• The Craze for Travelling
  • The Craze for Travelling

The South American Odyssey

The Craze for Travelling tarafından 147 günlük bir macera Okumaya devam et
  • The afternoon swim

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    As soon as we got an ok to use the pool, we were off to it, removed the clothes and were in, in minutes. It was so refreshing to swim in the cool water of the pool after having been baked in the harsh sun for 3 hours. They even had cold Inca Cola, which was just perfect at this time. It was a beautifully made pool about 2 mts deep with a natural rock forming one side of it.
    As we had expected, we were the only people in the resort. We swam and rested for more than an hour after which we were informed that the food was ready.
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  • Lunch at the Oasis

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The food was fantastic. We were served a vegetarian noodle soup witb cheese and vegetables. That was followed by a stew with corn and something like the Indian cottage cheese. It was the perfect meal at the perfect time.Okumaya devam et

  • Gardens at Paradiso de las Palmas

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    After the food we just went around the resort. It was beautifully built and very well maintained. There were rooms to stay and many fruit trees and plants. By now, some sun flies had started biting us. Both of us lost some skin with the blood oozing out and had some welts due to the bites. Also, the place where we were planning to stop for the night was about 2-3 hours away. The sun in this region sets at 5:30 pm so we decided to start our trek again.Okumaya devam et

  • Shortcut to San Juan de Chuccho

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Halfway up the canyon on the other side, there is a short cut across the face of the mountains towards San Juan de Chuccho. This track is not marked on maps we had but is there on Maps.me. We checked with a few people coming down from above and were informed that there was nothing special in the villages there so we decided to take this shortcut. That would also mean that we would reach San Juan mush faster.
    How wrong were we...
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  • Across the stream

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    All along we had been trying to follow the path on Maps.me. There was a stream crossing that would take us to reach San Juan where we planned to stay for the night. The path instead of going across the mountain face had been going down towards the river below for quite a while so we were not sure if we were on the the right track and the sun had started to set by now. Just then, we came to the stream crossing that was marked on our map. With that done, we were sure we were going the right way. Now the race was against the sun to reach San Juan before it became dark and we were stranded with nowhere to sleep and maybe even lose our way again.Okumaya devam et

  • San Juan de Chuccho

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    I had read on some blogs tgat at San Juan de Chuccho, there is a place being run by a lady called Gloria where one can stay. She was supposed to have clean, cheap rooms and even hot water for shower. According to the blogs, she could even provide good vegetarian meals for some extra money. Luckily her place was even marked on Maps.me. We continued our trek to try and make it before the dark. The sun in the meanwhile had set and we saw some stunning colors in the sky.
    At around 6 pm, we managed to reach Gloria's place. The shortcut had actually taken longer since we had to go down the mountain face before climbing up again, plus we had lost some time getting lost and then getting back on track on this route.
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  • Gloria's Hostel

    14 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    The had set and it was almost dark when we reached Gloria's Hostel. Luckily, she was in her lawn and invited us in. A double room was S/ 10 per person and the dinner would be S/ 10 extra. The breakfast would be be S/ 8 per person and drinks as per actuals. That is a very good price considering we were in the middle of nowhere with no other alternate nearby.
    We took a twin room and immediately went to take a shower since there is no electricity in the rooms or the shared bathrooms. The bathrooms had hot water and it was so refreshing after the long day of hike.
    After that, we sat in the common dining area and chatted with the other people staying at the place. The dinner was served at 7:30 pm and it was amazing. It was a 3 course meal with vegetable soup, followed by rice and cottage cheese stew and flam as the dessert.
    After the hearty meal and exchange of lot of travel stories we all went back to sleep. We were planning to have breakfast at 6 am and then have an early start to the next day's trek before the sun became harsh during mid day.
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  • Breakfast at Gloria's

    15 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    As planned, we were up early. After freshening up we went to the stouts for our breakfast. Soon we were served a lovely morning meal of banana pancakes with chocolate. It was a nice beginning of the day.
    After the breakfast, we started planning our day. Hristo wanted to go to Takay, a village about 350 mts above our current village of San Juan. He also wanted to check out some ruins near Takay. I had read on the blogs that there was nothing special in the town and that the ruins were in a bad shape. In fact, I had hardly been able to find any information about either of these places on the net, so I wanted to start the trek back to Cabanaconde and rest half a day there. I also felt that doing both Takay going up 350 mts, then coming down to San Juan and then going up to Cabanaconde another 1000 mts on the the other side would be too much for a day. But, Hristo wanted to challenge himself to do the whole thing in a day.
    In the end, we decided that I would head back to Cabanaconde, while Hristo started on the ascent towards Takay.
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  • Bridge across the canyon

    15 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    After walking for about 15 min, I reached the bridge that would take me back across the Rio Colca to the side of the mountain where I would start my ascent towards Cabanaconde.

  • Up, up and up...

    15 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    The ascent was quite steep and tge sun was beating down mercilessly by now. There was absolutely no shade. The only saving grace were the views around. I could see the various tracks across the face of the mountain on the opposite side and it was easy to see what paths we had taken the previous day. There were sections where the path took me across hexagonal basalt columns.Okumaya devam et

  • Two thirds way up

    15 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    After trekking for about 3 hours, I reached about 2/3rd way up the mountain. I could see Tapay where Hristo had gone below me now, just across the canyon. San Juan de Chuccho was way below now and the Sangalle oasis was visible on the other side of the mountains. The hike had been a slow ascent in the searing sun and by now, I had almost exhausted my full supply of water. Unfortunately, there were no streams as well to refill the bottle.Okumaya devam et

  • The top finally

    15 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    After a while about a km or so from the top, I finished off my water supply with the hope that I would get the water somewhere at the top. It was quite hot when I finally reached the top at 11 am. It had taken me almost 3.5 hrs to climb the full face of the mountain. At the top of the canyon, there's a museum which didn't seem to be functional but at least the toilets were working and free to use. I filled my bottle there and drank almost 500 ml in one go.Okumaya devam et

  • Back again in Cabanaconde

    15 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    From the viewpoint, I walked back to Cabanaconde along some lush green fields and was at the main square by about 12 pm. I went straight to one of the restaurants and had my lunch of Spagetti Arabiata with 2 huge glasses of fresh cold lemonade. That got the body temperature down and was very refreshing.
    After that, I went to make enquires about the bus schedules for our plan for the coming 2-3 days. Then I was back at our hostel and checked into a room to relax.
    About 4:30 pm Hristo came back. He was totally exhausted and walked in like a zombie. The look on his face confirmed my decision of not going to Tapay before the day's trek. He was totally pooped and looked in pretty bad shape. He had seen some very interesting sights in the ruins, there was even a huge pile of ancient human bones in one of the places but the walk, the sun and the lack of water had taken a pretty bad toll. After resting for a while and freshening up, we went for our dinner in the main square. We took a S/ 15 menu with soup and main dish. After the food, Hristo seemed to recover a bit from the tiredness and nausea. Hopefully, a good night's sleep would complete the recovery of the muscle aches as well. We went back to the hostel to sleep early.
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  • Off to Cruz del Condor

    16 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We woke up early at about 6 am to freshen up and catch the 7 am bus towards Arequipa. On the way, just about 12 kms from Cabanaconde, we planned get off at Cruz del Condor.
    Cruz del Condor is a marvelous place to see the huge Andean Condor. Its the national bird of Peru and was a constant fixture in the Inca icons. The condors start flying early in the morning, taking advantage of the updrafts created by the thermals due to the heating of the land in the early morning sun. From what we had heard, they normally fly away by about 10 am since the early morning thermals are gone by then.
    There are only 2 local buses towards this direction in the morning, one at 7 am and the other at 9 am. We decided to catch the 7 am bus.
    After having a quick breakfast at the main square we caught the 7 am bus for S/ 2 per person. The bus got really full as all the locals use it to travel between the villages. A lot of them got off within the next 10-15 min at various places on the way.
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  • Condors at Cruz del Condor

    16 Kasım 2017, Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We had barely settled down at Cruz del Condor when the first of condors started gliding across the sky in the canyon. They were such majestic birds, very huge and that is one of the reason, they don't flap much. They use the thermals and the air currents to glide across the sky.
    We got some amazing shots of the birds. Some times they just flew 5-10 mts from where we were standing.
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