And now for some inner dialogue....right, how high are we? 3300 metres. Ok lets go for a walk. Screw this acclimatising crack. Did your nose bleed today? Mine had hard blood in it. Anyway lets do this thing. How are we getting there. Taxi fine.......here we are now, at the start. Up the hill? Fine. Man I´ve only walked for a minute and I´m bolloxed. What the hell is that bull doing? He´s doing it to another bull! It´s ok the local woman is hitting him now. ¿Tiene caramillo? Man these kids know how to milk a backpacker. I thought they were speaking Quechua. (Local language of indigienous people). Which path Hugo? Oh the one that goes up, what a surprise. Snow capped rugged peaks look damn fine. This ridge is cool, little ant people down below and jagged rocks all around. That old woman is gaining on me. She´s like a mountain goat, and she´s passing me, not sucking in air or sweating, I must look like a monster to her. And she´s carrying a stack of firewood. Getting headaches now and my hands have turned purple and swollen. Weird shit. Oh we´ve reached the carpark. How far? 2km up? No thanks I´m done. I´m going to roll downhill instead........
......leaving Huaraz was easy. The climate is excellent during the day and freezing at night. I needed stability. After saying adios to Hugo, Gen, Stacey and David, I set out to Lima on a stunning bus ride. The bus zig zagged down from 3300metres to sea level in a little under 8 hours. From frosted mountains through wide open pasture valleys a light shade of green. The descent went through basalt rock formations and ramshackle settlements hugging the road. Mountains changed from green to brown as the desert took hold of the landscape. The only bit of green was stuck to a river meandering below. A long oasis snake which accompanied the bus to the sea. Then it became apparent how lonely this green snake was. It is completely surrounded by the desert. The only colours apart from green and brown were the drying vegetables in the sun bringing out vivid reds, yellows and greens. Day trips are sometimes better.........
Lima welcomed me with neon signs and concrete.
Adios
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3 comments:
hey keith.. lovin the blogg, claire will be in peru soon.. will email ya her email adress.. were havin october style floods in dublin... fuckin typical!! look out for the little inca women... with the witchy plats and houses on there backs!! put spells on ya brother....slan ....eamon.
Claire Byrne claire.holymoly@gmail.com
You forgot to tell the story about how someone locked themselves up in their own bathroom... ;)
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