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Hello and welcome to Beth´s blog entry!
Tom has written the past two blogs and kindly trusted me to have a go with this one so I hope I am as descriptive as him!
I will begin with Huaraz. We caught a bus from Cusco to Lima which took around 20hours (about average for us now as we are so used to the long journeys) we then had to wait all day at the bus station before we could get our bus to Huaraz at 10pm. After another night attempting to sleep on the bus we were thankful to finally arrive. Huaraz is a fairly large ton in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, second highest in the world after the Himalayas. We spent two days climbing the Villanaraju mountain which reached 5740 metres above sea level. The first day was very easy going and we scrambled (literally climbing) up the side of the mountain to reach our camp. In the afternoon we got a chance to try out ice climbing wich was really cool as this was something else we had planned on doing. It was very easy as it was only practising a bit on a small glacier/wall of ice but it was fun to use the ice picks and crampons on our shoes to dig into the ice and hoist ourselves up! We had a very early night about 6.30pm! However we had to be up at 2am to get our gear on and begin the ascent up the mountain to the summit (the top). We had sooooo many items of clothing and snow gear on...our own clothes PLUS waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, gloves, scarf and hat, snow boots (extremely hard to walk in!), crampons on our boots, sunnies, harness and walking poles!! All this was for good reason though as our guide told us that the temperature was around -5 degrees maybe even less! We were harnessed onto a rope and our guide led the way. Walking on the snow was easy at first but as the day went on and after the sun rose at 5am it became harder as the snow thawed and melted a bit. We finally reached the summit at 11am, as we approached you could really feel the air getting thinner because of the hight altitude and we all began to get really bad headaches. The view was incredible, so beautiful. We had a 360 degree views of the white mountain peaks and Huaraz looked so tiny and far away! The day after we returned we went to spend the night in a cosy mountain lodge. It was lovely and even had a little makeshift sauna! We made friends with a group of English men who were touring Peru on motorcycles, they were all very friendly. We walked through some rural villages with little stone walls and chickens, pigs, donkeys and sheep running about all over the place! I guessed they would be dinner sometime soon! We caught a combi (minivan) back to Huaraz. I couldnt believe the amount of people they crammded in there, Tom and I both had peruvians sitting on our laps (well, almost) and legs, arms, bums were everywhere! Later that night we caught a bus back to Lima, our mountain adventure had ended, now it was time for the jungle!
Once in Lima (6am) we got a taxi straight to the airport. It was so exciting being at an airport again, it reminded us that we were in fact on one long holiday and also that we need to enjoy the time we have left because we will soon be in another airport but to return home. The flight wasnt until 4.30pm so we had a long wait ahead of us! There was a Starbucks at Lima airport...can you believe it reached Peru! Anyway we sat in there for a pricey breakfast and bumped into a friend we had met all those months ago in Brazil! We spent the day catching up, wandering around and eating Dunkin´Doughnuts. Time soon passed and we boarded our plane to Iquitos. We had to fly to Iquitos as it is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road. The first thing we noticed when we landed was how humid it was there, it couldnt have been more different to the thin air of the mountains! Iquitos was absolutely jam packed with motorcycles and mototaxis so it was terribly noisy and polluted. There were hardly any cars around at all, I assume because when you live somewhere where you can only drive 2 hours out of town at the most...theres no real need. We checked into a hostel and were immediately being sold jungle tours. It was a recommended company and sounded just what we were after so after some haggling we agreed to leave the next day. I was sooo nervous and absolutely convinced that I would have huge insects and bugs and snakes crawling all over me but we were also quite excited. The next day we set off and travelled by taxi then boat until we reahed the wooden house on stilts where we would be staying. Our guide, Elvis, took us out in the canoe and we spotted a sloth up in the tree tops. He showed us how to fish with a spear and we both had a try, Tom was sucessful. Over the four days we did a spot of bird watching, camped out in the jungle one night in hammocks and mosquito nets and searched for medical plants and trees. We went out on a night hunt for Caiman, Crocs, Aligators and Anacondas in a tiny little canoe...I was absolutely petrified and hate it!!Tom on the other hand went out with our guide a second night in a row to look again. Unfortunately both times were unsuccessful. We did see a dead anaconda in a fishing net though, I guess that will have to do. Another thing we really enjoyed about the jungle was Piranha fishing! Tom was getting a bit sulky (in a jokey way) that he hadnt actually caught anything, I on the other hand had already caught 2 catfish and a Piranha!Tom eventually caught a Piranha too and we headed back to cook them for lunch. Overall our trip was good but maybe not as good as we had hoped, it was a bit dissappointing to be honest as we found ourselves with a lot of spare time on our hands sitting in a mosquito net listening to the sounds of the jungle and not really exploring it!
Also in Iquitos we visited a butterfly farm which also housed orphan animals. This was where we saw the most impressive wildlife! A jaguar, taipur (pre historic horse, pig type animal), anteater, baby anaconda, sloths and lots of monkeys. The monekys climbed all over us, fun at first but then they got a bit too playful and began to bite me! One monkey inparticular was a bit of a bully towards me so I stayed out of their way!
To return to civilisation we took a 4 day boat trip to Yurimaguas, sleeping in hammocks, reading, chatting with the Peruvians and not doing a lot else!
Now the plan is to head for the beach and then on into Ecuador where we will meet Saahd (Toms friend) in a weeks time!
Maybe the next blog will be from Ecuador, who knows.
Chow for now
Beth and Tom xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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