Huaraz - Lima

Sorry about the super long delay updating this, it's been pretty hectic! So, where was I?

So after paracas I had 2 bus journeys to get myself up to huaraz which is a little town in the cordelia blanca mountain range, about 8 hours north of Lima. Getting the night bus means arriving at 6am, but the owner of my hostel was fortunately up and about and showed me into a nice private room, even though I'd booked a dorm. It was nice to have though and I had a kip for a few hours as I never sleep well on buses, even the posh cruz del sur ones!

So then I ventured out into huaraz... I went to the main square to try to find some tours to book. I knew there wasn't much to do in huaraz itself and the idea of going there was to go on trips out to the mountains. My guide book said there were lots of English speaking guides there. Well, I went out looking for these guides only to find there weren't any because it was not high season - the guide book didn't mention that!! So I was there for 4 days and had ti do something, so I booked myself on 2 days of tours with a Spanish speaking guide!

Also I didn't see that many travellers around at all, and some local kids ran after me in the street yelling 'look! A gringo!!'  it was quite funny!

So the first day the group wrnt to a place called Chivay in the mountains which is some old ruins. Needless to say I was the only gringo on the trip... The guide gave what sounded like a very educational and interesting speech, but unfortunately i had no idea what he was going on about. Then we went to a museum which was better because it had English translations :-)

Then we had a very belated lunch and a nice Italian couple took pity on me and came to speak ti me in English. They told me a bit about what the guide was saying at the ruins, that the people there re-directed the river to flow under the city through the main square with some little barriers and dams and stuff and when the priests wanted to talk to the gods, and for the village to hear them answer him, they would release the blocked water under the square so it made a big rumble and thundery sound that the people thought were the gods - how cheeky!

Then we drove back and we had some music on, then this Peruvian song came on that was obviously very popular and the bus turned into a bit if a party bus! It was funny.

The next day I went up to 5000m to go and look at a glacier. The Italian couple were there again so j understood a bit more! On the way we stopped off at a natural spring that produced carbonated water - it was wierd! Then we walked up to see the glacier in the snow - I'm glad I bought my poncho in cusco - it's come in handy several times!

The next day I had anothet night bus booked at 10 in the evening. It was a Sunday and the owner of the hostel had said to me when I arrived that Sunday was a very boring day in huaraz do make sure i booked to do something. The owner of the hostel, who was an experienced trekker, offered to take me and this other guy on a walk up to a lake. So I got up on Sunday nice and early, only to discover it was pissing it down with rain and we couldn't go! So I had a very dull day stretching ahead of me with absolutely nothing to do - it was a long day.

The next morning I got to Lima. I thought I'd hate Lima from what I'd heard but I really liked it. I got to my hostel and immediately bumped into 2 of the girls I'd met on my colca canyon trek which was nice so we arranged to meet up that afternoon. The hostel was in miraflores which us a really nice area of the city. I had a look round there in the morning and then headed down to the coast which was really nice and green and there were lots of statues of cows everywhere! That afternoon I went into the main centre to meet up with my friends and go to a viewpoint that overlooks the city. I tried to get a bus into the main square as it was about 8k away, I asked in the hostel how to get there and they gave me a bus number to get on... Well I got to where the buses were and none of them had numbers on, instead conductors leaning out of the door yelling things. I saw one with the name of the road I needed to get to on the side and took my chances... Needless to say it was totally the wrong bus! So I got off in the middle of some random part if lima and admitted defeat and caught a taxi!


I'd heard it was the mainpart of the city that wad nasty so I wasn't that excited to get there, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The main square was really nice. That evening, my friends caught their flight back to buenos aires so we just had a quick bite to eat before they went off.

The next day I went back to the main centre. By this point I had figured out how the buses worked and caught the right one this time into town and went to San fransisco church. This was very pretty and we had a guided tour of that and the catacombs underneath that are home to thousands and thousands of skeletons. Well, all that was left from most of them were skulls and leg bones as the rest had been dissolved as they were put in quicklime or something. There were so many bones though! And the people who discovered them all had arranged them into patterns - wierd! That night I had nothing to do so I went accross the street from my hostel in miraflores and watched avatar :-)

I wish I'd had more time in Lima as there were still areas if the city I didn't get to visit, but 2 days is not long to see a place!