From mountains to canyons to desert...
I really squeezed the life of of these last few weeks...lots of hiking and outings and touristy stuff. I particularly enjoyed long, solo walks into the countryside. I've reserved a spot in my memory for that exhilarating feeling of breathing fresh air on a crisp sunny day in the mountains...something I'll need to conjure up some day on a crowded subway train, perhaps.
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| View on my first hike in Peru, outside of the town of Huaraz. Gorgeous snow-capped mountains in the distance, past lots of little farms and eucalyptus trees. Awesome. |
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| And a creepy moment on the same hike...this building was on the side of the path, looked pretty much abandoned, but when I peeked inside that dark window in the door I saw a shit-load of guinea pigs squeaking and waddling around on a dirt floor, primed for slaughter. Eek. |
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| This was a view from a pit stop on the side of the road on the ride to St. Theresa (see below). Gorgeous. |
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| That's right. Here it is...Machu Picchu. I tried to minimize the flood of tourists everywhere...from this pic it almosts looks tranquil and majestic. The actual experience of being there was a little maddening...I could barely walk around. Ah well. I saw it. |
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| What was actually more interesting was the walk I took to get to Machu Picchu, the "backdoor route" so to speak, from a town called St. Theresa, along the train tracks. Really peaceful and pretty. Although it rained a bit, but that just made it more mysterious and cool. |
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| A wheat-paste job or something on a bridge along the train tracks. I liked it. |
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| David Bowie cat in St. Theresa. If only I could take you home. |
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| Also in St. Theresa. Good idea, right? |
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| Another side of the road view...this was sort of a treacherous route where the collectivo (a shared, shamble of a taxi packed with people) would honk wildly at every blind curve just in case another car was coming from the opposite direction. |
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| View from the bus just outside of Cusco. Farms are so pretty! Though I don't think I could handle living on one. |
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| And flash forward to Lake Titikaka, Uros Island (one of the floaters). Again, I have omitted all the tourists from this picture because I hate them and I hated being one. I paid this lady 50 cents to take her picture, but then I hung out with her on that mat to her right for a little while and we ate cancha together for a while while other people bought crap. These islands are pretty amazing, made of reeds from the lake and literally floating around. But I have a feeling people wouldn't even live there anymore if the tourists didn't come every day. It was a little like an exhibit in Disneyland. |
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| View looking down into Canyon de Colca, the "second deepest canyon in the world"...though I think they measure from the top of the mountains flanking it so I don't know how accurate that is. It took 2 hours to hike down and stay in that oasis at the bottom. It took about four to hike out super early in the morning the next day. It was kind of spooky, hiking initially lit only by moonlight (I found my flashlight the next day...wah). For a moment I thought I was going to get attacked by a puma (I don't even know if there are pumas there). But it was also pretty cool and empowering. I also saw some condors (I think) from the bus on the way in. |
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| Ladies waiting for the bus back to Arequipa. Some members of one of the many different indigenous groups I encountered in the mountains, all signified by different hats. These hats were my favorite...embroidered and elaborate. |
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| View from the bus coming out of the canyon. Amazing tiered landscape in the distance, set up that way to retain water for farming. |
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| And flash forward to desert country, just a few hours south of Lima. This is an oasis called Huacachina, and used to be a resort for wealthy Peruvians but now a bunch of tourists and backpackers go there for dune buggy rides and sand boarding. I just hung out by the pool all day. |
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| These dunes were just a short walk up from the hostel. Sadly, this picture cost me $40 for a camera repair. Note to self, when you see a sign in a hostel in a remote town that says "we fix all types of digital cameras", it means that there is probably a really obvious thing (in this case, a ton of sand blowing around) that will break your camera and you should be careful with it. Boo. |
