Last couple of weeks in Peru

One of the reasons for racing through the Southern Loop from Cusco to Lima was that we wanted to spend some time in the central and northern parts of the country. Our plan was to spend about five days in the central mountainous region around Huaraz, before getting buses to the northern towns of Trujillo and Chachapoyas to visit attractions such as Chan Chan, Catarata de Gocta and Kuelap. We would then fly back to Lima, in preparation for moving on to Ecuador.

This plan, however, was not to be. In this post I’ll just briefly outline what we were able to get up to.

Huaraz

The first part of the plan worked well. The morning after finishing the southern loop, we got a long distance bus to the town of Huaraz. This town is the main access point to the mountain ranges in the central part of Peru, including the famous Cordillera Blanca. The town itself is nice enough, with a good range of places to eat and accommodation, but people come for the mountains. We came to Huaraz still not totally decided on whether to attempt the Santa Cruz trek or stick to some day trips. Given that we didn’t think we had much time, that we still needed to acclimatise and that the weather was not looking good, we decided on the latter option.

We did a couple of small activities as we acclimatised to the high altitude but then on the third day I came down with severe stomach sickness. This was always likely to happen at some point whilst travelling around South America and in some ways it was good that we had survived a month without being affected. We had been very careful in terms of the water we had drank (we brought a filter with us so that we don’t have to buy bottled water) and the food that we ate but I obviously wasn’t careful enough and had ‘got gotten’. I won’t share the details but I was bedridden for three days and afterwards was very weak. All of the strength and stamina I’d acquired after a month of travelling was gone. So if any of you are wondering how to lose weight very quickly, South American parasites are very effective…

As well as being an unpleasant experience on its own it also put a huge dent in our plan. We basically had our remaining time planned out day by day and losing several days meant that there was no longer an option to get to the north. It was very disappointing but it’s necessary to remain flexible whilst travelling and it’s always dangerous to have such a tight schedule.

So instead of just staying in Huaraz for five days, we ended up staying for eleven. When able, we took day trips to different places in the area. If you are interested in reading about them, I’ve written them up in full here.

Given that we didn’t have to buy tickets for the long distance routes to the north, we splashed out on fancy seats for our overnight bus back to Lima. It was pretty comfortable, as the seats reclined almost 180 degrees, but the change in altitude during the night meant we still woke up at various points due to the pain in our ears caused by the pressure change.

Lima

We stayed in Lima for a couple of days before our flight to Ecuador. Our main purpose during this time was to relax and get ready for the next country by sorting initial plans, booking accommodation, doing laundry etc. But we still managed to do a few smaller activities:

Walking along the Malecon

Along the coast and on top of the cliffs is a very nice pedestrian path that takes you through a few of Lima’s districts. At various points are little parks, food stalls and ice cream parlours. We spent a very nice afternoon strolling along this path; admiring the flowers making up the Nazca Line structures in one park; sitting next to the rather weird statue in the Parque del Amor; and finishing up by having crepes whilst watching the surfers try and tame the waves below us.

Lima’s Historical Centre

We had planned on doing a free walking tour with the same company we had used in Arequipa but as we were in the taxi to get to the start point, I received a message saying that not enough people had signed up and therefore they were cancelling. Whilst pretty annoyed we still wanted to see the historical centre and thus carried on into the city.

We didn’t stray too far from the main square but we had a nice wander. There are still a lot of colonial buildings in this part of the city, so we walked among them before getting a bite to eat and heading on to the next activity…

Circuito Magico del Agua

After finishing up in the historical centre of Lima, we got a taxi to the park housing the Circuito Magico del Agua – the magical fountain show. This had tacky attraction written all over it and yet we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The park has a series of different fountains that were lit up in different colours or moved as if dancing. And at the main fountain once an hour there was a show that involved the normal fountains moving to music but also used the streams of water as a background to project an animation onto. All in all we probably spent a bit over an hour at the park and it was a fun way to spend our last evening in Peru.

And now onto Ecuador…