Rio Ucayli and Contemana

Jeff, Bob and Joseph arrived from the States and Armando,Naida,Matteo and I met them at the small local airport... then headed back to the hotel for some breakfast and orientation. We spent the next several days and nights taking in some of the sights, evening boat rides on the Lago Yarinacocha and meeting Jorje our translator - a really vibrant 21 yr old who Matthew had used on a previous trip to Contemana... we got to benefit from his misfortune since he broke his arm in a motorcycle accident a month or so ago and had a combination of internal fixation with a strange pin sticking out of his skin and he had suspended his Law studies for the year to recover so was free to travel with us again. He is definitely an asset on our adventure. He was happy to have a little private physical therapy treatment as he had pain and was not using his hand at all so it was extremely weak. But would soon improve...
It is hot and steamy here in Pulcallpa and the streets are full of tuktuks(motorcars)... We were able to spot some fresh water dolphins from the boat and visited a small zoo on the opposite shore where there was an opportunity to say hello to a partially blind ocelot, a wet and slinky Anaconda who wiggled and jiggled and shed some skin in our company....

On to the Amazon...

Hola,
I am a little later adding to this as we have had limited internet access.  I will return to the story of the Santa Cruz hike at a later time, Let us just say we will not be recommending Johnny,s tours or Galaxia for that matter with poor communication and a need to organize our own transport back to Huaraz(and pay for it and our cook who hiked with us). Johnny had offered us a hot shower at his place upon our return and we were met with the offer of a cold shower on the rooftop of his guesthouse after 3 days of hiking and imagining a nice warm shower...before our night bus back to Lima. No towels were provided either... and then we had the pure pleasure of going to Cafe Andina for a REALMEAL! WE had had really poor and inadequate food on the trip ...fruitloops and yogurt for breakfast, or bread and jam... nothing else and hiking 10hours per day. More to come I promise.... so after a great meal of curry, tofu and rice, hot chocolate with leche de soya and limonade fresca Matthew and I took a night bus back to Lima. I was so tired after hiking 20kms all downhill on the last day that I slept the best I ever have sitting up right in a bus!! Arriving in Lima at 445am and jumping in a taxi to get ot the airport and a flight to Pucallpa.
This was my first time to Pulcallpa though Matthew has been here many times but never by plane... flying over the Andes to the edge of the jungle...by road it takes more than 20hours!! We had hoped to do a cross country adventure via collectivos but with RObert, Jeff and Joseph meeting us on the 25th we did not want to chance being stuck in a freezing cold high elevation town waiting in the middle of the night for the next connection by bus or collectivo (communal car)...

Pulcallpa is really a frontier town in a way ..the closest town to Lima and transportation for all that has to be sent up the river as cargo to the people who live in the towns and villages along el rio. The rio here is the Ucayali River which is a tributary of the Amazon that meets up with the Maranon river ( which Matthew and I took from Yurimagua to Iquitos by Cargo boat on a previous trip to Peru)
We arrive at the airport and immediately take a motocar (tuktuk) to Maestro Armando`s friends house where previously matthew had stayed in their very simple accomodations. But this time the nusic was blasting and they had turned their front room into a bar with TV yelling loudly into the street at 9am. Their bed was in the kitchen now...which has a dirt floor, bathroom and shower out in the back yard. Armando and his wife Naida were coming from their Amazon town Contamana via the slow boat to meet us. Matthew had lived with them at their house before for a month or so with their 9 children and grandchildren....sleeping on a wood floor with chickens running around:)

It was hot and steamy in Pulcallpa and overcast...as we were just setting off to go look at a hotel or two when Armando and Naida arrived...so after welcome hugs we took Armando to check out some accomodation options for the group in a nearby lakeside town Yarinacocha... and as is obvious by the lapsing of 18months since our last visit...alot can change in this time and one hotel recommended by Lonely Planet has since gone into some decay since Matthew was there last... but it was on the lake and seemed quiet enough but we checked out another place Las Gavilanes ...which was quieter still, cheaper and had a nice swimming pool. We met George (Jorge) our translator and great guy who was really excited to work with Matthew again and his Father ,also George (jorge - a phys-ed teacher)  And we all shared alovely lunch at the hotel set it up for us to stay there the next night but for this night we decided to stay at the one on the water La Maloka...Matthew and I promptly fell into a deep sleep despite the now pumping loud music playing competing restaurants that line the waterfront there...especially it being a Saturday where the locals flock there for the weekend...
Fortunately the music mostly stopped at 7pm...the gates locked us in, they have some very sad small animal cages most of them now empty but there was one monkey (mono) and a rabbit (coheno)
 So after days of sleeping at elevation or on buses we were able to have a night of sleep and a lovely COLD shower  in the morning:)Is a hot shower with agua caliente becoming a vision of the past....? Hasta lluego,
Wendita

Santa Cruz Hike

The Santa Cruz Hike is one of the more famous hikes in the Cordillera Blanca Mountains - 50km long and involves crossing a pass at Punta Union (elevation 4700m) Usually starting in Valaquia at 3900m and a gradual climb a 4 day/3 night hike finishing in Cachapampa. It can be done in 3 days from this direction and based on our schedule we had opted for the three day route. It became very clear from the beginning having booked with Johnny's Tours out of Huaraz who basically got a commission for us to go with Galaxia Tours that this was no National Geographic trip....and after heading out with some day trekkers and the rest of our group , eating breakfast and heading up to our starting point that the guide got a call to say we had to hike from the other direction as the route on this side of the pass was closed for trail clearing prior to the high season and there were no burros waiting for us there (to help carry our bags,water and food) So a U turn and a longer drive to Cachabampa to start our trek.... the guide Daniel informs us that Matthew and I will have to carry our own bags the last 20kms on the final day as the burros will stay with the group. This was news for us since we were sold the bill of goods that burros would carry our extra stuff and we had just brought dry bags for sleeping bags and clothes as on our previous Burro supported trips these were easier to pack...but hiking 20kms carrying dry bags in both hands down deep descents did not sound like much fun... so the guide says "Don't worry about that today ...just enjoy your hike for today" And so it began....
8 of us - from NZ, Australia,Argentina, Spain,Israel, England, and the United States...set off for an Andean adventure along with Daniel our guia and Julisa our cook.

Beautiful Alpine Lake

The remains of the forest and river

?

fruitloops for breakfast? Really? I couldn't do it

Vacas - surrounded by 22 of them - they sure liked Matthew's singing

What remains of the forest after the mudslide 2 yrs ago

Our second campsite

Sharing our lunch with the Donkeys

Donkey love? I think not

Days in the Mountains

Yesterday we hiked towards Quebrada Cojup a 34km round trip from the park entrance, we were dropped off by Micah (assistant manager at the Lazy Dog Inn...this is a good hike for acclimatizing for the altitude with it's relatively gentle steady climb without too much elevation gain - the entrance starts at 3900m and the lake is at 4500m...so we hiked slowly up the valley we were hiking up following the river, enjoying the birdsong, and the colorful wildflowers...everywhere... the trail was sometimes soft green grass and at other times it was rocky...the narrow valley gradually opening out to an expansive view of the mountains, Ranrapalca,Pucaranra and the glacier... being only 9 degrees from the equator and at such a high elevation the sun was hot and intense that we soon stripped down from our wool tights, and extra layers... We stopped for a leisurely lunch in an old cattle/sheep corral as part of the trail and hiked further on to a handmade wood and dirt bridge that crossed the river. Here we decided to turn around as we needed time to make it back to the Casa before the sunset and of course before dinner! My altitude headache was intermittent, trying to drink lots of water... but by the time we returned to the inn it was pretty intense but a nice hot wood-fired sauna was just the salve for tired bodies and hopefully to save us from Day 2 soreness...and my headache was relieved...not so my high-altitude post ridiculously long winter not yet sunkissed skin sunburn...ouch!

Wayne on top of the hill

Entering the Eucalyptus Forest....

Buena Vista

This morning Matthew and I headed out on horseback for a fantastic ride with Wayne - in the surrounding hillsides and valleys...great terrain including lots of cantering and trotting - the horses loving the workout, my horse was uber competitive with Matthew's and any attempt to pass was met with my horse trying to run Rumi off the trail on either side. Spectacular views, riding through small farms, locals out grazing their sheep in the fields with sheepdogs...fjording a river on horseback, riding up ridges to the top of a huge hill, weaving our way through eucalyptus forests, along dirt tracks or traversing steep and rocky fields...pre and post brushing horses and working them out a little first so they knew we were not predators and got used to us. Matthew of course is at home on a horse having owned, competed and ridden them for many years so it was great to see him enjoying the Western ride...and you couldn't ask for a better landscape...

Returning to the heart of Peru

Hola, Well here I am in Huaraz Peru, having returned to the heartland of this wonderful country.We arrived on Friday evening into Lima and spent a noisy night in a hotel in Miraflores...and the day wandering around our old Lima haunts including with it's free wifi the Starbucks. the Indios markets and in the eighteen months that we were here last things have changed, Lima seems to be enjoying an economic upturn with a building boom and we discovered the Govinda's restaurant - which we were going to give out third chance to was now an office for construction of a new building, the talented gourd carver and jeweller from Huancayo who has a booth/stall at the Indios market was also gone...We visited with our amiga Rosanna in the BuenaVista cafe overlooking the Pacific ocean and la garua ( that low lying and long staying mist/fog that hangs over Lima for much of the year That night Matthew and I headed on a night bus (8 hours+)up here to the mountain town of Huaraz (elevation 10,013ft)at the foot of the Cordillero Blanco Mountains. We had been here before and loved our time here hiking to glacial lakes in the mountains in a landscape naturelle - landscape strewn with magnificent rocks/boulders, rivers running freely and unrestrained hiking trails... We returned to the Lazy Dog Inn a wonderful lodge above Huaraz with some happy contented dogs lying on pillows besides the fire at night.... run by two Canadians Diana and Wayne who are also involved passionately with the surrounding communities. The Inn has several lovely room and some cabins, 7 horses, wood-fired sauna at night, communal meals and packed lunches available for us hikers. Diana and Wayne have built this adobe Casa with much thought and love - with it's compostable toilets and their new project is a cafe project for the community and the opening of a luxury campsite on their property staying in a teepee. We were here in November of 2012 and did some great hikes and this time was no different and a chance to acclimatize for our upcoming three day Santa Cruz hike which starts tomorrow...