It is called San Pedro Prison and you can go inside and see what is in effect a bizarre little world that they have created for themselves with the help of "morally challenged" guards.
First things first you arrive in a plaza (we walked there from the main road took us less than 10 minutes) and you are confronted with a decision. You wonder how legit is this. You see guards standing at a door that looks way too public for tourists to be let in.
I had been told previously that there was a special side entrance for the prison for tourists so we did a walk around the massive prison to psych ourselves up.
When we had finished our psych up walk we were confronted with a woman who said to us in english do you want to visit some prisoners. We sort of looked at her and said
"yeah".
"Well who do you want to visit"...(I found the quotation mark key on this keyboard yay).
"um no-one we just want to go inside"
"the international prisoners section or the bolivian section"
At this stage I thought well why would I want to see international people in a prison that would just be depressing and also I'd blend in and the thought of blending in and then getting stuck inside was not appealing. Also the idea of having an emotionally salient conversation with a person stuck in a Bolivian prison on drug charges was not my idea of a fun wednesday afternoon.
"Ah the Bolivian section"
"ok well then follow him"
At this point our official "outside the prison tour guide" took us toward the huge door we had originally seen directly opposite a massive plaza with heaps of guards standing outside it and he took us into a small room just inside the door (before the actually prison entry) and said to us
"the captain is going to come into the room and hvae a chat with you. If he asks you if you have a camera say no but don't worry you can take it in with you".
At this point Fin's back was facing the door of the room and the captain came in relatively quietly and gave her the shock of her life (very entertaining for me).
So we are standing in this dimly lit tiny room try to bargain the price down with the captain of the prison (250 bolivianos more or less 35-40 US dollars).
I am not going to lie to you. While my bargaining skills are good when you are standing near the entrance of a prison you really lose the power of the walk away.
I mean I thought about saying "well fine then we aren't going in" but can you imagine the response.
"ok well then I won't let you in the prison which is technically illegal and contra my job title".
Fin tried her cutesy bargaining but eventually we got nowhere and agreed to pay the full price 250. We were then asked to write our names down and originally I thought hmm this seems like a time for a fake name. However then i decided to put my real name just in I had to prove I was an "outsider" when I left.
We didn't pay the captain directly cause that changes the fact that he bargained with us and on we trotted inside the prison after getting our "security stamp" so we could get out (this involved a large blue permanant marker with a star hand written on the inside of my wrist and the number 21).
By this stage I was well and truly shitting myself as there were lots of real prisoners standing at the gate and in the front courtyard. We went in and we were quickly caught up to a tour in progress with four other irish woman. We were introduced to our tour guide (who was just one of the prisoners who could speak english) and we quickly became aquainted with our security guides (four burly looking guides who followed us around). I assume that these guys commanded some respect as we didn't really get hassled at all. Not for being there and no-one really tried to sell us anything either. Now this is not to say that there was nothing to sell.
There were shops, foods stalls (barbaques) in the courtyards, jewellry salesmen, toy makers, ice cream sellers and hairdressers. I have been hassled more and felt more abused in an artesan market (handicrafts) or exiting a ruin than I did inside this prison with over 1500 prisoners.
Our guides were great but there was one person who actually turned out to be a guide who I was more scared of for the first 5 minutes than anyone else I saw in the whole prison. He turned out to be Jesus my newest Bolivian friend and Fin actually has a photo of him and I from the end of the tour. He kinda lingered around us on and off for the first portion of the tour and I thought he was just following us and he was so huge he totally freaked me out.
In the end I found out that Jesus had been there for 15 years and had 15 more to do for killing 5 people....I also met his wife (who tried to sell me cake) and his son (around 13 years old) who also live in the prison.
As I am sure you can understand by now this is no normal prison. The prisoners when they move in have to buy their location or cell and then rent the cell from the community that runs each seccion of the prison. Apparently a nice cell which is super swank costs 300US up front and then about 100 bolivianos a month for the rent. This goes to the collective of each area of the prison who then buy stuff for their section (cable communal tv, lightbulbs, soccer balls, drinks etc).
Most prisoners are there on drug offences but some of them looked seriously scary.
Prisoners if they hvae been good and have the blessing of the governor are allowed to have their families live with them. Like Jesus. I saw kids from 1 to 15 years old. And the older kids can come and go as they please for school etc.
There were also a series of woman who lived their with their family and a building which was apparently the "kindergarten".
There were workshops for making jewelry and toys for the outside which were made with material that the prisoners families sent into the prison. Now I know that letting tourists inside the prison is illegal and I know that our prison "guides and guards" got some of our 250 just not sure how much.
The most bizarre thing I think I saw was hardened criminals working with tiny bits of porcelain to make ornaments for the top of wedding cakes. They were quite proud of their work actually.
Hmm eventually after walking around and seeing various cells with cable tv inside and double beds, split levels etc I started to feel less sorry for these guys although apparently at night (when they lock themselves into their cells) it can get a bit rowdy/stabby.
We saw a part of a building which look totally different to the others in its section and were told that the captain had actually allowed a prisoner to build his cell ontop of the roof of a section and proceeded to add a private bathroom etc.
He then left and sold it onto someone else for a tidy profit apparently.
There are elected leaders of each section who get to rule for a year and then have to go for re-election if they want.
There are pool tables that prisoners have to pay other prisoners to use.
Finally apparently they make coke inside the prison and smuggle it outside. They even offered us some and told us we could sample their goods but the funniest thing was when we all said no apologetically they were so polite saying no obligation only if you want to.
After a 90 minute tour on the edge of my wits I decided it was time to "leave prison" and so we strolled out plain as day for any of the local bolivians to see us exiting the prison (making sure to show our exit stamp on the way????).
All in all I LOVED IT. It is just nothing like you would expect a prison to be and I think it is nothing like most other prisons in the world. Totally surreal and nerve racking but really good fun. If you come to La Paz go to San pedro prison.
Mike.
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]]>After our zig zag walls near Cuzco I spent one day in the sacred valley visiting Pisac and Ollataytambo. The town of Ollataytambo was impressive in that a lot of inca stone work that remained was actually used as the first floor outer walls of the houses sorounding the plazes. They had some pretty interesting buildings which acted as refridgerators.
Proceeded onto Aguas Calientes and arrived at about 1030 pm and were asleep within 30 minutes.
After arising at 330am and walking up the mountain to Macchu picchu we entered the site within the first 25 people at 6am. While the mornign weather was absolutely awful we had secured our ticket to climb Wayna pichu (the mountain you see behind all the classic photos of MP) and off we went to explore in the mist. We were to lazy to return to the start of the site for a guide and so spent the morning guide hopping/stealing which was both informative and entertaining (but not amazingly subtle). Eventually the weather cleared and we hiked up the mountain for some great pictures and stunning views of the valley and the site itself. It really is huge and on top of the mountain is thoroughly entertaining at there are some huge boulders to sit on and the atmosphere of comraderie and hilarity compensated for the 1000 people at the site and 40 people up the top of the mountain with you. There were a pair of fluro coloured girls who had been told off for putting on zinc and wearing fluro coloured clothes to MP. Apparently it was theatre and they could be earning money for it (trust the peruvians not to support prevention of skin cancer). In fairness though about 50 people took photos of them and had they been locals they would have been charging for it. A couple of americans got in a bit of trouble becuase they had brought costumes up the mountain for halloween to get some pictures of them in costume at MP....luckily my cherry wangs didn’t count as “theatre”.
After 9 hours at the site we had thoroughly explored, stolen several chunks of information from a range of english and spanish speaking guides and were ready to head back down the mountain. The walk down was fun (especially considering pretty much everyone else caught the bus) and by the time we reached the train station we were rushed onto a train 30 minutes before the one we were supposed to catch.
As we hadn’t organised it in advance enough we’d been forced into buying the vistadome package rather than the backpackers (no food, no comfort) carriage. Not only did we get fed on a two hour train ride there was also a “cultural show” with a guy dancing down the ailse with a fake llama toy and a big sock over his head (bizarre) and then a fashion show of the real alpaca wool jumpers and shawls by the two carriage attendants (mildly entertaining).
In relation to MP it was hideously expensive including accomodation for the night before, entry and the train ticket it was almost 150US for the day but totally worth it and while it sounds as though there is going to be way too many people there it is a huge site and I didn’t find it that annoying.
Someone who soon became Fin’s new best friend (she got a little crazy after this) told her that there would be a break for the road blocks for the weekend as the government was entering into negotiations.
This began what was an entertaining 24 odd hours as after getting the earlier train and finding out that we weren´t going to be stuck in cuzco we found a relatively cheap bus direct from Ollataytambo to Cuzco (a local woman helped us bargain at which point Fin decide she deserved a hug and a kiss on the cheek) and then within 90 minutes of arriving in Cuzco we were on a night bus toward the boarder. After reading several blogs that week and speaking to people who had attempted to cross the road blocks I was astounded when I woke up in Puno not having noticed a thing. People faced rocks being thrown at their busses. Incidental police tear gas exposure and some of being told that if they walked 5 ks with their luggage they would find taxis only to find themselves 5 hours later back in a bus returning to their original destination). We were so fast asleep we didn’t even see the remnants of a road block.
Spent a pleasant morning in Puno bus station (not expected or intended) and then hopped accross the boarder with ease....the Peruvian’s didn’t put you through a computer and the Bolivian’s barely looked to see if I was the same person as my passport photo.
Arrived in Copacabana and hopped on a boat direct into Lake titicaca and after 24 hours of travel had a chance to catch my thoughts. The island of the sun’s northern community is really quite beautiful and pleasant the more touristy southern town is pretty foul but we only spent a very short time there. Stayed one night on the island at about 3800 metres about sea level. The hostel was quite pleasant even though their verson of running water was filling up the water tank on top of the house everytime anyone had a shower.
Rose for sunrise the next morning which was particularly dissapointing. Hated the sunrise I expected stunning and all I got was mediocrely beautiful (should ahve stayed in bed). However once the sun rose and we’d set off on our walk down the island I settle down and began to really appreciate the beauty and also doing a walk at a leisurely pace that wasn’t either ascending a mountain or descending to a valley.
Loved island of the sun.
Had an entertaining time with the locals. After paying the fee to see the ruins on the island (supposed birth place of the inca’s god) we proceeded to run into a bevvy of more locals trying to claim a bit of cash off the tourists for nothing. I had no problem with the meals which we paid for, the water that was slightly more expensive than on the mainland but when someone is just trying it on and they print out tickets for the purpose it puts me off a bit.
The south had 3 different posts collecting money and Fin and I flatly refused to pay any of it. They just all looked well dodgy like they were trying it on. The worst one was the you have to pay to enter the south end of the island but they tried to make us pay it when we were leaving to get onto the boat. After careful consideration I still reckon they were just trying it on but they were making a mint off it. One of them had the unfortunate experience of trying to block Fin’s path and while he had had heated arguments with other tourists who thought it was a load of crap, he soon gave up when it came to Fin.
Proceeded onto La Paz and after an hour on the bus the bus stopped and everyone started to get off. I asked one of the locals que paso. Basically they told us that we needed to cross something (I didn’t quite catch what). At which point we all left the bus. Fin and I were a bit confused but then something clicked and I remembered we had to cross some body of water which the bus couldn’t do full. At this point we hopped out into the freezing cold wind of another area of lake titicaca turned round the corner and proceeded to see vehicles being loaded onto rather shaky looking barges which could only manage one car (they were about two buses wide and 1.5 busses long). They were powered by a couple of small motors and I just didn’t understand how they could guarantee that busses wouldn’t fall in considering how choppy the water was. We popped accross in a motor boat and after about 45 minutes our bus eventually made it off on the other side. Totally bizarre loved it although it was too dark for decent photos.
We then proceeded onto La paz and stayed a night in a filthy hotel.
Stayed tuned for my visit to the San pedro prison.
Road blocks and non stop travel remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>Met an aussie (very friendly) who because of a pre booking on the inca trail (the limited "intimate" inca trek that you do to macchu picchu with 500 other people) was taking a bus from somewhere in the south of ecuador to cuzco. It took him almost 2 days on a bus yay how fun.
He was really nice and by the time I reached Cuzco he actually ended up randomly staying in the same hostal as me.
While altogether friendly david seemed a little crazy (and rightly so due to the lenght of his bus journey) but he was a trouper and kept me entertained so loved him.
At this stage Fin and I had split for a day so I was supposed to sleep in the same hostel the night before our flight over Nazca.
Unfortunately the hostel was full (or so short steve told me so) but in actuality it was just midnight and he couldn´t be bother making anymore beds so he sent us across the road.
In the morning Fin and I spent about 4 or 5 hours waiting for our flight (seriously these people just don't have to be organised cause everyone wants to do one thing while they are in nazca and they aren't going to leave without doing it).
When we flew in out 6 person teeny tiny plane I got see sick but apart from that was astounded with the nazca lines. AMAZING. A pain in the ass with the waiting reasonably expensive (60 dollars for 30 minutes) but I LOVED IT.
My favourite was probably the spider I think or the monkey. They were just bizarre. Usually I would hate someone telling me this phenomenom is a mystery cause it usually wouldn´t impress me but for these there is nothing you can say. Did they know how to build hot air balloons...cause if they didn't how did they construct these perfect straight and curved lines into figures and more importantly why would they if they couldn't go up and see them for themselves?
We had an afternoon to kill in nazca so I tried ceviche (of course with a glass of white wine).
It was a hot afternoon and so this was the perfect meal for me. Ceviche is fish which isn´t cooked but is marinated in lemon juice with a bit of chilli and some other stuff which i wasn't exactly sure about. It was divine. I LOVED it. Served with cold sweet potato to nuetralise the acidic flavour from time to time it is by far my favourite local dish.
Then we had a bit of a pre bus ride drinking sessions (pisco sours and sangria) muchly fun.
Off to Cuzco on my most painful night bus. The stewardess must have thought we deserved a night in hell and put the heating up way too high. It was painful until I went and abused her in my sleepy slurry spanish.
Arrived in Quito to organise our stuff for our next trek to Choquequirao.
Rented another tent from Gladis the twat. She tried to insist that I pay for everything up front and while I should have taken this as a warning that the tent was a piece of .... I just insisted on paying on return.
Choquequirao is a ruin which can only be reached by walking. It is at about 3000 metres and this wouldn´t be a problem except that in between the closests towns and the ruins there is the apurimac river which runs at about 1500 metres. Because of this I spent three of the most physically challenging days of my life in the Apurimac valley.
We arrived in a sleepy little town called Cachora to start our trek on Friday afternoon and fell in love with it. It was quaint with huge lines of pigs trotting down the main square and just genuinely friendly locals as opposed to those in cuzco who just had to sell you something for 1 sol.
The town was then tainted once we were dragged into a local watering hole to share a bit of beer with a couple of drunks. After a few minutes we made every attempt to leave there as quickly as possible and they seemed perturbed that we wouldn't perpetuate some bullshit about "andian duality" and needing to buy the next beer but the problem was averted with ease.
Had our last warm meal and set off on our hike at 7am. After ascending about 300 vertical metres in about 2.5 hours we proceeded to begin the 1500 metre descent to the apurimac. It took us forever and was so painful. We then decided to finsih of the day in style and climb another 7-800 vertical metres so we didn't have to do it all the next day.
When it rains in the apurimac valley it pours. It was awesome when I could see rain coming from about a km away just slowly drifting in. When it started to come through the top of our rental tent I began to cry. Luckily Fin was in her action jackson mode got a plastic sheet and covered the top. My bed mat was wet by I was relatively dry and we survived the night muttering abusive phrases in spanish in our sleep about Gladis.
Day two I awoke with the unexcepted stomach sickness. I will spare you the details but i basically climbed 7-800 metres very very slowly and in a considerable amount of discomfort.
We then popped across the ridge top set up our dodgy tent again.
Visited the ruins which were awesome. They had a main plaza which was just stunning to sit in and look over both side of the ridge top. A helicopter pad (actually a ritual platform for llama sacrifice) and some other temples, houses and terraces. It was huge and totally worth visiting LOVED IT. There were also only 5 people there while we were there in ruins which took us about 3 hours to visit (and we didn't even see it all)
Day 3
Started walking at 6:10 am and descended the 1500 metres to the river again (different crossing) then began the painful 800 metres of ascent in the hot mid morning sun. We baked and by 3:00 we reached our destination stinking hot, sweaty and a little worse for wear. We then proceeded to spend 7 hours in taxis returning to cuzco...fun fun fun.
All in all the trek was an adventure. I really had to put all my mental energy into keeping going on all three days and despite the fact I was sick for the second day I would recommend anyone who wanted to do this trek to think twice. After thinking twice still go just make sure you are mentally prepared.
Spent a day pottering around cuzco museums organising stuff etc. Then spent today pottering around inca ruins in the area.
Found an Indian restaurant and after not having a curry for almost 3 months decided I would indulge which turned out to be a bad and good decision. Bad cause the curry was awful but good because it seemed like we were the local pobre (poor) backpackers that everyone wanted to take pity on. First someone crossed the floor of the restaurant to give us their lucky door tickets cause they were about to leave. Then when we didn't win the lucky door prize the people who did, didn't want the bottle of wine they won so they crossed the floor of the restaurant and gave that to us.....bad food free wine= loved it.
Got on a bus to about 8 km outside of cuzco at 8 am. Visited a couple of ruins then proceeded to have breakfast (avocado, tomato and cheese rolls oh so tasty) within an incan ruin (it was really windy so it made good cover and it was supposed to be a rest ruin where people ate when on their way to cuzco so really we were maintaining tradition).
Visited a place called the temple of the moon which is one of the very few incan ruins built inside a rock face rather than on top of. Loved that (seeing a spot where moonlit comes in through the roof of an underground temple onto a platform where they used to sacrifice llamas increased my interest).
Proceeded onto saqsaqwaman which is quite near to cuzco and has huge zig zag outer walls which apparently are supposed to be part of the design of cuzco as a whole. Cuzco was supposed to be in the shape of a jaguar and these zig zag outer walls of this ruin/fotress are supposed to be the teeth of the Jag. The ruin itself was huge and very interesting and after a short stroll more we were back in cuzco.
Loved the ruins around cuzco as well
BUT so far HATE Cuzco, it is very cute archeologically but the people are just out to rake any cash in from the tourists that they can. I have found out that everything in the plaza that someone is selling is one sol. Absolutely everything....and as we heard one Irish woman say to a young peruvian girl who was trying to flog a doll "honey don't sell yourself so short".
I have never said estamos bien (we're fine) so many times.
Onto the sacred valley and then machu pichu soon and then too bolivia...assuming these road blocks are removed some time in the near future.
Stomach sicknesses expected and unexpected remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>It is sufficient and within miraflores which is a great location and we are still only paying 5 us dollars a night.
Lima has been a binge of Japanese food, triple sandwiches (egg salad, avocado and tomato with 3 pieces of bread), great ice cream and white wine.
Went to a couple of very interesting museums, one which had a photography exhibit of the very violent 20 year struggle between the socialist “terrorist/liberationist”, the state and rural farmers who banded together to defend themselves.
Also another museum which had an erotic pottery art exhibit which was well funky. The Chimu´s have a sense of humour and imagination as well.
The weather has been great and Fin and I are still going strong even though I have demanded jap for dinner two night in a row (she is vegetarian but starting to get into her sushi).
Today was a leisurely Sunday morning stroll followed by a coffee and then paragliding. This was rad!
Looking town on private clubs with tennis courts and pools was fun. Cruising right past the top level of the Marriott was more fun.
The landing and take off was so smooth I really had nothing to be scared of. We waltzed up didn’t sign a waiver got strapped in and the guy said all you have to know is run toward the cliff. When we actually tried to run toward the cliff we were already being lifted off the ground so there were no issues. It was a little bit disappointing that we didn’t get to jumped off the cliff but it was still exhilarating.
Fin also enjoyed her paragliding although she admitted later that she wanted my instructor cause he was hotter than her mid 50s eastern European one.
Lima has been pretty fun (it is a swanky area miraflores) and despite some crazy Croatians causing trouble in our hostel with the live in door man everything has been fine. In fairness even that has been mildly interesting.
Still love Fin
LOVE makoto had a sushi feast there for 15 dollars
Love ice cream again!
Love Lima
Stoner steve is harmless but he is a dope and so unfortunately I am going to have to give him a HATED rating.
LOVED paragliding would totally do it again and it was relatively cheap as far as flying adventures go I think (30 dollars vs much more for either bungy jumping or sky diving).
Lima remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>It is very tasty.
Manjar blanco remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>The next place I visited after Casma was Huaraz (about 8 hours north of the capital by bus)
Had a couple of spanish lessons and went on a 3 hours walk to a small ruin called Wilcawain followed by a dip in yet another set of hot baths.
The town of huaraz itself is a dump but the stuff around it was stunning.
Stayed at a hostel with a relatively friendly but stupid family who kind of got to me after a while.
The hostel was packed and it was the first hostely environment i had experienced in the north of peru which was pleasant. This is where i met finualla (still can't pronounce this name so I just call her fin) who unlunck yong im doesn't care that much that i can't pronounce her name. She is from Northern Ireland and we have now been together for 10 days or so (and married for 7 if you ask a hostel owner in Caraz).
I knew that she was going to be a solid partner for trekking when the first morning we did the long walk up from the hostel to the centre of Huaraz and she paced it out like it was the start of a race walk.
After starting the day thinking she was going back Lima that night she finished the day planning a trek with me and changing her bus ticket to Lima.
We decided to go for 5 days on the santa cruz trek and hopped in one very cramped collectivo to Caraz to stay the night. The hostel owners in Huaraz made jokes about the fact that we were going off together without a guide or any donkeys. First it was our honey moon and second we didn't need a donkey as Fin was going to do all the labouring. I ran with the first one and told the woman in the hostel in Caraz that we were on our honey moon which had Fin hurrying to change the finger her one ring was on and also receiving a spontaneous hug from the random owner.
After a night in a shared double bed we were ready to share a tent together for 5 days. Two egg and two avocado sanwiches were all we could find in the way of warm food before the start of our trek and although we would have liked more, (considering we didn't take a gas cooker) it sufficed.
For 5 days we hiked around snowed covered mountains, lush green valleys and bluey green lakes (some over as high as 4700 metres). We did two mountain passes one at about 4700 metres and the other a spontaneous one at about 5000 metres.
Some of the highlights were lake arhuyecocha near the alpamayo base camp, the punta union cross and Laguna 69 (still not sure if the peruvians names it like that on purpose or whether they aren't aware of the significance), walking past tour group after tour group and telling them that yes we were doing it alone and yes we were carrying our packs ourselves...(oh and also telling them that they were doing the trek the harder way) and eating bread and crackers with peanut butter and chocolate consdensed milk for 5 days.
Some of the low lights were the tiny little bit of rain we got packing up out tent on the 3rd morning, deciding to take a short cut on our last afternoon to realise that the dry river bed led to a dry cliff drop that meant we had to return the 45 minutes back to the real trail, camping at 4500 metres (just too cold to be comfortable), walking 9.5 hard hours on the last day thinking it was going to be 6 (we tacked and extra little bit onto our trek and it was much harder than we thought it was going to be) and eating bread and crackers with peanut butter and chocolate consdensed milk for 5 days.
The scenery was genuinely spectacular however there were times that we were so tired that we forgot to look. Fin was amusing and also made corny jokes that lightened my mood...ie eye spy with my little eye something beginning with n d (no donkey to carry our stuff etc).
She is great craic and so we had a lot to talk about most of the time....although there were a couple of afternoons when we didn't have anything to say to each other for about 3 hours and then as soon as we would lie down to go to sleep she couldn't shut up.
All part of the charm really. She was a trouper with the climbing, really very impressive and had no problems at all (carried the tent for almost the whole time). All in all it was 5 days of mountain climbing bliss (except for the knee aching 900 metres of descent on the last afternoon).
Ended with us getting to a place where I seriously doubted the existence of a timely lift for us back to civilisation because of how late we were. But luckily a private car of Italian expats came round the corner to where we were looked at us and continued to drive around the corner at which point they were blocked by a massive truck and had to reverse right next to a pouting Fin using her very broken spanish to ask them if they were going to Yungay. In the end they dropped us to within 15 minutes of the major town and the pain of the "detour" was forgotten.
Some fantastic cherry wangs were taken and Fin was genuinely great hiking company. The trail was quite well populated but we were going in the other directions to all the tour groups so we just picked other places to camp and only saw one other independent group with us at the time.
I couldn't decide what to do on the last day (the regular trek only took 3 and a bit days so we caught a bus to another area to do a day trek) and so got abused by Fin for changing my mind 50 times (slightly less politely than the other irish woman who abused me) but in the end everything worked out well and we are still together so she can't hate me too much.
LOVED the santa cruz trek
The following day to make sure we did something worthwhile we went on a tour to Chavin de Huantar and so with aching muscles and a bruised hip (i fell over in the shower) we trotted through a labarynth of underground tunnels which were used by the shamans of this culture. Bascially they used to use mirrors to shine lights through these tunnels and then gave the participants hallucinogens and proceeded to convert them/preech to them (i can't imagine it was too difficult to freak the fear of some god into them quite quickly).
That was great (loved chavin de huantar and the museum although should have stayed there a night cause 6 hours on a bus the day after a long walk was painful).
To make it even more painful we got a night bus to lima that night which had a group of noisy school teenagers on it who didn't want to sleep.
Hated Huaraz
Loved the mountains
Love Fin
Hated Hostel Carolina
Mountains and manjar blanco remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>Like from cha cha to chiclayo i had an old man next to me who was perfect cause he slept sitting up, from chiclayo to cajamarca (supposed to be 6 hours actually was 10) I had a spare seat which was great and then from cajamarca to trujillo i had an old man who seemed to think his balls were bigger that the wheels on the bus and coudln´t keep his jumper to himself and then from trujillo (or more accurately casma) to huaraz sat next to a man who couldn´t keep his elbows tucked in.
Cajamarca was a total waste of time. In theory is is a very interesting place (the location where the last inca king was captured and killed after 10 months of being held ransom for mass amounts of gold and silver) but in actuality it is not worth visiting. HATED it cause the things that were supposed to be draw points really were and also they had historical monuments (like the place where aforementioned king was held ransom) which didn´t sell tickets at the actual monument but round the corner and up the street. I told my first person that i thought it was tanto (i think this roughly translates to moronic but ruder) however it wasn´t directed at him and he agreed with me.
Went to see a forrest full of massive stones and a 20 kilometre 1500 year old water channel which they really don´t know what it was for.
Basically didn´t really enjoy myself except for the hottest baths i have ever been in which were fantastic. They almost saved the town but the bus rides in and out made me hate the town (20 hours on a bus for 3 days in a city is just absurd).
Met a few dutch people whose initial response to where my sister has just moved to was "why would you move to there" and met a lovely suisse woman marion and also vera (hollanda).
Aparently everyone in Holland rides bicycles and that there is huge theft becuase the junkies steal and sell your bike on the street. For those of you thinking about going to Holland in the near future you spend more money on the locks for your bike than on the bike itself (two separate types of locks and you want to buy a bad bike so that no-one wants to steal it). Also people purposely make their bikes look bad. Tips are pink spray paint and gaffa tape.
I got these handy hints on the way to and from the ruins of chan chan (huge ancient city from about 1000 years ago) and also huaca de luna and sol. These temples were totally amazing. Because everytime this culture built and new temple they filled the previous one with mud bricks and built on top of the previous temple archeologists were able to find 5 levels of temples with the colours that they painted the reliefs still in tact. Totally amazing.
Also went to another temple similar to above with marion called brujo which was a little further out but still very interesting espeically with the vibrant colour maintained.
Trujillo was awesome except for the beep beep jump in my taxi attitude. LOVED IT
Before i describe everything i did in trujillo i really need to mention marion.
A lovely suisse woman who looked 18 but was actually 29. She worked in a company that sold solar panels....and ate more slowly than martin walked up hills. She was tiny but lovely and full of interesting conversation about her travels (seeing llamas packed underneath busses), ruins, love of seafood (despite never ever finishing a meal she ordered) and her days in nudist colonies.
She almost lost all these good praises with the speed of her eating but at the same time she never finished anything so i ate like a king in trujillo and everywhere i ordered meat and then had a second serving of fish for desert (she really knew how to order tasty fish dishes). At one point i ate in a restaurant for 2 meals in two days and tried 5 different dishes (2 I paid for 2 from marion and one from vera). Some of you know I am a scavenger well now you all know. I eye off peoples food once i´ve finished scoffing my own and generally will eat anything left on their plate....usually it is quite embarassing when you have to stop the waiter taking the plate away especially when the person whose food it is says they are done....but i have refined my technique. I embarassingly admit to my scavenger status in advance so they give me their food once they are done.
Marion was perfect for that and so i´ve put on all the weight i lost trekking around.
We also went to the curso de primavera (spring festival) and spent the afternoon with vera and marion eating everything that there was on the street. we had random peruvian deserts, popcorn (both caramel, plain and indeterminate "sweet flavour"), ice cream, beer (my first alcohol in 28 days) and churros with dulce de leche adentro (oh so good). oh and we also watched the parade....cause that is what we were there for no? it was a mix of local dress, commercial floats and miss peru etc entrants. Very fun.
Vera had convinced us that there was music and dancing somewhere for the festival at night and that a local famous band (grupo cinco) would be playing somewhere...but every person we asked wanted to be supremely helpful when they actually didn´t know anything.
If you ask someone where is grupo cinco playing etc we want to dance then if they don´t know they won´t tell you that. They will just tell you whatever they want to, to refrain from seeming unhelpful. Oh it is over there....hmm well if you want to dance there a lots of place you could go here or there or there.
NO one we spoke to knew where grupo cinco were (we aren´t actually sure whether they were in the city that night) and if they did know we had lost faith in everyone else so didn´t trust them. And after my few beers i went home for a relatively early night considering it was fiesta time.
Marion and I proceeded to go to casma which is a little visited fishing village where i rode a bike for the first time in 10 years (my bum still hurts even though it was only 5 kms to the ruins). We went to another funky ruin called sechin which was impressive but difficult to tell waht was restored and what was original.
I finished a few more of her meals before on our last meal we decided that sharing something was best. Had another tasty seafood meal and after a sunset stroll along a pebble beach it was time for me to depart from casma to huaraz to visit some more mountains.
Loved Trujillo (AMAZING RUINS)
Loved vera (good value at the fiesta and found asking random strangers about a party which may not have existed as entertaining as me.
Loved marion (she was very nice and a riot and i could sit through a long breakfast, lunch or dinner with her again. And if i did meet her again i guarantee you that i would have to she takes 45 minutes to eat breakfast).
PS
Cajamarca actually had one more good thing to offer.
There was a tiny little university sponsored museum of pottery which had awful lighting but was very interesting. I ended up spending most of the time talking to this lovely little woman who followed me round the 5 room museum talking to me about everything but the artefacts (she was the curator/cleaner).
This annoyed me but paid off in the end when she opened the secret cabinet of erotic artefacts.
It was hilarious the way she stood in between me and the pottery and acted all shy about it as though she knew there was nothing wrong with looking at it but still felt guilty in a way. Some of it was a amazing and interesting in that it wasn't all just pottery of copulation some of it was oral sex as well.
She was a ditz the way she blocked me getting too close and also for having the best stuff hidden away in a cupboard but because of this it was the last thing a saw and really did change my mood after 3 mediocre days in cajamarca.
Bus rides and the towns in between remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>I arrived in chachapoyas to the difficult task of selecting a guide.
Everyone knows someone who knows the area really well and was there just last week.
I was doing something which not a lot of tourists do, hiking around the various jungle ruins of the Chachapoyan culture rather than just visiting the main monument Kuelap.
Chachapoyas is about 12 hours inland from the coast of peru and when I first asked the information people in chiclayo which bus company was best to get there the woman told me that there had been a landslide and that they could take you to within 4 hours walk of chachapoyas but you would have to hire a donkey and walk the rest of the way.
After a bit of consideration I thought yeah I can do that why not.
When I returned to the independent information centre again the next day the woman told me this wasn´t the case and that the road opened for 2x2 hour periods and that the bus timed it so the wait was minimal.
Movil tours is the nicest bus company i have ever been on. I don't think locals really fly here and so there are some really nice bus companies, heaps of room and they gave you food and coffee (for a 12 hour bus ride).
Cha cha (as the locals call it) was a little bigger than I expected but I had no plans for a hostal and after wandering aimlessly around the plaza trying to decide followed a random person to his hostal and decided there was a good as any. they offered me the guide that works with their hotel. And after giving me the spiel and the price he seemed pretty reasonable. Compared him to the other tour agencies and decided to go with him (mainly cause he offered me a free day around chachapoyas hence I could test him out).
After my free day around the area I fired him. He was a recovering alcoholic christian who because he had church couldn´t leave until 12:30 and had to return by 7 30 pm which I thought would be fine....expect we needed more time than that for the walk. Especially when he got lost. We walked for an hour in the dark and still had to catch a taxi back to the town. I got quite pscyhed up about firing him because the wage he was going to make was quite a lot for the week compared to normal for him, we had already bought food to share for the week and I thought he would try and kick up a stink....I was really ready to have a good argument with him and think I was kind of excited about the idea of firing my first person...unfortunately he didn´t kick up a stink he sought of said that is fine I asked him if he understood me and he said yeah its fine.
In his defence he did find the ruin that we went to see which was about 1000 years old and had a cool vibe to the location which a massive frieze of an eye that was supposed to the symbolic of a lookout (he may have been making this up the other guide seemed to think differently).
For the fact that he didn´t kick up and stink (oh and the fact he was a bad guide who really didn´t know the area) HATED HIM.
Went to a different company and hired their guide for something similar that would start one day later.
Armado hardly looked like a hiking guide (he was a big guy). He knew heaps about the chachapoyan culture which was cool but really didn´t know the trails and we ended up hiring another guide on the 2nd and 3rd days and couldn´t complete the walking that we were supposed to on the 3rd day.
But he was great on the first day. After about an hour of walking we went off the trail and into the jungle to look at the ruins of houses at pilcapampa. This was amazing. It was effectively bush bashing behind a machete weilding local for about 2 hours. Down and around quite large ruins of houses and also fotresses that he said were from about 250 years after christ (this may have been an exaggeration).
We had dinner, breakfast got a room each for 20 soles (about 7 dollars) which was great and headed off (this time with my mochilla on a horse= for a gruelling day.
after 6 hours we reached the town near the next ruins hire another local guide and after 90 minutes of uphill through a muddy track we reached the ruins of paxamarca. These were a mix of rectangular and circular buildings which was a mix of chachapoyan and incan influence (the incas conquered the cha chas about 30 years before the spanish arrived).
We did some more bush bashing around funky houses hypothesising about which were temples. Armado took more photos and also took video....this is never a good sign for a guide.
He really didn´t know anything about this site and the reason why was cause he´d only been there one time before. After another hour of decent (about 9 hours walking around in total) I had a cold outdoor shower (which was basically just off the main road of the town behind a brick wall)...that was fun.
The next day had another early start and this time the promise of coca chewing (a leaf that the locals chew). Basically in these leaves there is a minute amount of cocaine and they then put calcium in their mouths to speed up the release of the cocaine. The idea is that you aren´t supposed to be thirsty or tired while you do the absurdly difficult and long walks between towns....lets just say I was both tired and thirsty after 7 and a half hours of uphill walking and when I was told we had another 5 to go I jumped at the suggestion of hiring a car.
Found the cutest puppy and a comfy place for the night. Hired a car for the whole next day when we visited Kuelap and a museum at Leymebamba.
Armado was very knowledgable about Kuelap (yeah so what all of the guides are it is the major attraction in the area). I later found out he had probably visited the fotress over 1800 times. Some people say that kuelap is better than macchu picchu cause there are less tourists there (stay tuned for macchu picchu vs kuelap). We were alone for the whole 2 hours and it was great.
The fotress is huge and has two different levels (the first was the original fortress then the second when the population had grown). At some points the wall is 19 metres high. There are some cool masoleums and a little bit of carvings on the wall but the impressive thing is just the sheer size of it. It is at 3000 metres mas o menos and was frankly astounding.
I loved it and was enthralled by the visit.
We then visited a cool museum about the culture which had artefacts from one of the moseleums that this culture built on ledges halfway up cliffs.
This one is a tough call. the area around Chachapoyas was so cool. Beautiful sceneries and valleys. Great ruins which were that little bit more interesting cause they were still covered in jungle so there wasn´t that touristy feel.
So the area around chacha is great.
The guide armado - slow at walking (not as bad as chin fringe) didn´t really know a whole heap about the other sites and when he did try and hypothesise about it with me his ideas seemed pretty stupid and he really didn´t know the area that well.
In the end the thing that tipped the scales was the fact that he woudn´t camp any of the nights...he needed his big meal and his bed....also i think sometimes when he didn´t know the answer to a question he just made things up (not that I know this for a fact)...so HATED HIM.
Cha cha is a tiny town (although it is the capital of the region) and to be perfectly honest I am starting to hate it but I am here for a couple more night cause they ahve the cheapest spanish lessons I have been able to find in peru.
At the moment if you asked me to pick between the ecuadoreans and the peruvians I would pick the ecuadoreans in a heartbeat...but we´ll give the peruvians a few more weeks before we pass judgement.
Chachapoyan Christians remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>I´ve been puting off writing this entry as Erica is the first person of my travel buddies who I´m pretty sure will actually read the entry about herself...(hugo if you're still reading sorry about calling you eurotrash i meant it in a good way I promise).
To recap : Erica is an Irish woman that I met in Cuenca and did the (thankfully) uneventful boarder crossing with. She made bad things bearable and good things more enjoyable.
Once we finally arrived in Chiclayo after almost 24 hours we found a hotel and secretly /guilily (or not secretly now) indulged in a small amount of television (grey´s anatomy to be exact when dr burke was still around).
We shared many eventful things in a rather strange way....basically we didn´t know each other from a bar of soap and then spent 4 or 5 days straight with each other (every waking hour). And in four days she didn't annoy me once...she hurt my feelings a few times but that was only when she did what she does best....telling it like it is. I'm sure some of you know that this is a quality I admire in people.
She told me that I was tragic when I said I thougt about staying in Cuenca for an extra night so that I could watch grey´s anatomy on monday night cable tv.
Abused me for speaking spanish in my sleep.
She let me speak the spanish all the time (restaurants, tour operators etc) just cause she knew I liked to practice/show off.
I'm sure some of you have realised I have a habit about being overly polite after I've made a decision about something that I'm doing with a group. I tend to ask again and again "are you sure you want to do this".
Doing this infruriated Erica and after 2 days we were going to try and find this market to look at (walking in the wrong direction but that is circumstantial). I asked her again are you sure you want to go to this market.
She said something to the effect of
"Haven´t we already had this conversation. You always do this and I can´t figure out whether you just don't want to do the thing we are about to do or whether you are just being overly polite". I said (a little taken aback) " just overly polite".
She implied that I should stop it and on we went to the market.
One doesn't often find someone who is a) prepared to tell you to stop an annoying habit when they have just met you and b) able to do it in a polite way (well she was almost polite)....she proceeded to verbally slap me on the wrist when I did it again.
We visited a couple of great museums in Chiclayo together and also some tombs from almost 2000 years ago. The cultures were very interesting and after a day with a great guide (in english) some amazing artefacts (some recovered from grave robbers) and some not so amazing archeological sites (the pyramids looked like they were hills of dirt made by really big ants) it was time for Erica to leave chiclayo and me to go to Chachapoyas.
I really enjoyed spending time with erica and we shared a lot especially about her cuban fling (her favourite topic). With other people I think this might have worn a bit but with me I lapped up all the gossip like a super absorbant mop.
Needless to say as a man and a woman travelling together (both with pale skin) we were mistaken for everything from partners to siblings.
Chiclayo was great LOVED IT.
Erica was pretty good too but one thing she didn't like was the way I denied myself things: ie I had just started my no alcohol kick and was about a week through it which annoyed her. I also loved to look at the thousand and one heladerias (ice cream shops) but not buy anything (it really is a fun game but I'm no sure anyone gets it but kate).
She told me that it was no fun drinking or eating ice cream alone and that I ruined those things for her while I travelled with her.
Despite this LOVED HER.
Erica tells it how it is remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>It was great completely hassle free. There were no cues at immigration. We had our own personal guide (a peruvian guy who lives and works in ecuador who was visiting his family) and I even had a companion for the bus journey which turned out to be fabulous boarder crossing betty or as she likes to be known erica. Erica is a socail worker from Southern Ireland now living in scotland.
Asked aforementioned hostal whether we needed to book tickets on a bus from loja to piura....she said no...and she was wrong. Despite being a relatively nice woman I hate her.
After 5 hours in a bus (spanish music at a decent volume no movie ;( ) we got to Loja in the South of Ecuador at about 9:30pm. We asked about the 10:30 bus to Piura....llerno....we asked about the 11pm bus to loja cancelled. We went to a different company and asked about the 12 bus llerno....we then proceeded to ask about the 3am bus it had about 11 spots left. It wasn{t that there were so many ecuadoreans leaving the country that there were no room for foreigners...it was more that they were going to just before the boarder and hence we couldn´t get anywhere near a bus at a reasonable hour. I felt a bit guilty at this stage as it had been my suggestion to erica that she join me on a night bus and so we had a decision wait 5 hours in the terminal or catch the 7am bus and go and stay a night in a hostel.
She was a trooper and so began our exciting evening in Loja bus station which was a filthy sespule (?). It was accopanied by a plain plate of rice (we couldn't face the stangnant chicken that looked like it had been cooked at 4pm) at the 24 hour restaurant and 2 sanduches (ice cream sandwiches). we got to know each other and after personal stories we really hit it off. 3am came rolling around eventually and we hopped onto our bus after travelling for about 11 hours.
This one was a hairy ride down a mountain in the middle of the night spanish music on at full bore for the first 30 minutes until i abused the attendant to turn it town. I think i brokenly said something in the vaciinity of "leave off the music".
Slept a bit and then cruised across the boarder in a 4x4. Boarder patrol was hardly difficult. If you had your passport you could get through. And it is my personal opinion that you could have walked across the bridge and through customs without anyone stopping you. There were people but they didn{t really look that interested in what was going on. There was a bridge in between the boarders and one guy in just his dacks was wading across the river (he was a local and no-one seemed to care). When he came out the other side we realised he had been taking his pigs for a wash through the river....we wanted to take a photo but thought that might attract us some unwanted attention.
Crossed in style (no money needed) then the bus picked us up...more spanish music at full bore....by this stage it really was inexcusable there was about 6 people in the bus and we were all trying to sleep except for our "guide" who after sleeping from cuenca to Loja and loja to the border had decided that he was up for the day at 8am in the morning.
Bad latin american music may keep the driver awake but i´d rather die.
It was so loud that I struggled to hear my peruvian guides annoying conversation. He rattled on so despite the music I wouldn{t ahve been able to get to sleep anyway. Eventually I told him I needed some sleep (even after telling him exactly how much sleep i'd had in the last 24 hours he still didn{t shut up). I think I would normally have been much more rude if it hadn{t have been great spanish practice (ps. {is where the ' should be on the keyboard).
We got to Piura changed some money and wolfed down some lunch and hopped on the bus again to Chiclayo. He basically showed me exactly where to do all of this and hence despite the overzealous conversation when I wanted to sleep (he deteriorated to asking me what type of music i liked) I still loved him.
If you read the previous mention Boarder crossing betty got bed bugs in the hostal we stayed at. And to sooth them put heaps of savlon on all the time. The problem was that this stuff dries and flakes and she looked like she had bits of skin coming off. It was totally hot especially when I didn{t know what it was and it was hanging from her neck.
Eventually we got to Chiclayo at 3pm. This is almost 24 hours of travelling and it really was relatively painless (mainly thanks to our guide and the nice company of Betty).
I'll reserve my judgement of boarder crossing betty for the next entry.
Bumpy Boarder Betty and her Savlon Skin remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>The Hostel owned by a man, who I later found out was the vice president of the chamber of tourism for cuenca, was up 6 flights of stairs (permanantly broken elevator) and had a view out over half the city which was great at night. The beds were from the mid eighties (huge dips in the middle which meant the best position was across the bed in the dip) but the rooms had cable tv...dickhead. The kitchen had a great view, a rice cooker but no toaster...umm...
My soon to be Irish friend got bed bugs (sleeping in the room I would have got had I gone with a private bathroom instead of shared) but had wireless internet.
This guy had his priorities wrong. Basic hotels ($8 per night) need to get the simple things right. Be clean and have comfortable.
He was nice enough but i have to say it he was an idiot and clearly didn´t know how to run a hostel (beyond finding a great spot). Hated him.
Business in ecuador and peru (and sometimes people) just don´t seem to get prioritising the most important steps to take before trying to act like a first world country. They all sold random things (which shops right next to each other selling exaclty the same things) some without any connection...eg underwear stores with an ice cream freezer out front.
I think the most disturbing thing was walking through really poor rural areas whose lifesavings is their 4 cattles in their back yard but seeing mobile phones left right and centre.
I met and spoke with an american writer who was teaching at a non profit bi lingual school in Cuenca for a year. The teachers there get paid 300 dollars a month. He was very interesting and informative and cracked a beer (longneck) at 10 in the morning on a saturday so loved him.
Went to hot baths while he was knocking back his beer and almost died of bliss. 3 pools (which i had to myself for the best part of 3 hours...a little longer than you are meant to stay in) of 8, 40 and 45 degrees. They were great and really hot and at one point after going from the 45 to the 8 and sitting there for a while I felt like my head was floating as my heart rate dropped down to like 40 beats per minute. A really blissful day relaxing after my hard hike.
Loved myself for making the trip out to do that.
Cuenca was uneventful except for meeting erica my travel budy for over the boader into peru.
Cuenca remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>The second person of note was the pick up driver from the town of alausi to the town of achupallas. Great driver on a very bad road. Was even nice enough to drop me further than pick ups usually would to take some time off my first days walk (I started a bit late).
The problem was he basically took any chance I had of securing a guide in the town away from me. While technically he was doing the right thing 4 hours later I was ruing the day I met him. So I started of in drizzling rain by myself. Had to scale up a hole through rocks (very difficult by myself). And then read the guide book wrong and went up a huge mountain for an hour and a half when I should have been going across. When I got to the top o the mountain and realized I was lost it started to sleet which pelted against my face with pain due to the strong winds.
Fell down a hill when I was getting back to the track for about 8 or 9 metres and was generally swearing at him and myself for being so stupid (ahhh dunno I´m gonna go with hated him).
Then the god send. Found the track again walked for about 30 minutes and looked down to the river bed. Saw what I thought was a blue tent. Looked again (this time not through my sleet covered sun glasses) it was a tent. Took off down the hill for the safety of other people. Dropped my compass on the way down (without realizing).
But eventually got the safety of strangers to realize it was not just one tent but 3 with 2 donkeys. It was freezing and my hands were numb as I abused my tent but eventually I was inside dry and warm inside my sleeping bad which is less than I can say for the French people I were with who had hired their gear.
After an average night´s sleep and a lot of peanut butter (someone has to lick the knife clean) I discovered that the French people had had such an awful night that they had told their guides they could not camp another night. They were heading off at pace and I was not going anywhere without a compass after looking at the morning fog and so I threw my pack on top of a donkey and off we went.
We caught up with another group as we walked through their campsite for the night 1.5 hours ahead and saw the ice on the group and around the edge of the lake and began to be seriously impressed with out guide´s choice of camping site.
Walked over a freezing mountain top and then back onto the ingañan with a beautiful view of a snaking river leading to a lake. It was much warmer over this side.
Walked past a small ruin and onto the second camp site in the mist.
By this stage out mules/donkeys were walking with the other groups mules and the other group with their non-local guide walked out ahead of the mules with the local guides (big mistake).
It was really misty and a tiny bit rainy (visibility was about 25 metres) and the non local guide with the other two woman walked off in a totally different direction to what they were supposed to and got lost about 5 kms west of where they were supposed to be.
I stuck with the donkeys and when the frenchys went off to the local town to get their pickup truck to the ruins I was left with the two local guides and 5 donkeys all when I had started with none.
The local guides were cool and spent 90 minutes looking for the lost people. They were too far gone and eventually we came to the decision that we would camp for the night and walk the last 2.5 hours the next morning very early.
With ice on my tent I packed up and strolled out at a cracking pace with the remaining guides and ended up being first to the ruins out of everyone of that day.
The ruins were big but nothing amazing, apparently unique with their ovular structure of the temple of the sun but with nothing to compare it to (first ruin) that really didn´t mean anything to me.
Guides hmm they smoked, littered a tiny bit and made me get up super early on the last day when we really didn´t need to…..but let´s face it they had donkeys which carried my pack (can I love the donkeys but not the guides?). LOVED THEM ALL trekking with donkeys is still hard cause you walk faster but nowhere near as painful.
FRENCHIES (loved them, even though they didn´t get my jokes….don´t they have sarcasm in France…I said we should have brought our ice skates for the near frozen lake and they said hmm “doesn´t look like it is quite frozen enough”.
When I returned from the massive ruin to the town of el tambo I was officially sick but it was the perfect town to sleep 13 hours in and recuperate then onto Cuenca.
In El tambo the son of the owner practiced a bit of English and Spanish with me. Nothing really of note but he tried his hardest (loved him).
Trek to Ingapirca remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>Patty was my spanish teacher in Quito for most of the time and also the woman that I lived with.
She had a huge apartment and spoke spanish to me all the time (which was good). She is the only person so far that I have been able to have an entertaining coversation with in spanish so far cause my vocabulary is still a little limited.
I have conversations with other people they are just generally not very interesting (ie when I ask people their opinion about the new constitution and the upcoming referendum they say stuff but i don´t understand).
There are a thousand stories I could tell about crazy patty and her crazy family and her huge 5 bedroom apartment (rent is dirt cheap in quito) but I will only tell you two.
The first is when I returned from the aforementioned trek with chin fringe. I at length had to explain to her exactly what had happened and exactly what I thought of him and his chin fringe. She was sympathetic and basically agreed with me about everything. I then proceeded to attempt to translate the joke of his sobre nombre (nickname) into spanish and after some time I had patty cackling with laughter repeater quijada con sequilla (chin finge).
From then on Patty used and abused quijada con sequilla to no end (all the time praying she didn´t get him as a student when I left and he returned).
Patty and I got quite close after a couple of weeks and basically joked around practicing my spanish her telling me that if I made any mistakes that she would "golpea" me (hit) and me pleding with her "no me golpeas" but the funniest moment was when I can home from having lunch with an Australian woman (HATED HER total dickhead with an MBA and a salary over 150K learnign spanish at a 5 dollar an hour spanish school).
I tried to inform patty that I had just had lunch with a woman that I loathed. But I´d forgetten her name and so said "that woman from the school" (in spanish obviously). She then proceeded to look at me with mum eyes and said mas o menos
"excuse me michael but you need to learn to call people by their names". I told her i couldn´t remember her name and she said
"well you had lunch with blender, now you know".
I stopped, turned back into the kitchen and inquired subtely again "um what was her name"
Patty repeats "blender" and points at the blender that she used every day to make the most divine fresh fruit juices.
Me: "ah patty blender isn´t a name" starts to giggle as I remember what her real name is.
Patty looks at me strangely and says "well i thought it was a weird name but I´m sure her name is blender".
Me: (as politely as I can through bubbles of laughter) "ah no patty i think you´ll find her name is belinda and I´m sure its more polite to call her "that woman" than blender.
Patty proceeds to decide that Belinda isn´t really a name that fits well to this woman (a bit squarish and to use an impolite phrase built like a brick shit house) and decides that from then on she will refer to this woman as
la liquidora.
I´m sure it doesn´t translate (as funilly) but she had much fun telling her whole family the story and anyone who would listen and I also had no end of amusement with her.
She was divorced and 34 years old and wouldn´t let me take photos of her but i got a couple.
I am trying to think about somethign bad to say about her....hmmm.
If you haven´t read the previous post about when I was offering myself up as a potential husband to her and her sisters then now you know I was. The next day she said if she was going to take me as a husband I couldn´t have any more of the free bread at the school cause I was getting fat (cold blooded in my books especially when I am the skinniest I´ve been in a decade).
Good food, good laughs decent teaching and a home not a hostal was exactly what I needed to get started on my trip.
Patty was a star and playing simon says with her extended family (them in spanish and me in english) was a regression to childhood that I really enjoyed.
LOVED HER.
Patty remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>Thanks to all those who wished me happy bday on fbook (love them)
to all those who forgot even with the helpful reminder ahhhh.... you know where you stand.
For my bday I went out with my best local friend Hugo.
Hugo is pretty swanky in a eurotrash kinda way. He took me to a jap restaurant and fumed when he had to wait 10 minutes for a table even though we had a reservation (the problem was this restaurant didn´t seem to realise that a whole heap of 4 person tables with only 2 people sitting at them wasn´t exactly economical...buy some smaller tables you dickheads). He deathstared the matradee (?) and then spewed when they didn´t bring over free drinks. But to be honest for a jap restaurant done by ecuadoreans it was pretty good.
On the night before my bday i met up with him and some of his friends and we had drinks at a funky little restaurant. At exactly midnight when i turned 24 they had organised that the waiters bring out a desert with a candle which was super sweet. And then they took photos of me ¨biting¨ directly from the cake because apparently this is ecuadorean tradition. We then went to a club and got drunk.
Baldy was a really sweet guy with us who deserves a mention because he was sporting a wicked combover (no photos you´ll just have to imagine) he paid for my entry to the club (10 dollars with as many free drinks as you wanted) and he danced like he was doing aerobics (bum stuck out pumping his legs in time to the music).
LOVED BALDY.
Hugo was and still is great. He was even kind enough to warn me at the aforementioned japanese restaurant go to the door with the H when I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I didn´t hear him and had had too much to drink and still went into the one with the M ie mujeres....no wonder there was no urinal.
I´m not sure if Hugo wanted/still wants in but he is being the ultimate gentleman if he wants some....
He is eurotrash (well he attempts to be and i mean this in the best sense of the word, very stylish and snobby where appropriate) but he accepted me on a night out on the town at a swanky restaurant in my sneakers. He gave me a great tour the queer scene in quito and organised a cake for the start of my birthday.
Hence LOVED hugo.
I know you are all surprised that my birthday entry has been full of so much love.
During the actual day of my birthday I was hungover and lazy but in the afternoon had coffee and cake with Patty and her sisters and her friends.
Patty is my spanish teacher and the woman that I am living with and so she´ll need an entry for herself.
The afternoon was uneventful but much fun and hilarity was had in between speaking english and spanish.
The twin sisters maria Agosto and Maria Fernandez were both great. they both exclaimed that they preferred me over the other foreigner living in Patti´s apartment even though I´d go for him in a heartbeat over my doppleganger.
They also seemed very attentive to my suggestions that marrying me was a good idea because of my dual citizenship.
Loved them and surprisingly (even though I was "alone in a foreign city") loved my birthday.
my bday and the ecuadorean customs remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>Chin Fringe is a German man with principles as high as the sky and a touch with reality which reflects the distance from us to his principles.
I spent almost 4 days straight with chin fringe and so I think he is one person I can say I really got to know. I will attempt to keep my analysis brief.
Chin Fringe has facial has growing from his chin which is about 2 inches wide and at least four inches long. It is thick and bushy and he strokes it when he is pondering whether the person he is speaking to is trying to charge him too much.....this is always.
Chin fringe and I went on an amazing (and moderately difficult) hike to Quilotoa through stunning countrysides and valleys with some of the most amazing views I have ever beheld bushwalking.
Unlike Nez chin fringe had a great sense of direction and was super prepared. We bought the special maps from the institute of geography for our trek just in case and he studied them to the T.
On the morning of the trek I got into the cab and he asked me ¨Do you have everything¨. I said (slightly condescendingly) ¨ah yeah¨. He said ¨got your sleeping mat and sleeping bag¨. Me (now very short) ¨yes¨.
After he was slightly rude to the taxi driver (suggesting we were going in the wrong direction) we got on the bus. As soon as we left the bus station.
¨Fuck Schizer¨ bolted me out of my mid morning slumber.....he´d forgotten the maps. While he attempted to blame it on the Australian he´d lent them too we all know what the score is.
On the way there (sin el mapas) we saw snow capped volcanoes and despite walking in the afternoon for 2 hours in the rain and getting lost we picked a camping spot which in the morning was spectacular.
On top of a hill looking over two valleys and even in sight of our eventual destination 30 odd kilometers away.
The first thing that showed me that chin fringe´s sense of reality was slightly out of touch was his speed uphill.
We did a LOT of ascending up some pretty steep stuff. But chin fringe (with his walking sticks) walked like the 96 year old grandmother of my spanish teacher (who I live with at the moment).
This isn´t such a problem until it becomes so slow that he has blocked the path and you basically have to stop every 3 or 4 steps so that he gets some more distance from you. I couldn´t get any rhythm!
HOWEVER this would still be forgivable if he didn´t turn around and stop several times up and incline and ask ¨äm I going to fast for you¨?
I had an awesome time and except for some snoring he was pretty good to be with for the trek (and he carried the tent the whole time).
The trek itself was great. Quilotoa is a volcanic crater lake and it was sparkling and had views to cotopaxi a snow capped volcano and across and huge valley. The walk was really tough but I LOVED IT.
The second thing that indicated to me that he was out of touch with reality was in our hostel they included breakfast and dinner with the price. it was 4 o´clock the woman had finished cooking and for some reason (i think cause he really didn´t like breakfast) he insisted that they serve him lunch and dinner instead of dinner and breakfast. They offered him something paltry (bread and coffee) and he was genuinely offended at their inflexibility despite the fact that lunch was over 2 hours ago and the hostel offered breakfast and dinner with accommodation (ie so that they can cook for a whole heap of people at once). He was genuinely astounded/offended and was less than polite to this family with his insistence.
The third
We had gotten off the bus and I was by now used to him exclaiming outrage when someone was overcharging him however this was the pinnacle. There are some taxis in quito where you can get the driver to use the meter (it is usually time of day specific and taxi specific) however from my experience they are somewhat rare.
Chin Fringe was insistent that he would get a taxi that used a meter. We walked up a row of taxis (some of which offered quite reasonable 2 stop prices) and he asked about 10 whether they would let us use the meter. They all said no. The last half it is hardly surprising they said no considering the aggressiveness with which he asked them (literally he spoke to them like they were stealing from him before they had even said anything). These taxi drivers are generally pretty laid back, if intimidation was his tactic it wasn´t working (although I don´t think it was his tactic). We proceeded to walk (at his demand) away from the taxi rank and flagged another 4 taxis and I asked them (much more politely) if they would use the meter. They all refused.
At this point I said ¨lets just get a taxi¨.
he then said (as those I was the devil) ¨if you let them change the way the charge tourists then it will be different for all the future tourists¨ (paraphrase). He threw a dirty look at me as I indicated to him that if we got one with a meter we would only be paying a dollar less. He then began to attack me because I was trying to ¨convince him to bend his principles¨ and that I was contributing to the change.
We walked up a hill and after a few more refusals we got into a taxi under confusion that the taxi driver was going to use the meter. He didn´t, at which point chin fringe wanted to get out. 30 minutes or so looking for a taxi who would use their meter.
Chin Fringe you don´t want it to change for future tourists.....it already had you dickhead.
You think you have principles......you´re just cheap.
For someone who is studying developing economies you think he´d have a little more compassion for a group of people who are underpaid and trying to squeeze a little extra out of much much wealthier people.
Chin Fringe´s only saving graces were....the chin fringe
AND he takes the most amazing cherry wang photo´s ever (i´ll upload some soon).
Is this enough of a saving great....well they are really good Cherry Wangs but no.
HATED HIM.
Eastern europeans and their facial hair part 2 remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>She ¨took¨ me to the cultural centre /old city in quito for the first time one night. Nez was an interesting character who seemed to have a slightly inflated sense of direction (this is toned down cause she is now my friend on face book and might read this).
We attempted to reach one of the main squares for a concert that she saw them setting up in the afternoon. We caught (what I later realised) was really the wrong trolley line for getting to the old city. We end up somewhere she didn´t know but luckily her spanish was good enough to get us headed in the right direction.
Rather than catching a taxi we did something no guide book would recommend, walk through the old city at night (930 or so). After walking about a km up the hill (all the time she was sure we were going in the right direction...) passing 40 year olds sniffing glue from plastic bags and some other shifty looking locals we decided we wanted a taxi but to no avail there were none.
Eventually locals who told us we ¨shouldn´t be walking in this area at night¨ pointed us in the right direction and after about 30 minutes we reached an amazing colonial plaza with great lighting and a funky ska concert.
She could be forgiven if the next morning with another person on the way to a museum she hadn´t tried to point us again in totally the wrong direction luckily the other woman (michelle loved her) was firm and took up my amazing race challenge of a beer for getting us there without looking at the map.
All in am tempted to give her HATED due to the lack of facial hair but she was a really nice person and also the concert was great so she gets LOVED HER.
Eastern Europeans and their facial hair PART 1 remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>The only problem was that Yong im intentionally did things which she knew fine well would piss people off and pretended she didn´t notice.
I saw amazing things on the galapagos islands. And despite the cost (Yong´s favourite subject as she was determined to let everyone know that she had paid the least for the boat tour) it was totally worth it .....LOVED it.
Blue footed boobies....Yong im´s back while she took 10 photos of the bird, tortoises....Yong im´s back. Frigate birds performing their mating ritual of puffing out a massive red neck flap.. yong im looking sneakily over her shoulder to see if she was going to walk in front of someone´s view, realising she was going to and then creeping apologetically pretending not to notice.
The problem with this tactic was that when you creep apologetically you admit guilt Yong im (oh and yes I meant that hard G you inconsiderate twat).
Needless to say
HATED HER.
Karen and Alex lebovic/eifler
Galapagos honeymoooners who didn´t need too much time to themselves (except for one blatantly obvious after lunchtime effort). NB the foreplay was a sort of dinner table spooning which involved a headlock....must try this sometime.
Bickered like they had been married for years not days but looked like they genuinely had a chance of lasting forever.
On the last night shared a priceless moment on the back deck with this couple (and a few others) where a sea lion had swam from the shore and decided that jumping into our dinghy was a good spot to spend the night. With his/her head rested on the front of the boat looking sorry for himself he just screamed
¨I is sea sick¨...which karen aptly captured.
LOVED THEM.
Galapagos remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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]]>You can try and grade things by how much they cost or just how beautiful they were but for brevity (and sometimes entertainment) I like the approach of loved it hated it.
Keep things nice and simple, black and white...just like life?
Seeing as I´m so pessimistic I think I´d prefer to have a whole heap of HATED it in my memories. However seeing as some many of the places I think I´ll visit will be worth it/fall into the loved it category I think its easier to incorporate the people I´ve met into the places I´ve been.
So far we have a few mentionables.
Black and White just like life remains copyright of the author lovehate09, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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