The Trek Not Taken

The story of our trip to Huaraz won´t be complete without a mention of Huayhuash, ¨the other trek¨. Well, that´s not exactly a fair description of Huayhuash. It´s supposed to be the ¨2nd best trek in the world¨, though not quite clear by whose rating. :) Since we were yet at the beginning of the trip and I was much more gung ho about trekking, I was interested in doing it for a while, but there were a bunch of problems with it: It was a more difficult trail than ours, lasted 8 days and supposedly got much colder. We could have maybe gotten around Shabbat by stopping in the middle of the trail, but we also had Shavuot to think about.

All my hesitations disappeared however, after I did Santa Cruz. I love to breathe and I wanted it to stay that way. This difficulty of breathing at high altitudes was not a problem I had foreseen and it messed up my plans of hiking the breadth and width of South America. As those of you who have hiked with me will know, I am generally all the way at the front of the trail, complaining about those lagging behind. So this was a humbling experience to say the least.

It was roughly around this time that I started thinking seriously about why I was here to begin with. Yes, I love nature and hiking and yes, a little challenge killed no one. On the other hand, I came here to enjoy myself, and God knows I´m not one to run away from challenges, but I really, truly, do like to breathe. So I decided that Huayhuash was out and we set on the road back to Lima. The stunning picture above is from a friend who actually did take the challenge.

Once back in Lima, we were appalled once again by its ugliness. :P I mean, we went to see the ocean and even that was gray and boring and ugly. We did, however, do one thing there which was a lot of fun. They had an amazing display of fountains in one of the parks, supplemented by sound and light shows and we spent a good few hours gawking at them. Rikki jumped into some of the fountains with all the other children and I had a great time watching her get wet. Don´t judge me, ít´s winter here. Besides, somebody had to stay outside and take photos, right?

We were told by a few different people not to take the direct route from Lima to Cusco so we decided to run through various cities along the coast in order to make it there by Shabbat.

First destination: Ica. An oasis in every sense of the word. From the bleak and cold skies of Lima we were transported to summer for a few hours, without so much as a warning. Yes, I knew we were going to a place with sand dunes, but somewhere in my head I hadn´t associated that with heat. I´m talking palm trees, people.

I´m talking about a blazing sun, a small body of water surrounded by trees, in the middle of the desert.

Rikki pretty much hit the sand dunes directly with a sandboard. See that little dot on top of the sand dune? Yep, that´s her.

I had no interest in burning myself and/or breaking my bones, so I decided to follow the example of these wise dogs...

...and proceeded to lie down in the sand and watch the view for a full 2 hours, all the while listening to radio PA-NA-ME-RI-CA-NA! I caught a lot of slang in those 2 hours and finally felt like I was in South America. Bubbly radio presenters, adorable Spanish, lively Latin American beat-that´s what I´m talking about! It was a piece of heaven.

The next stop on our itinerary was Pisco-the poor man´s Galapagos islands. I must say I was a little underwhelmed by it, considering it was freezing cold and all we got to see were some ugly sea lions:

also a lot of different kinds of birds. Booooriiiing. NEXT!

On the same day that we visited the island, we also managed to catch one of the very last flights over the Nazca lines. The lines were cool, but the plane was cooler! It was a 4 person plane, probably the closest thing to a private jet that I´ll ever fly in! The view was superb:

In true tourist fashion, they gave us a little map of what we should expect to see-the various shapes according to how they are arranged on the ground. I just realized as I was writing these lines that I haven´t given an explanation of the Nazca lines. That´s what happens when half of Israel is travelling with you and you get the feeling nothing you do is original and so, obviously everybody should know what all these places are!

So more on the Nazca lines in the next post...