What happens when a slice of your country, like Northern Michigan, is separated by a narrow straight of one of the world’s largest lakes? How does one cross? In Michigan, you drive across a bridge. In Seattle, you drive onto a huge ferry boat with a hundred other cars. In Bolivia? Get off the bus (sans luggage) and watch as… Read more »
Today I got to “sleep in” a little, until 7:30, for an 8:30 ferry to Isla del Sol. I rushed to get a sandwich and catch the ferry. The ferry stopped at the middle of the island, where bathrooms and sandwiches were available – I guess they’ve got this figured out. The stop was also where they charged an entrance… Read more »
I woke up easily at six worrying about the border crossing and making the bus before that. The hostel let me make two more copies of my passport and called me a taxi last minute. At the bus station the attendant let me right through as the Peru Tours bus which I had a ticket for was standing right there…. Read more »
Nine hour bus ride from Huaraz to Lima. A sandwich and coffee to recover. Party until it’s light out. Lima is surprisingly nice! I am glad I stopped here long enough to find out. It is much quieter than the other Peruvian cities: the taxis seem to actually use their horns for their intended purpose. They have a chargeable card… Read more »
I had decided when I got to Huaraz that, in addition to treks around the mountains, I want to get to a summit of over 5400m. I asked around at the agencies and, after some trouble finding a group, booked a 2 day summit of Vallunaraju (5686m) with the same partner and guide that I went climbing with the day… Read more »
Retrospective Rest day and trying to find a summit expedition. November is a little late to climb on the Cordilleras, but it’s been done. An ATM ate my card and the bank said they won’t be able to get it out for a few days. I stopped by Cafe California, a tourist haunt, for a good cappucino, and a lot… Read more »
Retrospective For the final day of the trek we only had two hours of hiking which we could have tacked on to the end of the third day. Before we knew it we were at the checkpoint near Cajamarca, the ending point, where we waited a while for the guide. When we got to Cajamarca the van was waiting and… Read more »
The third day took us down a long and slow descent down the valley we gazed down the previous day. First came the sands, then a marsh, with the steam zigzagging the valley the whole time. For the last part the marshes gave way to waterfalls with trees overhanging. The drizzle started halfway through. It let up when we got… Read more »
In the middle of a mostly sleepless high altitude night, I was woken up by highly accented cries of “Morning!” I looked around in the dark and remembered that wakeup time was 4:45. Shortly, I crawled out of the tent and made my way to the breakfast tent. We had tea and the dry rolls with margarine and jelly. The… Read more »
I got up at 5:40 in hopes of bringing my stuff down and having a cup of tea before the driver got there at 6. He rang the bell at 5:50 and I scrambled to get out without breakfast. By the time I was out the door, he was gone. I had to have the hotel call him back, then… Read more »