Cusco, Peru ...Part One

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I am in Cuzco, Peru and have been for the past two weeks or so. I am staying in a hostel off the main plaza (Plaza de Armas) called the Mirador. For most of the time I had been in my own room with a queen bed for 20 soles ($6.30). Yesterday I moved across the hall with a smaller bed and a lot less space for 15 soles ($5). This is more expensive than other Hostels I have stayed in in the past month but is still not bad, eh?

I haven´t done any traveling around in the past few weeks because I just finished fourteen days of spanish classes. They where four hours a day and seven days per week. I had been walking about 6K to school (1hr) and then around 9-12K on the way back home. Needless to say that after hikes, walking and eating a little healthier over the last month I have lost around 20lbs. This is the lightest I have been in about six years. Other than school I was just having as much fun as possible. Class was from 10-2pm and when I got back to the hostel after class I would either meet up with friends of the hostel or just cruise alone exploring the city until night time.

At night we do more exploring just with the inclusion of going to the discotecas (clubs). Every night is a good night for the bars and clubs in Cuzco. Generally on the weekdays we take it easy and go out to the hooka bar (Indago´s) to play poker, smoke hooka, and drink a few beers. Indago´s has the best music and is our favorite hangout.

The other guys and I ditched our plan to do a trek after being in Cusco for three weeks we were ready to just get out of there. Especially if I am going back later to do Machu Picchu and other things later. (By the way that is the plan now). I decided to go with Mike and Kilo north to Mancora, Peru which is a beach town in northern Peru. After that we are going north to Ecuador and Columbia. Why not? I´ll just add in two more countries and then fly back down to Cusco and pick up where I left off!

Cabanaconde&Arequipa, Peru

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We got to Arequipa early in the morning and decided to get on the first bus to Cabanaconde, a small pueblo in the Colca Canyon. The next bus was a 6 hour ride from hell in a cramped bus down a long BUMPY road. We spent most of the daylight hours on the bus and when we got there left on a hunt to find a place to stay. Eventually we decided on a place called Pachamama(mother earth). It had great people who ran it and at night had the best vibe, good food, and drinks. We had a great first night talking, drinking and playing games with Luie. Luie and his brother are the owners of the hostel. Liv, Luie´s girlfriend also helps run the hostel. They are some of my favorite people I have met in Peru. They do a lot for the local children and for some of the troubled kids of the town such as teach them english or even give them jobs and a place to live for a couple of them.

The next morning the David, Rachael and I set out for our hike in the Colca Canyon for four days and three nights. We met up with a Canadian couple and some others from assorted countries like Cassiano(Brazil), Ryan and his friend(England). We all had the same plan and hiked either together or met up at the end of the day at each Pueblo. After the first night the aussies and I split because they were starting to run a little short on time. I continued on with the canucks and it was a lot of hiking over the next few days. We finally got to the oasis on our third day and relaxed before our 1100 vertical meter hike up the canyon wall in the morning. This is supposed to take arround three hours and am proud to say I did it in 1hr and 40min with a 25pound pack on and beat mules up. We spent the rest of that day doning absolutely nothing but eating and sitting.

The next morning, the day we left Cabanaconde was quite the doozie. When we woke up and went to the other building (with the restaurant and bar) for breakfast there was a german couple there who claimed that someone snuck into their room and stole the guys wallet and passport. After getting the police involved and the hostel in trouble because of some licensing issues the germans left for there own trek. To try to save the hostel from being shut down Luie ran after them to try to get them to change the story. Come to find out that when Luie got to them the had found there ¨stolen¨goods in another backpack and had no plan to tell anyone until they got back two days later. When that fiasco was put to rest it was time to catch another bus from hell back down to Arequipa with the Canadians. I did see the best sun set I have seen in a while from my bus window that night.

We spent one night in Arequipa before continuing on to seperate places. I left for Cuzco at 8:30pm the next day. The Canadians left for Ica at a similar time on a northern path.

Nazca, Peru

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We Found a local bus to Nazca from Ica for about $3US and hopped off at the ¨Mirador¨(look out). The mirador is a tower in the middle of nowhere at which is possible to see a few of the lines. Though the tower was really a joke to us we were all happy not to pay $75US to fly over in a small plane. After we got our fill of lines we hitch hiked to the city of Nazca with a propane delivery driver and his girlfriend. We decided not to stay in Nazca for even one night because there is nothing to do there besides look at lines in the desert. We spent all afternoon there until grabbing a bus to Arequipa at 10:30pm.

Ica/Huacacina, Peru

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The aussies and I took an afternoon bus to Ica, Peru. I was need to see how different the country side of Peru can be. It is pretty desilate from Lima to Ica. It is a desert region here. The driest desert in the world. We got to Ica in the evening as the sun was setting and shared a taxi to Huacacina with our Israeli friends we met on the bus. Huacacina is an oasis in the desert with a lagoon in the center and surrounded by tall sand dunes and desert as far as you can see. It is the first time I have seen anything like this and is absolutely breath taking.

The morning afer we arrived David and I desided o hike up the dunes ourselves for a pre-dunebuggy trip slide down the dunes on sandboards. It is by far not easy to hike up a sand dune and can see how people who get lost in the desert... die. Afterwards we went together with Rachael on a buggy tour that takes you for a spin on the dunes, drops you off at the top and picks you up at the bottom. Definately easier than walking them. Come to find out, It is more fun and faster to lay down on the board and go down head first. You can really get some speed!

We didn´t stay long there as ther is not much to do in Huacacina except for sandboarding and spending money. Being that we left for Nazca after two days in Huacacina.