedósoberóand i liked it.
i never really considered this as a possibility.

i made it back from the canyon, ALIVE. some people had the concern that it would be dangerous for me to trek there alone, in the ‘rainy season.’

the worst two things to happen to me were:

  1. i got a sun burn in the scorching hot sun.

  2. i stubbed my toe (taking the skin off the tip) after having a swim in the oasis pool.

the trip went a little like this… arrive in cabanaconde on the evening of the 16th. i went for dinner at the hostel restaurant, i got alpaca ‘bistec’. (people often like to translate bistec to steak. that is wrong. bistec is meat cut as thinly as possible and fried, or deep fried. not steak.) i went to bed early, about 7:30. i was awoken when 3 americans were being admitted into my dorm. i had hopes that it would be all to myself. i was told that it would be to myself. they had no idea what they wanted to do, other then trek the canyon without a guide. i joined them as they eat dinner and we formed a plan that would take us all around the canyon. why not trek with other people? then i went to bed, again, around 9.

up at 5:45. started the day with a walk to the lookout. i wanted an early morning view of the canyon. it turns out that all i could see was fog/cloud. it was epic. back for breakfast. started the 4-5 hour treck at 8. the trek was good. it was walking down hill on switchbacks, on the canyon wall. the fog had lifted by this point and i got a good view of the canyon. the trip took 4 hours, arriving in a little paradise. it had been cloudy, as expected, for the walk. after arriving the sun broke and it became hot. t-shirt weather. normally it starts raining before 1 during the rainy season. it stayed sunny until 4 or 5. didn’t start raining till about 5:30. had another early night, and another early morning.

8 o’clock early, eating pancakes for breakfast, and off. another 3 hour walk to the oasis. another paradise. who would have thought, 2 paradisesóand only 3 hours apart. the sun shone all day. from before i woke until 6ish. then the rain came in like a ravenous beast. the rain quickly lightened. it was in this oasis that i stubbed my toe. i was swimming in a man made pool. it had fresh water piped from the aqueducts. on the edge of the pool was a small piece of rebar. i managed to stick my toe into it. missing the tip skin. another early night; when you live by candle light it is really easy to sleep shortly after dark.

up at 5:30, again. we wanted to complete the trek out of the canyon before the sun was to high or hot. breakfast, packing and a start around 7. the uphill, out of the canyon, climb was rough. it only took 3 hours. not bad, 4 hours into the canyon and 3 out.

the place was 100 times more impressive than machu picchu. i took more photos. i filled a memory card with photos. after being on the salt flat tour i was not sure what kind of place would be able to inspire that kind of aw into me. the canyon did it. i want to buy a plot of land in the bottom of the canyon.

pictures coming.

you know that you have been in peru for too long when…
http://www.thepointhostels.com/noticias.php?id=49

i have a flu, or some other such unpleasantry. i am so sleepy, i could not sleep a wink last night. the fact that someone had a cough, another kept sneezing didn’t help. 2 people woke up at 5 in the morning to go on a treck. one person woke at 8 for a treck. i make the 6th in the 6 bed dorm. what a night. at least if i was alone i could have read, put on some music, something with my time.
i also needed to run to the w.c. ever couple hours. that must have drove people crazy.

woke up early for some beaching. the beach is 2+ hours from arequipa, the hostel had rented a private bus. the bus got a flat: rear right inside tire. the driver jacked up the bus, removed the outside tire, bus came tumbling down. the few people on the bus when it happened jump and exited, white faced. i get wise and crack a joke about how the bus can’t fall any lower, until the driver removes the flat. he jacks up the bus, the jack slips, bus falls back onto the flat. he jacks up the bus, with me attempting to explain to the bus driver that the jack needs to be vertical, he has it wedged on off to one side. he had the jack on this ‘/’ angle. he did succed at making the top of the jack perpendicular with the suspension. he popped off the flat tire, went to pick up the spare tire, and a semi passed by. the shakes slightly and falls. this time onto the part that i will call the ‘hub.’ it’s at the end of the axel, makes the wheel spin, has the breaks on it.
that fall was big. and funny. scared the hell out of a couple of the girls. one of them swears that the bus almost tipped onto its side.
the beach was what you would expect.
coming home was drinking on the bus.
the after party was what you would expect, plus more. i got drunk enough to dance — and enjoy it (i think i was drunk enough to enjoy anything.)

IT’S OVER!!!!
i missed midnight mass. they do in on midnight on 24, not 25. on midnight 25 is when xmas dinner is. the big meal with the entire family. then they sleep and wake up and have a family day for the rest of 25. i do not understand mass in an english church, it would have been fun.
xmas day here was a riot. spent the afternoon drinking and reading in the sun, lying in a hammock. after that i played some cards and headed into town. more shops were open on xmas than are open on any sunday.
the 4 course dinner with cheese and wine between coarses was a bit off. it was supposed to start at 7:30 and go for many hours. we would have time to become hungry between meals. instead it all came at once, at 9:45. 1. soup, 2. sweet stirfied veggies, 3. lemon herb chicken with steamed veggies, chips, mash, stuffing, gravy, and more, 4. christmas cake.
we eat one two three with as few minutes between as was possible to take away dishes and bring out the new food. then we had platters of cheese and crackers left around for a few hours and finaly we recieved four. one two three took until 11:30.
the night was good. we had 10 bottles of wine for 20 people, plus 6 litres of mulled wine. most people drank beer with there meals as well. over the hours of dinner i drank more then my share of wine. none of the beer drinkers cared. they had one glass, i had 7. everyone wins!
we played extreme jenga. shots of pisco all around.
we played beer pong. shots of beer all around.
they played throw joseph in the pool. wet hugs all around.
and sometime after 9 it was time for bed.