Day 22 - Grey, Cloudy Lima
After departing with Josh, I found a different hostel for the following few days, as I wasn’t super impressed with the one we shared.
I was in some ways lost as to what to do. I wasn’t particularly near any museums, the day prior we had walked the nice route to the north along the cliffs and beaches, and I slept in to long to do most of the local walking or food tours. I almost thought there was nothing else to do in Lima
But as I was sitting by the pool journaling (doomscrolling), the owner of the hostel approached me and asked if I was busy. Now I’m not at the point where I would wash dishes to have a free nights lodge, but I would’ve probably considered it, had that been the reason he approached me. Instead he asked if I wanted to join in some beach volleyball. I knew a year of uni volleyball was worth it.
There were four of us: the owner Jhony, Manuel (who I think may have been his son?), myself and my teammate Cameron (Scottish).
We played for an hour and a half (actually holding our own pretty decently), before taxing back into Miaflores to a ceviche restaurant where I was served a gigantic plate of cold seafood including fish clams muscles and octopus (which I felt ethically bad about eating, but gastronomically pleased).
Cameron and I continued onto one of the historic sights, Huaca Huallamarca, a sacred place which I would describe as a mud pyramid (respectfully). It served multiple roles over history, but primarily as a building of worship and a burial site.
On the way there we stumbled upon a very strange house filled with abstract sculptures by Marina Núñez Del Prado. A cool detour
On returning to the hostel, I parted ways with Cameron. As will become a regular occurrence in Lima, most people are only sticking around to fly home or elsewhere.
That night I met a few other travellers, and heard even more outstanding reviews of Columbia.
The next day I ended up spending with Noah, a New Yorker nearing the end of his travel. He spent the morning paragliding off the cliffs, like I had seen others do before. We met up after and walked around the mall. He gave high praise to ‘Chillies’, and told me how they still used the old menu. I was a bit sad to see so many western chains there were, funnelling money overseas.
At the hostel that night we ended up having a fair few drinks and going clubbing with some locals and Daniel, a Korean traveller. I’m getting very familiar with Bad Bunny’s music.
Wednesday I spent the morning again with Noah, this time checking out some local markets. It was his last day, so he did plenty of trinket shopping and I continued to survey the scenes for a poncho. I’d hate to be the white guy culturally appropriating Latin American culture, but it would just be so cozy around a campfire back home.
Noah had a tattoo appointment, which he tried to convince me to join, but I declined. Instead I went further into town to Polvos Azul. It was described as an ex-black market, but judging by how cheap the cannon cameras and PS5s were, I don’t think much has changed. I was actually looking for something in particular. On the Salkantay I misplaced my favourite pair of Mont trousers. Devastating. So I was keen to find some pantalones de trekking for cheap. And that’s just what I did. What gave away that it wasn’t legitimate Columbia attire was the lack of a hole for the belt button to go through. Luckily, they had a pit of fabric scissors for this very occasion.
After the black blue market I continued onto MALI, the Museum of Art Lima. I was particularly in awe of the pre-columbian textiles.
I got the public transport home. The portion of Lima I was travelling through used busses with dedicated lanes along the depressed highway, like veins. It was really cool, but incredibly packed. Plus I had no idea where I was supposed to get off. I made it work tho.
I was torn on when to call my time in Lima to a close, but decided to wait out the weekend. I did change hostels tho. Moving to a beautiful hostel in the Barancos district. It was an old ancestral building, although it acted as a hostel, brunch cafe and fine dining restaurant (which all shared the same bathrooms). They had live violin going most nights and mornings.
My time in barrancos I spent walking around admiring the street art.
Lima is situated between the Andes and the ocean, so during the dry season, they tend to get 6 months of overcast weather. This is despite being at the same latitude as Darwin. After only one week, I was missing the sun. So I booked a night bus to Huaraz.
To pass the time of my final day in Lima, I ended up walking around some markets and streets of Barancos with a German girl I met at a cafe.
The night bus, leaving at 10pm, was actually really comfortable. 2 story with seats the reclined back nearly all the way, I managed to get a few hours of sleep. Although the roads were traveled on did not strike me as connecting two large cities. Some were dirt trails with large stones and cracks that rocked the whole bus.
Huaraz is at 3000 meters, a bit lower than Cusco. The town is very much known for hiking. It’s situated in the region that Joe Simpson fell while mountaineering, in the book and docudrama ‘touching the void’.
Much of the city is underdeveloped. When I arrived, half the buildings temporarily lacked water due to infrastructure issues. While walking to the hostel at 7am, I for the first time felt unsafe on this trip. I took a nice alley to cut through a block. But upon turning the corner, I came face to face with a very angry bulldog and two equally barkey lackies. I’m not super comfortable around dogs, and I tensed up, but kept walking, no irrational or irregular movements. They followed a bit, but didn’t attack or bite, just kept barking and growling. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones. Huaraz is littered with stray dogs, many of them quite aggressive. I ended up re-routing my path a few times to avoid some particularly nasty looking ones. It felt like I was playing pac-man just trying to get to the hostel.
Due to the evaluation, I was keen to take a day or two to rest and reacclimatise. That didn’t happen, as I coincidentally bumped into Ines, a Canadian girl I’d been messaging regarding a big hike I was keen to do self guided. She invited me on a day hike to a mountainous lake to acclimatise, and I ended up joining. We, and another hostel goer got a very packed colectivo (bus) to the start of the hike, and walked up to Willcacocha. On the way we met two other hikers who joined for the rest of the walk.
At the top, I reclaimed some sleep and we enjoyed the views before returning home.
The planned big hike is the HuayHuash (pronounced ‘why-wash’). An 8 day alpine hike touted as one of the most magnificent in the world. Many tour companies offer guided treks, but we were keen to not pay for that. Ines was talking with two others that were looking to trek self guided, so we caught up for dinner with Tobi and Max to discuss plans.
Over the course of the day I had walked and dined with a French Canadian, a Swede, two Germans an Austrian and a Dutch person. Being monolingual I felt very guilty that everyone spoke English. We did have some fun cultural learning when they were confused when I called both French fries and crisps ‘chips’. Also apparently I use the term ‘I reckon’ a lot, which they had never heard of.
By the end of dinner, I was desperate for sleep, but even at 9:30 camping shops were still open, so we did some planning and prep before bed.
Today was spent shopping and preparing for the HuayHuash. The hostel has a great atmosphere as everybody is in Huaraz for hiking, so everyone wants to know where you’ve been, where you’ve come from, and what gear you’re taking.
My bag, 85L, is packed to the brim. Ines’ 45L somehow has room. Although we have vastly different ideas about how much food to bring. It’s all very exciting. But I should really be getting some sleep. Alarm is set for 3:45 am for the bus. And it’s now 11:30. And that’s it, that’s been my last week and the end of the blog until the HauyHuash is done. Nothing else to note. (:
If you’re my mum don’t read this bit, but this is part of a conversation I had talking to someone at the hostel about the HuayHuash:
“Last year a friend was walking to the viewpoint and the guy got bitten by 5 dogs. He said he got surrounded by the dogs, tried to jump away, broke his leg and still bitten twice.”
Although I’ve got hiking poles to defend myself, and 3 tastier looking companions…
Your Mum hopes you’re not the slowest runner! Have a great time. Stay safe x