My first 2 weeks in Peru: Beach & Mountains. what more do I need?
Ok, here I am. 3am arriving at the airport of Lima. Luckily I have already booked a hostel and a taxi to get me there. And then the first test of my basic Spanish. The conversation with the taxi driver is a bit slower and more complicated than it usually would be, but we understand each other more or less! Arriving in the hostel I am quite lucky: an empty 4 bed dorm. Wohoo!
After a couple hours of sleep I am surprisingly fit and directly join a free walking tour of Lima. I really enjoyed it. Met very nice people (although a lot of Germans), started off with a free taster of delicious Lima craft beer, then a great tour through Lima and learning a lot about its history and finishing with a free pisco sampling. They do know how to increase their tips, giving us drinks just before we pay them. A part of the group then went together for lunch and then visited the monastery & catacombs of San Francisco. Nice place but not comparable to the ones in Paris.
The next day I walked around Miraflores, visited my first temple (Huaca) and sat a bit on the beach watching the surfers. It was nice to finally not wear everything you have anymore, temperature being around 20 degrees. But that was not enough for me. After a month of freezing in Canada, I had booked a flight to Piura in the north of Peru. There it should be more around 30 degrees, perfect beach weather.
My afternoon was all travel: taxi to the airport, flying Lima to Piura, taxi for 3 hours to Mancora. There I had booked 3 nights in a kite surf camp. My arrival was a bit funny as their internal communication didn't really work and the guys at the camp didn't know I would be arriving. However, no problem, within 5 minutes I had my room (again a whole dorm to myself) and was sitting on the terrace with a beer.
The next day I got up and went 15 meters from my room to the beach :-) yes! And in the afternoon there was finally enough wind to go kite surfing. I had booked a supervision, which means a local guy helped me with the kite and looked after me. And that was good! I didn't even make it body dragging (so without standing on the board, but just lying in the water, letting the kite pull you out) through the waves. So I hung on to my supervisor who got me out where the waves were not as bad anymore. Then I managed to ride a bit. I was happy that I still managed, but it was exhausting. After I lost my board the second time (without managing to get it back), I gave up for the day. Luckily there was day 2. Even though the wind forecast was not good, it picked up in the afternoon and I could go out with my supervisor again. Today the waves were smaller and it was great. I manged to go out on my own and it was big fun!
So that was around 4 hours of my 3 days on the beach. The rest was relaxing, hanging out with other kite surfers and just enjoying the sun & the beach. I skipped the parties in town, which I could hear at night even though it was roughly 2km away from my place!
As the wind forecast was very bad for the next days (I couldn't go out at all on day 3), I had decided to move on. I took my first night bus, from Mancora to Trujillo. Arriving there in the morning I checked in to the hostel and directly went on a full day tour - in my experience best thing to do when you are still a bit tired after a night bus. Although I usually don't like these kind of touristy trips I had a great day. I met very nice people and we had a great guide who was able to tell us a lot about the temples we visited and their people. The first big temple, Chan Chan made for some great pictures and we learned a lot about how the Chimu tribe lived. The size of the temple is just impressive, but unfortunately it all looked a bit too neat, most parts were rebuild and not original. My highlight of the day was definitely the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna. Arriving there I was a bit disappointed as from the outside it didn't look that impressive. But here, where the archeologists are still working on digging out the full temple, we saw amazing buildings and drawings on the walls in amazing colours. Really great restauration work! This temple is even older than Chan Chan and belonged to the Moche culture. Shame on me for thinking there were only the Incas :-)
The second day in Trujillo I started slow and joined another tour to a temple in the afternoon. The Huaca el Bruijo was nice, but I have to say: enough temples for me for now! So together with a girl I met on the first day tour I took the night bus to Huaraz. My first mountains in Peru, and what a choice! The Cordillera Blanca is just astonishing! Arriving at 5 am we were very happy that we could immediately check in to our room. After some rest and a shower it all went so quick: I signed in for a 4 day hike, we went for breakfast and then we were off for our test hike. And I suffered. Huaraz is actually above 3000 m already. And even though the hike was described at easy, climbing another 1000 m up for me wasn't easy. The aclimatization is really a thing, plus the sun burning down on you doesn't help. But hey, we had time and we were treated with beautiful mountain views.
The next day at 5 am the real deal started: the Santa Cruz trek! I had booked the luxery version, with great guides, great food and they carry your backpack, setup your tent and make it as easy as possible for you. I was lucky to join a great group: 3 Dutch, an Australian couple, a French-Australian girl and me. Day one was a beautiful drive to the starting point and a decent 4 hours hike with some small ups and downs (never believe them when they say the route is totally flat). I was still getting used to the altitude plus hiking in the full sun, 4 hours was more than enough for me. And then came day 2. They had warned us about it. You just have to bite through it. Climbing from 3700m up to 4700m is definitely no joke. I know I'm slow, but this reached a new dimension. I was so out of breath! At one point I habe up and gave even my day pack to the guide. Good part of it: he also took my camera and made some pictures off me suffering up the mountain. The group was very nice and waited for me at the top and with lunch. Luckily it was beautiful sun and a breathtaking view. Mountains with snow on the top and beautiful green-blue lakes. The 2,5 hours going down in general to the next camp site was actually not that difficult, but I was done for the day. After the tea time I needed a rest, so by dinner time I already felt way better. Day three had an option to go to a beautiful laguna, and I struggled for a while with my decision. In the end I decided to go the direct way together with the cook. That made day 3 a beautiful relaxing day, with the group joining us back at lunch time. I finally started to feel ok with the altitude and had enough time to re-energize from the day before. The last night was big fun, playing games with the group. Day 4 was for me another relaxed day, going downhill for 4 hours. Here my experience plus equipment (good boots and hiking sticks) really made a difference.
After a couple of hours in the bus, we were all really happy to take a shower and put on some fresh clothes. And then get ready for the celebration dinner. It was a great night with good food and home made pisco sour.
The next day I joined the three Dutch people I met and we took a bus to Lima. Unfortunately traffic was so bad it took us way longer than expected. So we didn't manage to buy tickets for the football game Peru-Brasil anymore. However, we ended up in a craft beer place in the party area of Miraflores, Lima where we could watch the game with the locals and enjoy some great beers. The next day the couple of the group took a bus to Cusco and Eef and me began our adventure to Paracas at the coast. Another day spent in a bus with very bad traffic - I really will go back to using night buses!
Here we are, 2 weeks in Peru. My original plan was 3 weeks Peru and 3 weeks Patagonia. But I haven't seen half of Peru yet. So the decision is made, for the second time in my life I am postponing Patagonia. I definitely will make it there some day, but for now I will enjoy Peru and maybe a bit of Bolivia. Even though I only have 6 weeks here in South America, I don't want to rush through like I usually do in my 3 week standard holiday. So far I hadn't planned anything except for going to the beach. I hadn't heard of Trujillo or Huaraz and enjoyed both a lot. My highlight so far is definitely the Santa Cruz trek. Let's see what else Peru has to offer!
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