(Pics: 1st, A plaza in Lima. 2nd, Hanging out in the Naylamp Hostel. 3rd, Ready to go surfing. 4th, Emma and me in Huanchaco. 5th, Tyler, me, the beach and some reed boats. 6th, Ruins being excavated in Trujillo. 7th, Dinner overlooking the plaza in Arequipa. 8th, A view of Cañon del Colca. 9th, A condor in flight.)
March 15, 2009...
They start in the distance. I can see the gray-green mounting as it approaches, taller, swiftly taller, until it is curling over me, and then the white lip crashes down on top of my head. Just as I get past this one I am preparing myself for the next, and the next, and the next. I finally reach the instructor, out of breath from the battle, my eyes on fire, only for him to turn me around and shout “Rema! Rema! Rema!” So I paddle as hard and as fast as my weary arms will go as another cold crest mounts up and pushes me forward. After four calculated strokes, I press my hands against the board and rise clumsily to my feet, resembling something like climbing stairs in the dark, I’m sure. At last I stand up, feeling secure-ish and yet new-kid-on-the-first-day-of-school awkward.
I am surfing, and trying hard not to think the word sharks.
Tyler is several yards away, doing the same but better and with more consistency and probably without thinking the word sharks. It is so fun, though. I tire quickly and must have approximately 67 ounces of water ringing around inside my head, having entered through various orifices, but I am having such fun.
We arrived in Huanchaco this morning, Tyler and I, at about 7:00am on 10:00pm bus from Lima the previous night. The beaches at the north of Peru are rumoured to be the best, so here we are. We checked into the Naylamp Hostel, set down our backpacks, and ventured out into the adorable beach village we’d be enjoying for the next couple days. The beach is great, the ceviche is excellent, and we met a cool girl named Emma from England who joined us for our tours of the local pre-Inca ruins, The Temple of the Sun and the Moon and Chan-Chan.
Before this it was Lima. I flew in from Cusco at 4:00pm last Thursday and Tyler was waiting for me at the airport. It was good and surreal to see a face from home.
Lima can be described as a stuffier, stickier, dirtier, more dangerous, more coastal Los Angeles. If you step outside of the tourist-bed Miraflores, you find yourself in the South American version of Watts. We stuck close to Miraflores and various museums. The Museo de la Nacion was really interesting. It’s a converted prison, and the exhibition covering the terrorism that devastated Peru from 1980-2000 was unbelievable. We also visited the Monasterio de San Francisco, a gorgeous, still-functioning monastery with catacombs open for public tours. The bones were gross and stinky and really old.
Our next stop from here is Arequipa, about 25 hours south by bus. We leave tonight at 9:45pm…
March 23, 2009...
Arequipa was great. It boasts the prettiest plaza I’ve seen in Peru besides the Cusco plaza. Tyler and I hung out there and rested for a day (it’s amazing how tiring it can be to sit on a bus for what seems like endless hours). We walked around, ate at this nice rooftop restaurant, did some window shopping.
Our second and third days in Arequipa we spent on a bus tour (I know, another bus) of the Cañon del Colca, which is the second-deepest cañon in the world (the deepest is another in Peru, called the Cañon del Cotahuasi). We stopped for a lot of beautiful vistas and got to see wild condors in flight. This was astounding. Condors are black and white, with a fuzzy white collar and ancient-looking faces, and they have a wing span of 9 feet. As they soared over me, the mountains and cañon and sky disappeared and those condors in flight were all I could see.
The day we returned from the cañon tour, we caught a night bus to Cusco…our home for the next four months. But we would only be home for one night. Monday morning we would wake early to begin the Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu…
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