Peru

We tossed up the options: To go further south and remain in Ecuador, or to head for the coast of northern Peru. We'd spent a full month in the mountains and felt that a few days in flip flops would be just the ticket. So we packed our bags in the delightful town of Cuenca and caught the bus to the Ecuadorian border town of Huaquillas. Entry and exit formalities were straightforward, though the same cannot be said for the navigation of the multiple taxis, touts, money changers and buses. In the process we were both relieved of a good wad of US dollars and charged twice an already expensive cab ride from Huaquillas to the Peruvian town of Tumbes. We did not swear (much) at these misfortunes, rather, we took them as a 'glass half full' occurrences and vowed to be a little more alert to the swindlers in future.


Our super luxury bus to the surfing town of Mancora was stopped en route by the drug squad who has somehow pulled out bags off first and were inspecting them as we disembarked. Amy wondered later if something could have been inserted into our luggage when we had our backs turned iside the Peruvian passport office. It was a good thing we only lost some money then! No damage done, just a little scare.


Mancora was lovely. When the swell is happening, it has one of the finest left-handers in the world. The swell was definitly not happening during our stay, but as a novice surfer, it was just about perfect in the afternoon when the tide came up and the little waves peeled perfectly off the point. Despite having ridden bodyboards for my whole life, the act of riding a longboard for the first time was quite a thrill. Amy suggested we do more of this in our lengthy Brazillian beach stint during August and September. A good idea methinks.



Five days passed quickly in Mancora. The only bad thing to happen there was Chelsea winning the FA Cup. We spent the next couple of days 10 hours south at Trujillo and Huanchaco, where we checked out some significantly pre-Inca ruins at Chan Chan. Interesting stuff that relied somewhat on your imagination due to their busted state. Mud don't last, that's my tip to all of you in the building game.



Ruins are only interesting for a few hours: We had to move on. Another 10 hours on the bus and we had arrived where I write this, in Huaraz. A mate had told us a year or so ago that the mountains in this area were awesome. He was right. After the disappointment of not being able to see any peaks because of the poor weather in Ecuador (with the exception of the morning after the nine hour Quilotoa mission), the first thing we saw upon arival were three huge snow capped mountains. In previous posts I'd used words like 'looming' and 'towering' but these were poor word choices. Those mountains have nothing on these. The following morning, sitting in a rooftop cafe gazing northwards down the valley at Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain at 6,768m, you could see the pale green luminosity of the glacier and thought, 'fuck yeah!'.


We acclimatised for two days and went out for a four day hike along the Santa Cruz route. Our party of nine tourists was larger than we'd been told by our agent, but it worked out really nice as everyone was a cool cat. The peaks were ridiculous and the view from the 4,750m Punta Union pass was spectacular. Mike and I agreed to get up early the morning after crossing the pass so that we could walk back up there as the dawn arrived. Then we would take unobstructed photos in the special morning light that makes everything look soft and beautiful (except anybody's face after a Bethnal Green houseparty circa 2002). Mike was up before me at 4:10, and we both looked up at the pass without the benefit of moonlight and made out the cloudbank sitting exactly where we intended to hike. We agreed to go back to bed.



Some weird sickness got me after we returned. If you believe the health section of the Lonely Planet you might think it was Dengue Fever, but who can say for sure? In any case, we have some more climbs and cool stuff to do before we leave Huaraz and I'll write you about that next time.