Peru….we hardly knew you

No matter what, it would hard to follow up Colombia and Ecuador. Despite our vehicle issues in Colombia, it remains one of our favorite places. It’s not spin to say that our time in Villa de Leyva and Jim’s visit was one of the highlights of our trip. And then there was Ecuador, Hacienda Sigsipamba and Lucho, again, a time that will always hold a place in our hearts.

Peru had a tough act to follow, made more difficult by it being invierno, or winter, here. Though this is the drier of the seasons, during winter much of the coast is blanketed in fog.

Everyone has heard of Machu Pichu. What most people don’t know is that as the heart of the Inca Empire, in addition to Machu Pichu, all of Peru is a ruin. No, not ‘in ruins’, but full of ruin sites. Every pueblo, no matter how small, has an archeological site in some stage of discovery based on funding opportunities. Mike and I are not huge ruin fanatics, but it is hard not to be moved by the extent of the Inca civilization.

In Tucume in northern Peru, we visited the Valley of the Pyramids, a pre-Inca site where twenty-six adobe pyramids are scattered throughout a valley. We were drawn more because of a great lodge I had read about that is adjacent to the site, but, okay we’ll be a little cultural and take in the site. It made for an interesting afternoon (and one of the few times we saw the sun in northern Peru).

Trish in the Valley of the Pyramids

Mike seeking enlightenment

The lodge was all that and more. We treated ourselves to dinner at their restaurant where we met five families traveling together to a remote ruin site even further north (They were ruin fanatics). Two of the men had attended school in Boston (BU and Harvard) and the entire group was warm and welcoming. Though living in Lima, they got misty-eyed when they talked about Arequipa, their home town. We usually avoid cities, but their enthusiasm swayed us into adding Arequipa to our itinerary.

But first we wanted a dose of coast. We spent some time in Huanchaco, a nifty little beach town that probably appealed to us more because it was off-season. We camped fronting the beach, made friends with the chicas at the coffee shop and were able to pick up their wifi signal from the van, and paid 1 Sole each for a shower at a nearby hostal. Chettie got some wave-action and indeed it was nice to see the ocean again. But although we were even told our time there was some of the sunniest they’d had in a while, we found it very grey.

One of the sunny afternoons in Huanchaco...believe me, it wasn't this sunny most of the time we were here. Every time the sun came out, so did the camera.

Reed boat in Huanchaco

Peruvian Independence Day (which is officially two days and is celebrated over an entire week) was coming up and we knew this quiet little beach town would be flooded with people. We chose to press south, made a left at Casma and headed toward Huaraz, nestled between the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca, thinking the mountains might be a bit more sane for the impending holiday.

We began climbing out of the coastal fog as we ascended the Cordillera Negra. It’s hard to explain how seeing true, lasting sunshine after so long makes you feel. It was a bit surreal.

The Pana heading south...much of northern Peru is coastal desert and we saw lots of this view.While interesting at first after a few days it became monotonous and gloomy. Those of a certain age will remember a song with the line, 'Grey, grey, my world is grey'. We sang it daily as we followed the Pana south through northern Peru.

Coming out of the fog on the way over the Cordillera Negra

The road over the Cordillera Negra was under a massive construction project on the order of the Big Dig or Glenwood Canyon in the 80’s. As luck would have it, it was Sunday and the only day the road is open to through traffic. Even still, we had several delays as the crews worked on the road. It got later and later and we knew we weren’t going to make Huaraz by nightfall.

At 5pm we reached the top of the pass at 13,942 feet and pulled over. We were treated to sunset and moon rise all in the space of about 5 minutes. And then the temp dropped and we hunkered down for a chilly night.

Sunset over the Cordillera Blanca from the Cordillera Negra

Moon rise over the Cordillera Blanca

View of the Cordillera Blanca before decending into the Huaraz valley

The next morning we dropped into Huaraz; big and sprawly with little left of its original character after a number of earthquakes, I knew before we got there it wasn’t going to be our kind of town. But, no denying it was sunny.

After provisioning up, we headed for the hills above town to find a place to camp. We searched for most of the day, and not finding what we were looking for we went to The Way Inn, a well known lodge just outside Huascaran National Park . They welcomed us but told us they were full up for the holiday two days later (not a problem since we bring out own lodging with us) but that they also had a group of 30 campers coming…..uh-oh. We stayed for a couple of nights, loved the place and the people, did some hiking in the ‘foothills’ and moved on before the hoards arrived.

Trish hiking from The Way Inn Lodge

Hiking in the Cordillera Blanca. Chet spent the whole hike in this irrigation ditch.

(Aside: Let’s put things in perspective. In Colorado, we live at 7,000 feet and our mountains rise to 14,000 feet. In Ecuador, Quito is at 9,000 feet and we spent a lot of time between 10,000 (Pifo) and 12,000 (Papallacta) and the spine of mountains that run south along the Pana (Volcans Cotopaxi and Chimborazo) rises to 18,000 – 20,000 feet. In Ecuador, we regularly camped at 12,000 feet. Now, above Huaraz, Peru our campsite was at 13,000 and the mountains in the Cordillera Blanca rise to 22,000 feet. Phew!)

There are a string of towns along the valley floor and we checked many places out. For a variety of reasons we were not able to find our nirvana, and although it is a beautiful area and I so wanted it to work for us, it did not. None of the towns had the vibe and this combined with the crush of people escaping the grey fog of the coast for the holiday made us decide to move on.

Back to the Pana, back to the fog. The other route choice was to stay in the mountains, and while beautiful I’d heard the roads were terrible and the going was very slow. We had also spent a lot of time in the mountains in Ecuador and we were ready for a change of scenery. We decided to head to Arequipa, that had taken on an Emerald City allure since meeting our friends in Tucume.

We skirted Lima, the grey fog leaving a layer of city-grime on the van a quarter inch thick. But then somewhere south of Lima we began to see the sun again.

The Pana south of Lima. The road is literally cut into the sand between the beach and the desert dunes.

En route to Arequipa, we found a place that spoke to us: Paracas National Reserve. A great little-known park on the coast with incredible scenery. Okay, Paracas means something like Poncha, aka ‘place where the wind rips the flesh from your bones’ (at least that's what John Engelbrecht told me it means) but that’s only for a few hours in the afternoon and being pelted by wind and sand was far outweighed by the unbelievable scenery.

Paracas National Reserve

Mike seeking enlightenment

The Lima-grime covered Burly Beast in Paracas

(Another aside: There are no dogs allowed in the park, but the guy at the gate told us this and then said ‘Two dollars per person’. Okay, then. We paid and proceeded. A similar thing happened at the Valley of the Pyramids site, where the woman told us no dogs were allowed and then said in a quiet voice, ‘but if you wait till my boss is gone you can go in’. I attribute this to low funding and a desire at both sites to increase their attendance numbers. Both times we were prepared for the ‘no dogs allowed’ edict, but we were grateful to be given access and were very conscientious about our canine companion.)

After Paracas we made our way to Arequipa and found it to be a great city. We knew of a hotel that allows overland travelers like us to park on their grounds and it was a very welcoming place. Great wifi (I posted all those Ecuador pictures from there) and an easy walk to the main plaza made for a good place to hang for a few days. We met a fun Swiss couple traveling north and two great guys who were leading a tour of Aussies on motorcycles.

Hotel Las Mercedes in Arequipa

My next post will be of our adventures in sunny southern Peru, from Arequipa onward. Might take a while as we really don't have strong internet access often (due to our choice of camping in remote places) and when we do have it I prefer to be out exploring than sitting at the computer.....but I'll work on it.

Know that we are doing well, having fun and are happy to be able to do this type of trip. Funny things happen daily, sometimes things are trying and we've been on the road so long (over 10 months) that we are already looking back on memories of things that happened or people we met early on in our travels.

Implicated and Exonerated

We live in a very small space. Everything we have travels with us and everything has its place. There have been a few ‘accidents’ in which I was implicated.

One such accident involved a shampoo bottle spill in Mike’s kit-bag. When we discovered the spill, Mike kindly asked me to be more careful when packing the bag away into its hidey hole.

The implication being that when I stuffed it in, I had inadvertently snapped the lid open thus causing the spill. The accusation stung but I vowed to be more careful.

A couple of days later we traveled high up into the Andes and I came up with a different hypothesis. Perhaps the bottle popped open on one of the mighty climbs to higher altitude. Mike had to admit it might be possible.

And then a few days later we made yet another epic climb and that night we found the shampoo bottle had leaked again.

Exonerated.

A few pictures from our travels in Ecuador

Mike in Tulcan Ecuador

Tulcan Cemetary - known for its elaborate topiaries...think Edward Scissorhands

Laguna Yaruacocha, Ibarra Ecuador

Camped along side the lake that is just outside of the city. We asked at the toll booth on the way in if it was safe to camp overnight and were told yes, no problem. We were awakened at 2am by the police who were checking on us. Makes your heart pound when someone is knocking on the door in the middle of the night. Made Chettie bark like crazy, our alarm system. After explaining in sleepy spanish that we were told it was okay they left us alone.

Trish walking on the equator. We skipped the very touristy Mitad del Mundo and stopped instead at this smaller roadside acknowledgment of the crossing of the equator.

We didn't know it then, but because of our delay waiting for car parts we would cross the equator several times.

Latitude 0 0'0'' - cool

VW Love outside of Jamanco Hot Springs, Papallacta

Mike on the shores of Laguna Papallacta. This was our first time at the laguna and yes, it was very wet. Again, we didn't know it at the time but we would return here several times.

Trish at Laguna Papallacta. High in the paramo, this area is often shrouded in clouds. For many, this is the only view of the area they see. Our many return trips allowed us to see the area in many different conditions.

Mike in the sunshine at Laguna Papallacta

The Burly Beast on the shores of Laguna Papallacta

A funny sign on the way to Jamanco Hot Springs. "Siga" means follow and it's what is said when you enter a business or when getting directions. This sign was written backwards on the rock and was on the right side of the road.

Volcan Cotacachi from trail around Laguna Cuicocha

Volcan Imbabura from the trail around Laguna Cuicocha. These two volcanos flank the town of Otavalo and again are often cloaked in clouds. We saw many faces of these volcanos as we explored the area in and around Otavalo.

Laguna Cuicocha with the Burly Beast. We camped here one night and were the only ones here. A few days later, on a Saturday, we returned for another night to find thousands of indigenous people celebrating the festival of Inti Raymi. We stayed and observed the festival for a long while but did not camp here that night. We did not take pictures of the festival as it seemed very inappropriate.

Trish at Lagunas de Mojanda, about 10km outside of Otavalo. Again, we camped here and were the only ones on the lake.

Mike with Fuya Fuya near Lagunas de Mojanda

The Chetster at Lagunas de Mojanda. I'm happy to report that she is doing great. We took the opportunity to visit a vet while in Pifo and she got a clean bill of health. She is a great traveller and provides great companionship for us. Never one to complain, she is tickled when we find a place she can run free. Swimming is also high on her list of favorite activities. Laguna de Mojanda was very cold, but it didn't stop her from an afternoon of log retrieving.

Mike at the waterfall on the property we camped at in Mindo.

Mindo waterfall

Rafting on crafts made of inner tubes lashed together is very popular in Mindo

Loading up the innertubes. Of course, this sight reminded us of Salida.

There is a lot going on here. I took the picture because of the Burly Beast's reflection on the television set. Just at the moment I snapped the picture, Brazil scored a goal during a World Cup match. You can see the Brazilian players in yellow jerseys on the TV celebrating the goal and can see the joy on the face of the guy watching the match.

We travelled south along the Avenue of the Volcanos after leaving Lucho one last time. It was beautiful but very cold and wet because of the season and the altitude. Laguna Quilotoa (above) is known for its turquoise color....we only saw it in gray and it was incredibly cold and rainy while we were there. And after this we headed to Banos at a lower altitude to dry out and warm up.

Our camp site in Banos in the company of a big Mann vehicle owned by a very nice French couple, Sebastian and Sebrina (Seb & Sab). They were having some vehicle troubles and we took comfort in knowing others have dealt with mechanical issues. When we left, Seb had taken a bus into Ambato (the closest big city) to try and get the parts he needed. We only hope he wasn't told, 'Aqui no hay'.

Mike and Seb working on their respective vehicles. Sabrina and I took the time to share information on places we have stayed, as they are headed north and we are going south. Our location also allowed us to explore the town on foot and to hike directly into the surrounding hills. BTW, the hot springs at Banos are not nearly as nice as those in Papallacta even though this is what the town is known for.

Mike sharing a moment (and a carrot) with the horses on the property we camped at in Banos.

Late one rainy afternoon we asked at the Bomberos (fire station) where we could camp in their town. "Right here", they said and we camped at the station. Great guys, they loved the Burly Beast and and even shared their bathrooms and hot showers with us.

Hot and dry atop Tinajilla Pass. As we headed into southern Ecuador the landscape turned to desert and the weather began to warm up. We had spent a lot of time high in the Andes and the first few days of clear skies found us basking like lizards in the sunshine

Mike enjoying the warm dry weather in southern Ecuador

Though we see plenty of livestock, this was unusual as this pig passed through our camp site unaccompanied one afternoon, apparantly on his way home for dinner

...And with that we left Ecuador and headed into Peru

Lucho and Hacienda Sigsipamba

It happened like this:


We ordered car parts in Ibarra and set out to explore northern Ecuador while they were shipped via FedEx, when we ran out of LP gas for the stove in the van.

We asked around in Ibarra but were told, ‘Aqui no hay’, literally, here there is no. We were directed to Quito for the nearest place to refill our tank. Early the next morning, off to Quito we went (a two hour drive).

After hunting around for the address in Quito we discovered this location was not the plant but rather a tank distribution center, and again we were told, ‘Aqui no hay’. We were directed to Guayaquil, a big port city at the southern end of the country. We were not going to Guayaquil, not for gas nor anything else.

Mikegyver had an idea: perhaps if he had the right adaptor he could rig the stove up to a gas canister we have for the Coleman lantern. This didn’t sound like a great idea to me, but he is Mikegyver after all and he certainly has had plenty of experience with gas piping. So of we set off looking for an adapter. A couple of ferreterias (hardware stores) later we were still empty handed, ‘Aqui no hay’.

Hmmmm…perhaps if we went back to the tank distribution center they’d have an adapter they could sell us. Found the place the second time easy enough, but, alas, ‘Aqui no hay’.

Fate intervened at this moment and a different guy told us there was an actual gas plant in Pifo, about an hour away.

So, with a hand-drawn map, off to Pifo we drove. Mike thought it might be yet another wild goose chase but I knew Pifo was on the road to Papallacta, an area known for hot springs, so I knew our efforts would not go unrewarded.

Unbelievably, we found the gas plant, just outside of Pifo. More unbelievably they told us they could fill the tank, but that we’d have to wait a half hour. No problem. We waited. More like an hour and a half. And then a guy came out and told us, ‘Aqui no hay’.


Our hearts sank until fate stepped in again and another man, perhaps el jefe, came out and said yes, it was possible. He told us to wait for a truck that had just been filled to come out of the plant and ask them to fill our tank. Super. We waited some more.

Indeed a truck came out and indeed he was able to fill our tank. Mission accomplished!

However, by now it was 5pm and starting to get dark and we were in an area well off the tourist trail. We headed back into Pifo proper, scouting for places to stay but didn’t come up with much.

We asked at a crummy hostal and were told we could stay there, but we’d have to rent a room and Chettie would have to stay in the van. We kept looking.


We asked at a vivero (plant nursery) but the guy there was not the owner and he wasn’t comfortable allowing us to park there overnight. He directed us to another road and said there was a place we could camp, but we didn’t quite understand the whole conversation (our Spanish/his manner of speech). Eventually we drove up the road to see what we might find.


We spied an old hacienda with lots of land and plenty of level ground for us to park on. Not the place the nursery man had sent us to and not in any way a lodging establishment, but a cool looking place. Given the hour I headed down the long drive to ask if we could park there for the night.

The long drive into to Hacienda Sigsipamba

As I walked towards the main building I began to hear Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. Hmmm, this had promise. I explained to the guy at the end of the drive that we needed a place to park for the night. Didn’t need anything else. He said, ‘Ask Lucho.’

With that, the incredibly gregarious Lucho sticks his head out from the engine of a very, very large Mann vehicle and says ‘Si, claro!’ with a big grin. Yes, sure.


We parked the van and exhaled. We were tucked in for the night in what felt like a great place. We could not have guessed what role this place would play in our time in Ecuador.

Because of a classic ‘snafu’ in the shipping process it took nearly three weeks for us to retrieve the auto parts, though they were in Quito within a few days of ordering. We spent our time exploring the greater Quito area (including several trips to the hot springs at Papallacta) and northern Ecuador, returning to Lucho’s several times using it as a headquarters of sorts. Mike eventually did the auto mechanics there.

Hacienda Sigsipamba is a sprawling old hacienda. Though it needs a ton of work it exudes cool. Fabulous views of the valleys below and of Volcan Cotopaxi. One does not have to work hard to imagine the place in its former glory. Lucho was just as smitten with our van as we are, ‘Que hermoso carro’ and though we tried to trade the van for the hacienda, Lucho didn’t go for it.

Bird's eye view of Hacienda Sigsipamba

Volcan Cotopaxi from Hacienda Sigsipamba

Each time we returned we were greeted like favorite cousins not seen in a long time. We were the only gringos at Todo Terreno, a 4-wheel drive, motorcycle and bicycle competition held on the property while we were there. We met Lucho’s sister and little brother. We met his friends and his girlfriend. We met his dogs. Hey, we even met Superman.

Lucho serving up burgers at Todo Terrano

Lucho's dogs

Mike and Zeus

You know who this is...

Lucho defines joie de vivre. Had we not run out of LP gas, had we not returned to the gas plant to ask for an adaptor, had the nursery man said yes, and had a million other twists of fate not intervened we would not have landed at Hacienda Sigsipamba nor met our friend, Lucho.

Trish and Lucho

And as we said our last good-bye’s Mike said ‘He could have been a rock-star’.

Alive and Well

You´ve probably been thinking that Trish and I have broken down and are stuck on the side of the road somewhere. No, we are still heading South and are currently in Southern Peru on our way to Arequeipa after spending some time touring the desert coast. We will post a more detailed blog with pictures etc. when we get to Arequeipa.

Mike

Colombia, El riesgo es que te queras quedar


We were given a poster with several must-see Colombian sights with the above tag line which roughly translates ‘Colombia, the risk is that you want to stay’. This one simple line sums up Colombia perfectly.

Sure, we’d heard the warnings about Colombia. But these fears were expressed exclusively by people who had never been. Those who had been raved about how wonderful Colombia is. We knew we had to go.

Ten years ago Colombia was a very different place than it is today and the serious warnings were in place from that Colombia not this one.


Ten years ago, the guerrillas and paramilitary groups had a tight hold on the country and even Colombians were reluctant to travel. Then, in 2002, the very popular Alvaro Uribe was elected and he began to turn things around. He took a hard line on the militant groups and began to reduce their size and power.


He began a campaign called Vive Colombia which encouraged Colombians to travel to the great places within their country, ensuring their safety by setting up police check points along the highways. It worked and people began traveling again. We all know the power of tourism dollars and the economy began to grow.

Uribe was so well liked that he was able to pass a referendum allowing him to run for a second term in office, something previously prohibited within the Colombian system. He ran again in 2006 and won by an impressive margin. It was about this time that foreign travelers began to trickle in and the word of Colombia’s wonders spread.

Uribe again tried to pass a resolution allowing him to run for a third term in 2010, but the request failed. (Term-limits are a good thing, even when the current administration is popular, right?)

From a field of 10 candidates, two emerged as the front runners. Mockus, a green-party candidate and former Bogota mayor, is known for his unorthodox style and his Hickenlooper-esque everyman-appeal. His detractors said he wouldn’t be tough enough on the guerrillas and paramilitary groups and would lose ground that had been hard won under the Uribe administration.

The other front runner was Santos, the former defense minister under Uribe. More the conservative, his detractors said he was too hard line and would do nothing to improve tense relations with two important neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador.

So popular was Uribe, and so grateful were the Colombian people, as the elections approached we saw bumper stickers that said ‘Gracias, Uribe’. Powerful.

May 30 was a rainy election day. RadioUno, the national radio station, took calls from people all over the country and chatted with them about the atmosphere in their area. The anticipation was palpable.

We were advised to keep things on the down low and not to travel that day. In the past there was violence on the roads as people from remote villages traveled to towns to vote. We didn’t see any problems but I did read there were a few problems of this nature on election day.


When the votes were counted Santos had received 46 percent of the vote and Mockus only 23 percent. Neither candidate had received the required 50 percent. A run off election was held on June 20 in which Santos received 69 percent and Mockus only 27.5. The people had spoken and they chose security over style.

NOW is the time to visit Colombia. It is beautiful. The people are unbelievably friendly. Of the nine countries we’ve been in so far it is our favorite. The risk is that you’ll want to stay.