Taganga - Santa Marta - Tayrona - Lima - Huaraz

Checking in to give a quick update on the past week.  Raphael and I have taken it pretty easy and have spent a bunch of time traveling.

When I last wrote, we had just returned from La Ciudad Perdida and were ready to celebrate.  All nine of us from the trek and four others from an adjoining trek spent the night partying in a town called Taganga.  While all of the details don't need to be on the internet, I will say we spent the night at Miraval, the only bar/nightclub in Taganga standing around in a circle dancing and looking like the gringos that we are.  Unlike the past 5 nights, we managed to stay up way later than our 8:30 bed time and watched the sun rise over the mountains and the fishermen head out for the day. 

I didn't love Taganga.  It's a tiny fishing town that somehow became a major backpacker attraction.  It's supposedly known for scuba diving, but I didn't hear great things.  Other than that, its really just a place to party.  To me it just felt dirty.  We spent two days and two nights and I couldn't wait to leave.

We headed back to the beloved dreamer hostel in Santa Marta and continued to spend time with six of the people from our trek for the next two days.

We spent one day at Tayrona National park, a gorgeous park lined by the Caribbean Sea with many of the most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen.  We walked through the jungle about 45 minutes and then from beach to beach for an hour and a half each way.  After 4.5 hours of climbing rocks and walking barefoot my feet were killing.  I was in bed again by 8:30 that night. 

Tuesday was a travel day.  We left Colombia and headed to Peru.  We checked into our hostel, Hostel Kokopelli, in Lima just in time to see the end of a pumpkin carving contest. It was nice that they were celebrating Halloween, a little piece of home.   The hostel was a bit different from what I had been used to, but it was a city hostel instead of one in a smaller town.  It had a bar, common room, and fusbol table on the top floor and an overall great vibe.

We were a bit taken aback when we walked in our room, however.  There were half full cups, a dirty pot with remains of soup and 8 bottles of something that looked like Pedialyte lining the floor.  The last thing we wanted was to share a bedroom with someone who had a stomach flu. 

We soon met the culprit.  Dan, a Canadian, who assured us that while he was trying to rehydrate, his virus was not contagious.  He didn't know exactly what he had, but his symptoms were loss of feelings in all of his limbs, weakness, and a fever that only lasted a day.  The hostel arranged for a doctor to come see him daily and while she didn't have a name for what he had, she had seen it before and believed it came from swimming in, and accidentally swallowing, some type of contaminated water.  On our second day, Dan managed to walk two floors up to the common room, the farthest he had gone in five days. 

In Lima we stayed in a neighborhood called Miraflores that I loved.  There's not a ton to do, but I loved the energy of being back in a big city.  There's also a lot of American chains there too, so it felt a bit like home.  There was McDonalds, Starbucks, FedEx, even a Pinkberry.

We spent our first day at two markets.  The first was for locals, and the biggest market I've ever seen.  You could buy anything from food to clothing to metal scraps to toilettries to live chickens, pigs, ducks, and guinnea pigs.  It also was lined with hundreds of police officers, which made me a bit uncomfortable though we never found out why. 

The second market was much smaller, but exactly what we were looking for, and both Raph and I are now the owners of way more alpaca clothing than can fit in our packs.  I'll be sending a package with gifts home as soon as I find a post office. 

Kokopelli had a big Halloween party.and everyone dressed up, which was unexpected.  I didn't want to spend money on, nor buy something I'd have to carry around, so one of the Canadians from our room and I put on our new alpaca sweaters and went as twins.  Raph wore his red beach sheet and went as Jesus which he pulls off really well. 

I started the night with a two for one happy hour Pisco Sour special.  Pisco Sour is the most famous Peruvian drink.  I had eucalyptus flavor, but agreed to the drinks BEFORE knowing that there were raw egg whites in the recipe.  Not sure I'll be ordering it again.

Last night we took an overnight bus to a town called Huaraz.  The buses here are great... Nicer than American airplanes.  We were served dinner and our seats reclined and had foot rests.  I slept the whole way.  It's off season in Huaraz, and there's NO ONE around.  Some of the best hikes in the world are supposed to be located here, but it looks like it might be difficult to find a group big enough to convince a guide to take us out.  We also have to adjust to the altitude, the city is 10,000 feet high. 

Tomorrow we're going to go to some hot springs with a South American couple who both made aaliyah a few years ago and now live in Israel.  Hopefully the following day we'll be able to do a day hike called Laguna 69 and maybe even some longer treks after.  If not soon though, I may go stir crazy.  It's freezing here and I'm pretty sure our hostel doesn't have heat.  The alpaca clothing is already coming in handy. 

Pictures:
#1 Jesus and Caesar
#2 Raphael at the market
#3 Halloween at Kokopelli
#4 Sunrise in Taganga
#5 Watching the paragliders in Lima
#6 Halloween in Lima
#7 Tayrona National Park