BootsnAll Travel Network



Puerto Lopez

August 8th, 2007

After a couple of months of living around 3000m, we finally get down to sea level and air thick with oxygen!  Puerto Lopez is a pretty little fishing village, in a horseshoe bay, near Parque National Machalilla, which in turn is famous for humpback whales, which visit the waters in June to September to mate and give birth and Isla da la Plata, labelled as the “poor man’s Galapagos” in guidebooks, do we really need to go now?! Read the rest of this entry »

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Cuenca and around

August 4th, 2007

So we finally leave Peru, after nearly two months here – have already made a ‘side trip’ to Trujillo, we don’t feel the need to stay here again, so after our night bus pulls in at 5.30am, we head straight to another bus company to catch a bus to Piura (one anyoying thing about Peru, apart from near the Bolivian border, there hasn’t been a main bus terminal. Instead you have to traipse round all the different companies offices, which are generally not in the nicest part of town). Read the rest of this entry »

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The Curse of the Punta Union Pass

July 28th, 2007

So after a brief so-journ to the coast we find ourselves back in Huaraz.  We had intended to return, not quite as soon as we did, but as we couldn’t get flights to the Galapagos until late August we decided to turn round whilst Huaraz was only 9 hours away. Read the rest of this entry »

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Northern Peruvian Ruins

July 22nd, 2007

A day trip from Huaraz to Chavin de Huantar, a pre-Inca site built around 900BC. We were looking forward to the visit as we thought that the ruins would be something different, in the end we were disappointed. We had thought that there would be stone heads (cabezas clavas) coming out of the walls, but in fact there was only one left in-situ. Read the rest of this entry »

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We climb a mountain…

July 18th, 2007

After a couple of rest days in Huaraz Nick gets the urge to climb one of the many snow capped peaks in the Cordillera Blanca.  I don’t have this urge but after speaking to a couple of agencies I decide to join him on Vallunaraju, a 5,686m peak just outside Huaraz, mainly swayed by the day of ice climbing and crevasse rescue rather than the actul peak itself. Read the rest of this entry »

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Alpamayo Trek Profile

July 13th, 2007

AlpamayoTrekChart

Km   m         Place 

0      2900     Cashapampa
6      2800     Dip
9      3150     Hualcayan
13    3900     Top of zigzags
20    4350     Wishcash
23    4625     Laguna Cullicocha
24.5 4860     Paso Osururi
26    4740     Unnamed Pass
27    4540     Pampa Osururi
28    4770     Paso Vientunan
31    4150     Turning
32    4025     Pampa Ruina
38    4250     Jancururish
41    4550     Alpamayo base camp
44    4900     Laguna (Nevado Santa Cruz Chico)
47    4550     Alpamayo base camp
50    4250     Jancururish
54    4830     GaraGara Pass
55    4600     End of steep bit
58    4350     Rio Mayobamba
59    4460     Mesapampa
60    4275     Alta Huillca
63    4000     Huillca
66    4400     Rio
67    4630     Paso Yanacon
71    4056     Laguna Sactaycocha
77    3775     Alta Janca Pampa
79    3550     Janca Pampa
83    3550     Janca Pampa (village)
92    3200     Pariagoga
94    2950     Pomabamba
94    3500     Huanchabamba
98    4075     Yaino
100  4175     Paso
105  3650     Rio
109  4050     Laguna Huecrucocha
111  3800     Quisuar
121  3300     Lucma 

(kms are estimates – ms are as our altimeter was reading at the time!)

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Alpamayo Trek

July 13th, 2007

18 hours or so in Lima – which were fairly painful – central Lima is fairly manky, and being there at night doesn’t help. It doesn’t have a central bus station either, so trying to find a bus out of there was slightly difficult. We thought we’d found a bus to Huaraz at 6.30am the following morning, but when we checked in our luggage we found we were the only people on it, so it had been cancelled. We then spent a stressful hour or so trying to find another company, that wasn’t full and didn’t cost a fortune (all the expensive buses were full, all the cheap ones empty – bizzare). Unfortunately all the companies offices are in a really horrible bit of town, which didn’t endear us to Lima either. We do have to pass through again to pick up our flight to Mexico and, hopefully, daylight will improve matters…we’ll see!

We finally fnd a bus to Huaraz and 8 hours later pull in.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Arequipa & Colca Canyon

June 29th, 2007

Arequipa ia a beautiful city – it is known as the white city due to the colour of the stone used in the buildings.

Our main point of call here was the Santa Catalina convent.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Nazca

June 29th, 2007

A night bus from Cusco to Nazca, not the best nights sleep either of us have had, saw us pull into Nazca at around 7am.  Before we knew it we were in a taxi to the airport to get a 8.30am flight over the famous Nazca lines.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley

June 22nd, 2007

So after our trek, we decided to give the 4.30am start and 2 hour walk up to Machu Picchu a miss and instead caught a very expensive bus (US$12 return each) – having said that everything about Machu Picchu and its surroundings is expensive, from entrance to train. Read the rest of this entry »

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