Lima and Huaraz

Since our last post we have continued to travel up through Peru.  We spent a few days in Lima, a strange city of immense contrast.  We stayed in the Miraflores district, which was recommened to us by a Peruvian girl, and found it to be like the Chelsea of Lima - lovely apartments, our hostel was top notch, plenty of lively shopping areas, including a centre built into the cliffs overlooking the ocean with an amazing array of shops (and Pizza Hut in the food court!), and sooo many casinos (who´d have thought?).  When we went to explore the central area of the city we found plenty of beautiful older buildings, but also a lot more tiny businesses and cafes, crowds of people bustling around and the sights and smells of a less than affluent area.  Mind you, the array of goods available in the Chinatown quarter was pretty mind-boggling. 

Having satisfied our curiosity over the contents of the Spanish inquisition museum (scary, but also entertainingly brought to life with plastic figures everywhere) we tried to head out to a nearby archaeolgical interest site.  I say tried...we were advised by our trusty travel guide book that this journey would take about 45 mins on local bus.  We eventually found the aforementioned local bus and sat on it for well over two hours.  We were then dumped out by the bus boy who advised us to change to another service.  This one took another half hour or so and then pushed us out at a corner in the direction of a tiny "collectivo" (small toyota van converted to take a dozen or so passengers) which was already overcrowded and clearly wouldn´t have room for Tom´s legs!  Instead we approached a tuk tuk driver who said it would take another hour to get up to the ruins.  So, since it was already 5pm, we gave up.  The reverse journey to get back was even more ridiculous (4 buses i think...).  Anyway, we saw the surrounding area and were surprised by the huge areas of shack housing, with the odd big house appearing in the midst.  A real hotchpotch of a city.

Moving on we took an overnight bus 8hrs north (and inland a little) to Huaraz, centre of activities for the Cordillera Blanca range of the Andes.  Scenery here is stunning and we have settled into a lovely hostel run by Claudia (with her shop below for all our snacking needs!).  On our first afternoon in town there was some kind of festival going on which involved loads of townspeople (plenty of schoolchildren too) creating huge Art Attack-style murals on the ground in the main square using petals and coloured sand.  Lookd amazing, and thankfully we got a few snaps as it had all disappeared by the next morning, replaced by the usual noisy traffic zooming round the square instead.

We have been out for two day "walks" this week.  Starting from Huaraz at 3000m above sea level, we have been driven several hundred metres up into the mountains on each day (two very different valleys, both beautiful).  On the first day we completed our four hour ascent on a section of large rock faces which had occasional ropes to help you haul yourself up.  At nearly 4500m altitude it´s an interesting proposition, but we made it and lunched on a rock by Laguna Chulpa, a gorgeous lake with views on up to the snowcaps above. 

The second day we were aiming for a similar height but half way up the climb my body decided the best way out of more arduous ascent was to contract altitude sickness fast.  I won´t give you the details as that would be too much information, but soon there wasn´t much left in my digestive system and I had to find a shady spot to sit still for a while.  Tom went on to see the lake, but turns out the top of that current hill wasn´t anywhere near the top of the whole track (misinformed about approximate length of climb by about 2hrs by our driver...oops) so he came back down and as we retraced our steps my insides perked up no end.  So today I am here writing to you all instead of joining Tom on a bus trip across another high mountain pass to see the archaeological ruins at Chavin.  A bit disappointing, but as we are heading off from here tomorrow via a similar roadway I think a day off from the heights is in order for me and he has promised to come back bearing leaflets for my journal and photos for the blog.  Meantime, there are plenty of shops in Huaraz so I won´t be bored! 

Our bus tomorrow takes us to La Union, east of here, and from there we will make our way north-east to Pucallpa, our first jungle stop.  That´s where our big Amazon adventure starts - many days on boats as we head for Brazil...