The Aussies, the Irish, and the Brits; Thunder and Parades; Barney and the Virus

Hola Todos,

As you can see, since I haven't been doing anything overly exciting these past few days, I'm milking the post title for all it's worth.

A few days ago (Friday), I decided to change hostels since the one I was staying in was completely empty and I was getting a little lonely. I moved into a more happening place, and that was where I met the Australians. They seemed like fun, friendly chaps, and after we'd lunched together they said I'd be more than welcome to join them on this 5 day trek they were embarking upon the next morning. I was up for it, so I spent the day with them making trip preparations.

As I'd discover that night, my body was making other preparations - and after one of the most miserable nights I can remember (of which I will offer no description other than to tell you that some combination of altitude and bad food produced some extraordinarily ill affects) - I announced in the morning that I wouldn't be coming. They took it well, and told me that it was part of the South American experience. We exchanged contact information, and said our goodbyes. When I awoke to the crack of thunder that afternoon and looked at the downpour outside, I suspected those poor blokes got a bit of the South American experience on their trek as well.

By about 5:30 the rain had let up, and I managed to stumble outside and get down about half of a meager fruit salad from the place on the corner. That night I heard the sounds of a parade going down the street - horns, drums and lots of random booms from fireworks - also taking to the streets now that the rain had granted them a reprieve. It was the second parade in the few days that I've been in town. I'd been excited about the first one, and gone outside to see a large crowd of people with all manner of lights and balloons and banners. But as someone had informed me then: they throw parades for just about everything here. Even though the rain let up, I'd still say that day was something of a wash.

But Sunday, a new crowd came into the hostel - a couple of Irish girls, and a couple of British couples. They were just hanging out in town for the day before heading out to a beach town up north called Mancora. I was feeling a bit better, and so I spent the day with them. They were fairly entertaining, and it made the day go by a lot better than the previous one, where I was camped in my room by myself. I actually picked up some tickets myself to head out on a bus Monday for Trujillo, where I'm looking forward to meeting the family of my Spanish tutor from Seattle, and maybe relaxing a bit by the beach at low altitude as well (possibly surfing).

It would have been nice to have done more trekking here, or even some rock climbing, but it's not the way it worked out, and I'm ready to leave. My first impressions of the city have diminished - maybe in part due to the unfortunate circumstances of my stay (It's Monday, and I still feel rather dodgy) - but I think also because of Barney. The city's surroundings are amazing, and the parades are kind of neat, but also overwhelming is the excess of tourism. Several times now in downtown I've seen men walking around wearing Barney suits to try to get money from people for taking pictures. It's something I might not cringe at in the States, but the purple dinosaur is such a cultural displacement here that's it's a little disheartening. You can't blame the men in the purple suits - you can only feel sorry that this is what a people of a rich cultural heritage have had to resort to to try and make a living for themselves. It's the way the world is running nowadays, and I feel sorry to admit that I'm a part of it. My itinerary for this trip largely runs along what's called "the gringo trail;" the string of tourist destinations that everyone travels when they travel down here. And there are reasons for it: there are things to see that are interesting, and it's been made into safe and easy travelling by the tourism market. I'd like to travel off the beaten trail, but it's a scary prospect a lot of the time. We'll just have to see yet what happens with the people that I meet and the places I go.

There's thunder and rain again outside today. Seems like it's been like this most of the time I've been here (those poor Aussies are still out there walking around in the mountains). I'm taking an overnight bus tonight which leaves at 9pm for Trujillo, and hopefully to some brighter skies.

Cheers and God Bless,
Stephen

PS: Recent pictures are from a hike I did on my second day in Huaraz with a guide to Lago 69. The elevation was 4,670 meters which is over 15,000 ft. The last hill had me breathing pretty hard, and the end of the trip gave me a good headache. It´s the highest I´ve ever been.