Hardest Thing: Well, I did think it was...but then there was the time...and then as if that wasnt bad enough....and to top it all off....but that wasnt all....So got ourselves into Huaraz at the crack of dawn on Tuesday after a fairly uncomfortable (what a surprise!) night bus from Lima. Was definitely in need of a few days chilling in the mountains....fresh air, lots of sleep, etc. Got ourselves checked in to an amazing hostal called The Way Inn and after attempting to stay awake to watch the sunrise over the mountains...crawled into bed for a few well deserved hours of sleep. Once the sleeping formality was over...Eeva and I set off to fill our bellies and were lucky enough to stumble into an incredible place called Cafe Andino. Now...Cafe Andino...not only did they have a terrace which looked out to the snowcapped mountains of the Cordilleras Blanca, fresh ground Peruvian coffee, brown bread, fruit salad with yoghurt and granola...but they had mango smoothies...wait for it, wait for it....with SOYA MILK!!!!!!!! Woowoohoooo!! Could I be any happier?! (By the way, the answer to that was "no"!!)
So we used the day to "plan" our up and coming treks in the mountains....although in reality we actually settled down in front of the log fire and stuffed ourselves until our hearts and bellies were content!!!! Spent the evening cooking up a storm...I managed a pretty tasty pasta and sauce..all fresh veggies of course!! And then settled down with a dvd. After all...there was always tomorrow to plan...
So Wednesday started off well...we had a scrummilicious homemade brekkie of fruit and brown toast...(thats exciting by the way, the South Americans aren´t exactly the finest bakers in the world and I havent had toast since the morning I flew outta London Gatwick all those months ago...sob, sob...poor little Priya!!) Then we managed to spend most of the day in Cafe Andino...well when onto a good thing, I reckon one should make the most of it!!!
So, much like the previous day, we pretended to plan a series of treks, but in reality...umm...I was sipping Mango smoothies a la soya milk!! And Eeva was topping up on so much Cappucchino, she was turning a nice shade of brown!! Another thing that kept us fairly fixed where we were...was the rediscovery of Scrabble...I got absolutely thrashed by Eeva...did I mention she was Finnish?! Ho hum..
Ok, so this is where it gets interesting....
Laguna Llanagnucu....Take 1
So Eeva and I got ourselves up nice and early, walked across town and managed to hop onto a Combi (mini bus) -there were no public buses due to some strikes. We decided that we were going to head out to the turquoise laguna and have a bit of a walk around. So all was going well, we were having a grand old time, packed onto this little bus with so many people that at times I have to admit I yearned to be on the Jubilee Line from Waterloo to Canary Wharf at 7.30am during rush hour!! It was definitely alot of fun though and as Huaraz is in the Sierra, there are lots of the traditional Andean, Indigenous people, so it is such great fun to people watch and marvel at the incredible outfits of all the colours of the rainbow one can imagine!!
So it was all hunky dorey and we were doing well, squished in the back of the Combi, hurtling towards the mountains in search of the beautiful blue lagoon, at Ranrahirca, only one town away from Yungay, the one where we needed to get off....when all of a sudden the mini van stops dead in the road?! I look out the front windscreen and see a mob of indigenous farmers (protesting against the Free Trade Agreement) running towards us, armed with sticks, stones and pitchforks!! (Ok, no pitchforks..that bit was an exagerration!!) -They obviously werent after us...but for the sake of the story, let´s pretend that they were....
So, the mini van starts reversing, realises that its not doing us any favours as it is going about 2mph, (which made it seem like it was standing still compared to the previous average speed of 100mph!!) manages to swing round and the driver jams his foot on the gas!!
Managed to get away...not without taking a few photos (though they arent very impressive as it was all a bit of a rush job!!) first, of course! So...then the driver pulls over a little way down the road and insists that Eeva and I can walk through the mob to the Yungay. (?!?!?!?!?!) Tempting as that option was, we figured we would head back to Huaraz and attempt the Lagoons tomorrow!! Classic!!
Back at...you´ll never guess where...we cracked open the Scrabble board once again...and were soon challeneged by an eccentric old guy called Gerald. He allowed us to team up against him...which didnt actually make a blind bit of difference and we scored miserably!!
Laguna Llanagnucu....Take 2
Back on the Combi, the following morning....the journey was a little bit quieter than the previous day. Thought that may have been a good sign....I should really learn!! So after about an hour of driving...the conductor tried to chuck us of the bus...hey, what did we do?! It slowly transpires that he had in fact misheard us earlier and instead of Yungay heard Yungar! Awww shucks! So while we explain that we do in fact want to go to Yungay, and he explains that the bus doesn´t go that far, I get this odd sensation that we have become the entertainment for the rest of the bus, as people had full on turned 180 degrees round to gawp at the spectacle and have a good old giggle...for the remainder of the journey, Eeva and I try to play it cool (obviously doesnt work) and get deposited at the side of the road in Carhuaz, the last stop.
Chilling at the side of the Plaza, when a crazy, crazy, crazy Combi came hurtling round the corner, Im surprised the damn thing didnt topple over! So we thought we had missed it as it overshot us by about 10 metres, which would prob have been a good thing, if we wanted to LIVE!! But then the damn thing stopped, and the driver ushered us over the road. Not sure why we climbed on board...I must have become immune to the insanity out here! So surprisingly (and i genuinely was surprised...(Mum: I did tell Eeva to tell you that I loved ya, if i didnt make it!!)) we made it to Yungay, (fairly speedily!) and from there grabbed a cab to the laguna.
So we walked to the laguna, which was absolutely stunning and didnt disappoint one bit (See photo above!) I can definitely say that it was well worth the journeys we had had! Did a small trek round the laguna and then decided to walk a couple of kms to another laguna. Attempted to get the waiting taxi to drive us there, but he was trying to charge us, so we figured a little walk would do us good. We had almost cleared the 3km to the other laguna when we heard a car pull up behind us...it was our taxi?! He explained that he needed to leave pretty soon as he had a flat tyre, was fast losing air pressure and if we delayed much longer then he would lose too much more air and prob not be able to make it back down the windy roads....why us!!
Once back in Yungay, we paid our respects at a place called Campo Santo, the site of the Old Yungay. When a devastating earthquake struck in 1970, this led to a massive avalanche of ice, mud, water and boulders which sped down the valley, burying the whole town and killing 25,000 people. The only 400 people who survived where the ones who had run towards the higher ground of the cemetery. Had the cutest little kid called Fernando as our guide. Whenever he launched into any info about the site, he would go into super fast speaking, robot mode as he tried to recall all that he had memorised! Didnt understand a bloody word as he was so fast and monotone and worse than that couldnt concentrate as I got the giggles, but it was an interesting experience.
Cojup RiverOn our final day, we decided to head up to a Lodge further up in the mountains and do a day of hiking. Got up there a bit later than expected and so had to curtail ourt hike from a 30km trail to a 12km trail (damn shame!!)
Was absolutely stunning...we walked along the Cojup River, a fairly fast flowing river which runs from the glaciers in the distance. As we ascended the trail, we walked towards a valley and had incredible views of the valley and river below, the snowcapped peaks and the town of Huaraz in the distance.
Stopped to take in the beauty of our surroundings for a minute (and cos i was bloody knackered!) and decided it would be a great idea to have out pit stop atop a 15 ft high boulder, which I nicknamed Bob the Boulder (can he fix it, yes he can!!) Was an interesting time, attempting to scale what was effectively a giant pebble!! Was well worth the effort though and despite almost sliding off a couple of times...i would
def recommend that others take the 15mins to do the same!!
After a while, we decided we had better shoot off as rains were on their way (yes, I have learnt to read the sky!!) I cant be that good though, seeing as we headed straight towards the rain, got drenched and very lost!! Our instructions had been to cross 20m of boulders, before coming to a boulder with a cave under it, after which would be an even bigger boulder with a slight wall behind it....huh?! Right...easy!
We eventually managed to find the small bridge over the river that we needed to cross...I was almost willing to jump in and be carried downstream by that point. And soon enough the sun came out, the birds started singing again and we eventually picked up our trail and found our way back to the lodge.
Once that trek was all done and dusted, we still had an additional 45mins walk ahead of us to get down to the main road to catch a combi back to town. It seemed a fairly straight forward path down...surely we couldnt screw that up....?! Well...we were doing fairly well, and at one point found ourselves walking behind a family. The lady kept turning around and nervously glancing in our direction...wasnt sure why...decided maybe it was because we were being a bit noisy, so we piped down a bit. After a further 5 mins, the lady finally turned around and demanded to know where we were going...just to catch a combi we replied innocently....well...in fact she kindly informed us that we were on the path that lead to her home!! Oops!! So figured she wasnt keen on having us round for tea and crumpets, so we took a left smartish and despite walking through a few back gardens eventually found a waiting combi to get us back to town!!
Bus to Lima
Now ordinarily the buses arent overly exciting...but for a change (well, we are in South America) there was a bit of drama on ours!! So the problem was, was that the bus company had sold tickets for a luxury bus, but as all the seats hadnt been filled, they decided to use a fairly mediocre replacement.
As you can imagine, people were NOT happy...and it was a very vocal display of disapproval There was such a woohaa that I decided to get off the bus to go and have a Butcher´s...was great fun. Lots of screaming, shouting, banging on counters....passionate...latinos...?? Never!
The next drama came along soon after. Eeva and I boarded the bus to find a couple of punks sat in our seats. Ordinarily I wouldnt have cared, but we had specially gotten the very front seats of the top deck as the journey home was meant to be spectacular. The punks refused to move, so the people in the other front seats got turfed out instead (dont worry they weren´nt meant to be there either) I thought that Eeva and I would be Bus Enemies No. 1 as a result of the commotion, but it turned out that everyone began heckling the offending seat stealers and we got our seats. (though the original punks stayed put)
All was going well, until the bus stopped at the next stop and picked up the rightful owners of the other window seats (where punks were located) The conductor tried to reason with the guys and coax thenm outta the seats...that didnt work. People started to heckle and join in on the discussion...the guys stayed put. The bus drove off, the seat stealers looked pleased with themselves and then the bus stops once again and a police officer is pulled on board to extract the guys....what fun!!! The rightful owners got their seats. The guys had to do a walk of shame down the aisle of the bus to the back and the mood on the bus amongst the rest of the passengers was one of triumph!!
Now, the rest of the journey was fairly peaceful and Eeva and I sat back, feetup on the dash board, enjoying the spectacular views. After a fairly long and arduous journey, we enter the outskirts of Lima...by this point I am about ready to get off the bus...it has been 10 odd hours after all (and I was in need of the loo) Unfortuantely as we joined the rest of the mad traffic of Lima, our bus driver managed to bump the wing mirror off the car next to us...oh no...here we go...did i mention that I needed the loo?! Anyway we pulled over, so the drivers could "discuss" the incident and Eeva and I tried to make a dash off the bus....unfortunately we couldnt, (though everyone else managed to?!) so a painful hour later, we hopped into a cab and found ourselves back in the sanctuary of the hostal!
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