Goodbye, Peru. Hello, Bolivia!

After Huaraz, Jared and I were bound for Lima. Jared spent some time in Lima two years ago, but he had nothing but bad things to say about the city--it was dirty and boring. So my expectations for Lima were pretty low, until my new friend Charlotte told me that Lima is full of American fast food. Suddenly I started to look forward to visiting Peru´s bustling capital.

By this point, Jared and I had been traveling for six weeks. Our diet had mainly consisted of various forms of chicken, rice, soup, and french fries, plus scrambled eggs for breakfast. When we arrived in Lima, my only goal was to eat all the American fast food I could. I make no apologies for spending $4 on a caramel frappuccino at Starbucks, more than the cost of most of my dinners. It was damn good. During 36 hours in Lima, I ate at Pizza Hut, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts. No wonder Jared sometimes calls me Homer Simpson. I do have to mention that Jared found a Tony Roma´s and chowed down on quesadillas and ribs, so I am not the only one who was missing American chain restaurants.

We stayed in the seaside neighborhood of Miraflores, arguably Lima´s nicest area. Miraflores, with its manicured parks, department stores, and cinemas, was a little slice of home. We even got to go to the movies for the first time in months. (We saw The Heartbreak Kid in English with Spanish subtitles.) During dinner we watched the South American eliminations for the 2010 World Cup, which is three years away. As we watched Brazil defeat Uruguay, it occurred to me that the entire continent was watching this soccer match. We had a fantastic time in the city, enough to change Jared´s mind about Lima.

We saw Southern Peru in 2006, so Lima was just a rest stop as we traveled south from Huaraz to Bolivia. After a night in Lima we boarded a 14-hour night bus to Arequipa. This time we sprang for first class seats and it was worth every centavo. (Our Thanksgiving dinner was served aboard the bus, and though it wasn´t turkey, it wasn´t bad.) We stopped for the night in Arequipa, where we had visited in 2006. Arequipa was a trip down memory lane for both of us. We couldn´t resist taking tons of photos of local kids feeding pigeons in the main square.

There were still two more buses to go before we got to Bolivia. We spent all day during November 24 on buses, reminding ourselves why we prefer to travel at night. Just before sundown, we walked across the Bolivian border, after visiting immigration on each side. We spent a few days in Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, but we will save that for another post. In the meantime, take a look at our photos of Lima and Arequipa.

Living the mountain life in Huaraz

We had missed Huaraz on our last trip to Peru two years ago, and this time I wanted to check it out since it was highly recommended by several guidebooks. We had heard from other travelers that it wasn't worth going since it was the rainy season, and Huaraz had bad weather at the moment. I'm so glad I didn't listen to any of them. The weather was great, sun in the morning, and only about 30 minutes of rain each day in the afternoon. At least this way we could prepare for it.

Julie and I checked ourselves into Olaza's Guesthouse, where we had all the comforts of home. Actually, this was the best hotel we've stayed in to date, and it was still only $23 a night! The Olaza family are known all around town. Tito Olaza runs the guesthouse where we stayed, and his brother Julio is the most well known mountain bike guide in the area. I was lucky to get Julio as a guide all to myself, and I had a full day of incredible biking. It was some of the best single track biking I've done in a long time. We started at about 13,000 ft and descended 3,000 ft through old villages, pre Inca rock walls, and tons of sheep, cows, and barking dogs. All this while having the white peaks of the Cordillera Blanca mountains in the distance.


After 3 days in Huaraz, we rented some camping gear and headed further into the Cordillera Blanca. We went for two days and one night, and this was Julie's first overnight trek. We had done day hikes in NY State, and the Grand Canyon, but this was the first time she had carried all her own gear for two days. We chose the Quilcayhuanca trek since it was recommended by Juilo Olaza.


We hiked up a valley for about 6 hours on the first day, up to a beautiful plateau at 13,500 ft, where we could see glaciers in the distance. We had some rain setting up the tent, and got a little wet, but that was the only trouble we encountered. The next day I woke up and hiked further up the valley to a beautiful mountain lake, then we packed up camp and hiked back down the valley for 4 hours. Both directions, up and down the valley, were filled with grazing cattle, horses, sheep, and donkeys. We encountered a local farmer who told us that approximately 500 cows graze freely in the valley. I just thought I'd add this last part since a good number of my photos have cows and horses in them.

Here is a trail map of our hike.



All in all, we had a great 5 days in Huaraz and the surrounding area. I highly recommend a trip to this area any time of year. Here are my photos from biking and hiking, so you can decide for yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving from Peru

Dear Friends and Family,

We wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and let you know that we are thankful to have you as our friends and family. While we travel, it´s your emails and photos that keep away our bouts of homesickness.

As many of you have requested, here is our very first video post. We apologize for the low quality, but we've been having difficulty uploading large videos from internet cafes. If you are receiving this message as an email subscriber, please click on the title of the post, or go to http://www.globestompers.com/.

All the best,

Jared and Julie

Mancora, Peru: A little slice of beach heaven

Julie and I recently left the beautiful beach town of Mancora, and headed for the mountains of Huaraz. We weren´t supposed to stay so long in Mancora, but the place just sucked us in, and apparently it happens all too often to other travelers.

Mancora is located on NW coast of Peru, about 2 hours south of the Ecuadorian border. When we left Ecuador, our plan was to travel as far down the coast as we could in a day. We were lucky that our bus driver told us of Mancora, otherwise we would have passed it by, and missed out on some great waves and relaxation.



We ended up staying 8 nights in the town at Pilar´s Laguna Surf Camp. The place was made up of thatched roof bungalows on sand, set around a common eating and lounging area with hammocks. The town is a perfect backpacker place, and I can understand why people spend months or years here. It´s not too big of a town, but it has everything you need from amazing seafood restaurants, great bars, and chill beaches.

Mancora is famous for its surf. The Mancora Peru Classic surf contest happened just the week before we arrived. I ended up surfing for the first 3 days until the waves died down. I need practice, that´s all I can say. I should also mention that the wind usually picks up in the afternoon and then the kite boarders come out to play. It really is an adventure wonderland.

So how did we really spend our 8 days in paradise. Well, we slept a lot. Julie read a bunch in the hammocks. I tried to surf when there were waves. When there weren´t any waves, we headed to the nearby beaches of Punta Sal to the north, and Las Positas to the south where it was void of tourists. We ate really well. In fact a fixed ¨Menu¨as it is called, consisted of fish ceviche (raw fish in lime), and a plate of grilled seafood called Chicharron, all for 5 nuevo soles (about $1.70 US). We also passed the nights drinking with new found friends such as Christian and Roger from Switzerland, and James and Charlotte from England. Did I mention I won a Texas hold em poker tournament! Seriously, I could never win with friends back home, but somehow I beat out 13 other people to take home the gold. The prize winnings paid for some great meals, I can tell you that. I also need to mention that Julie placed 5th, not bad for her first poker night.

So why didn´t we stay in Mancora for a while longer? Well, I can tell you that we asked ourselves the same question. Both of us knew that if we didn´t leave now, we would end up spending months in this town, and there is still so much to see. But if you do end up going to Mancora at some point in the future, I highly recommend staying at Laguna Surf Camp, eating at Sirena´s Italian restaurant, and drinking the night away at Lone Star Bar (owned by David, a native Texan, and place of the weekly poker tournaments), and at Surfer´s Bar (owned by a surfer/model from England) that also runs the Mancora Surf Club.

Here are pics from Mancora. I should mention that the last couple of images are from Trujillo, a larger city about 8 hours south of Mancora. We spent the day around Trujillo while waiting for our night bus to Huaraz. We saw the ancient Chimu archaeological site of Chan Chan and spent the afternoon and evening in the beach town of Huanchaco. I think Julie and I both agreed that you could skip Trujillo and the surrounding area. Maybe it was off season, but it was dead and not worth our time.

I should also mention that I finally uploaded my photos from our Jungle Trip.