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Volcano Santa Ana & Cerro Verde!! Another early start was in order today to catch the 7:40am bus to Cerro Verde National Park. Luckily Rene who had arrived home late was able to get up early and give me a lift to the bus station. When I got to the bus terminal I brought my ticket and then waited for the bus to arrive - there were only two other foreigners at station a suprise since its Saturday. The bus came and as expected it was an old chicken bus that plotted along at 20km an hour all the way to Cerro Verde National Park. The bus journey was horrible to say the least and unfortunately my belly was playing up again making the whole thing even less enjoyable. When we finally arrived I had to pay the $3 entrance and then make the short walk up the hill. Unfortunately the whole hill was covered in clouds and freezing cold (I only had a singlet) which made for a bad start. The organized tour which starts every day at 11am was still over an hour away so I got talking to the boss of the tourist police who is also studying tourism. I got a bunch of interesting information from our conversation and he also was able to ask the old ladies if they could sell me a sweater as I was freezing to death up here. The old ladies brought out this handwoven grandma sweater and for just $2 I had something warm to wear. The tour started and we had to pay $1 for a guide and another $1 for the tourist police that would escort us up the mountain (needing armed Police??). To tell the truth the whole walk up was rather unpleasant with the guide walking at breakneck speed and giving us no rest spots - I tried to explain I wanted to enjoy the walk and not race but I was met with laughs. I did get talking to the only two other foreigners in our group (couple from bus); one from Spain and the other from Germany and thankfully they were very interesting. As we arrived at the top it started to rain and the fog and clouds covered absolutely everything - the whole aim was to see the deep green lagoon inside the volcano of which was completely covered in fog. The whole group kind of stood around disappointed in the lack of visibility and shivering in the rain and cold. We did manage to get a nice photo of the whole group and then we started to descend. Everyone's mood changed as we started our descent and for a very short 10 minutes some of the fog cleared and we got to see one of the volcanos in the distance. We arrived back at the entrance around 3pm and I was absolutely spent; my knees were sore, my belly aching and my whole body freezing cold. Although we didn't get to see the famous panoramic view of the view or the green lagoon within the volcano it was still a nice way to spend the day - would I recommend it? Maybe but certainly not a must do. I had to wait another hour for our bus to arrive and make the long journey back to Santa Ana. It then turned out the bus wasn't going to Santa Ana and would stop at the lake side town of Congo and unfortunately as we pulled into Congo a huge thunderstorm started. The rain came down heavy and quick and changing buses was a nightmare with a heap of people scurrying across the road in the pouring rain to board next bus. We were all soaked but laughing at the craziness of the situation, I then found out this bus wasn't going anywhere near Rene's house and I would have to get another bus in the city. And you guessed it; when I arrived in the city the rain was pouring even harder and the streets were flooded and just crossing a road meant knee deep water - ohwell I was already drenched. I managed to wade across a road and take another bus which dropped me within 10 minutes walk of Rene's place. By the time I arrived I was soaked to the bone and freezing cold and had to take shower - which unfortunately was a freezing cold shower. After the shower I was straight into a giant cup of hot chocolate and some warm clothes. In the evening we went out to one of Rene's favorite resteraunts to meet a friend of his and try some local food. We tried Papoozas - basically like a pizza pocket except made of corn flour and stuffed with a number of different things like meats, beans, egg, cheese and vegetables and the price for such a dish - 70 cents. I wasn't really hungry so the Papooza did my fine but Rene and his friend went for enchiladas - which looked amazing (not to self to try next time). On the way back we stopped at the supermarket and then continued back to Rene's where I had organized to Skype my family for Fathers Day.
OBSERVATIONS:
- Cerro Verde and Santa Ana Volcano hike
- Crazy Storm - floors
- Resteraunt to try Papooza
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