A Solo Travellers Mind

Our night bus to Peru was kinda gross. The first bus to Puno was okay, but the second connection to Arequipa was not as okay. it was crazy hot, and I awoke to a burning sensation on my skin on the radiator, as I feared my belongings would set alight lol. We, of course, survived to live another day and arrived at a hostel to locate a room. The check in was a little chaotic with the lady unable to open the room key pad lock, and it took a total of 1 hour to check in, eventually though we got to our room, had a shower and went for a quick nap.
The day started strong, we got up, went for breaky, got a sim card organised, went and got some money out (happy to say we’ve mastered Western Union now!). Unfortunately, things went downhill when carley took a turn and got a wee bit ill, so the rest of the day was spent chit chatting with a wee australian man back in newy and in the hostel gym (hostel gyms make me happy). 
Luckily the next day carley was feeling better, so we seized the day, headed to a veiw point and a garden, went on a walking tour and learnt about the city, and also booked the bus for our trip over next few days. We, along with 2 girls I’d met in the hostel, would be going to hike colca Canyon unguided! The evening was spent eating a very tasty home cooked meal of veggie pasta and an apple pie before I gymed and headed to bed, ready for a 3am start, lol!
The 3  was kinda rough, and I will not lie. The sleep quality was very poor, but the show must go on. I kinda slept for a few hours on the bus before we stopped for breaky before continuing on. We stopped at a mirador on the way, getting to view the canyon in all its glory! We arrived at the beginning of the trek and began day one of our hike. The group now consisted of me and carley, Si and Rebecca (the girls from my hostel), and a boy called Barnaby (who we met on the bus but actually met the day previous on our walking tour!). We started our trek, and I wont lie. The scenes were sensational. Day one was all downhill, so I anticipated it’d be bad on the knees, but actually, it was completely fine. We made it to camp for the night by 2pm ish, had our snacks (including dried fruit, raisens and bread and olive spread (surprising nice considering I don’t like olives)) and then spent the evening talking with 2 other hikers (a German and a dutchy with very unique and unspellable names). We discussed conspiracy theories while putting the world to rights, had a nice dinner, and then all headed to bed.
In the morning, we had a smashing 3 course breaky and then packed up and started our day 2 hike!
The hike was very easy. It took us a long time as there were many stops taking in the veiws. We then arrived at Sangalli and located our hostel for the night. I had a quick swim in the pool (a super nice pool, may I add) before the evenings rain began! Rainy season is a thing! We had a very tasty dinner before retreating to bed at the ripe time of 6:54pm, some say they like to party, I like to sleep! Today was a super chilled day and a really nice hike before the big day tomorrow to hike back up the canyon (all by the 9am bus aha).

The final day of the hike was actually a lot easier than I expected. I’d read online that the hike out was super challenging and very hard, so I had mentally prepped for the worst… for me, this was not the case. I was out of the canyon in 2 hours, along with Si and Barnaby. The hike up was actually in the clouds as it was crazy cloudy in the morning, which meant it wasn’t too hot and also made for some cool pictures! We headed to breaky to wait for the other to finish. Carley got up and met us at the breaky spot. This was her first “big” hike, and set a good first impression to herself to know she’ll be able to do the rest of the hikes in Peru! On the way back from the hike we stopped as some hot springs, and also at a buffet, where I ate my body weight in cake and custard and also tried llama for the first time (it’s very tasty I won’t lie). The journey then continued to Arequipa, where we sorted our belongings and headed on a night bus to Ica.
The night bus to Ica was going well until 6 am when we hit traffic and realised we’d be spending a lot of time in it. 5 days before flash flooding had hit southern Peru, and Nazca was still dealing with the consequences. A bridge had become unstable and was now one way, controlled by the police. It took us a total of 6 hours to cross the bridge before continuing another 2 hours to Ica. The journey took 19 hours instead of 13, and it’s fair to say we were tired! We then got a tuk tuk to Huacachina, where we learnt of more flash flood devastation as we had to walk the last part due to a road closure… crazy. I had a bit of a flu as well, so this was not what I needed. Luckily, we arrived and checked in to the hostel, and soon we sat in a restaurant having lasagne and garlic bread, and things were okay in the world again. The evening was spent hiking up the sand dunes to watch the sunset, taking some cool pictures along the way. Before heading for a smoothie and to our beds, after a very long and sleepless 24 hours!

The next day, carley woke up at 5 am to go and do a sunrise paraglide over the dunes. I skipped this activity due to my shocking cold, and also not justifying spending the money. Being on a year-long trip means you really have to decide what you actually want to do. In the morning, we headed for a lovely breaky before getting the bus to Paracas. We actually took a troofy, which is basically a mini van as it kinda worked out the same price and takes you directly to paracas. We checked in to our hostel which was actually very nice and decided on the next days activities. I opted to hire a bicycle to explore the national park, whereas carley booked a bus tour for the following day instead, so I’d be riding solo, literally! We spent the rest of the day chilling by the pool, I started a new book, “The Bookseller of Kabul,” a very good read if interested! And then we headed to the beach for sunset before having dinner. My dinner was an interesting one, it started with a very nice avo salad, and ended with me learning what tripe is… (if you don’t know, it’s cow intestines!), I don’t like cow intestines apperently.

The next day, i woke early for my big bike ride! I hired my bike, which, luckily for me, was actually a very good mountain bike and headed on my way to the national park. It was so nice to be back on a bike, just exploring at my own pace and listening to my music or the world around me. Each time I get back on a bike, I remember how much I really love it. Paracas National Park was also so cool. In total, I stopped at 2 veiw points and 5 beaches. I saw some very cool turkey vultures, fishermen, and many untouched beaches. At the first beach I was so early there was no one else there! It felt like I had the national park to myself for hours! Lorries drove past me occasionally, and they always said hello, it was very cute! At one beach, it was so beautiful I had to go for a dip, with the water being crazy crystal clear. I wanted to get a video of me swimming and while I attempted to set it up a Peruvian older man offered to video for me, it was really cute, and his friends and wife were so unsurprised by his offer it made me convinced he just goes out his way to help everyone around him. The bike ride had some very challenging moments, fighting 20km winds, biking 2km up a steep hill, and of course the sun… but it was so worth it, and it was such a nice day! Post bike ride, i returned to the hostel to rest where the hostel owners mother stitched up my bag as it was well and truly falling apart now lol, another sweet gesture of the day! Dinner was another mediocre meal. However, it filled a hole, and one must try the cuisine to know if they like it after all… and then it was an early night, as i was a very, very tired gal!
Our final day in Paracas was a VERY fun one, we headed to the beach to go to the aqua park! There were 2 in paracas, one super busy, bigger and more expensive one. Or one smaller, cheaper, and much less busy one. After some deliberation, we decided the smaller cheaper one was actually better because there was no waiting around in queues, and you actually got longer on it! The park was so much fun, we launched ourselves down multiple slides, i gor flung through the air by one of the life guards, and carley got pushed down a slide by another! We even got an extra half an hour free. We had lots of banta with one specific lifeguard who was very funny and even recorded my backflip ahaha. After this, we headed for lunch/dinner before our bus to Lima (not a night bus this time, just a quick 3 hours!). We did get a tad sunburnt while in the park, but honestly, it was worth every inch of burn!

The bus to Lima was very drama, and then we checked in and headed to our hostel dorm. This hostel was honestly probably the nicest we’d stayed in so far. The beds were comfy. We had 2 pillows, curtains on the bed, and even a plug! It was dreamy!
The next day, we headed down for breaky, and this is when the hostel went up a million points! A buffet breakfast, all you can eat/drink! Tea, coffee, juice, cereal, lactose free milk!! Scrambled eggs, saluted potatoes and veggies, fresh tropical fruits, cheeses, and hams. Honestly, it was crazy… after dying at breakfast from happiness, we headed out for the day. We actually headed to a neighbourhood over called Barranco, well known for its street art! Here, we met up with Felix (see Salta blog for reference) and his follow companion. We spent the day roaming the streets, checking out various art museums, eating tasty cookies, and having nice slushys before heading for dinner. We originally went into a very posh establishment for dinner, but upon viewing the menu, it quickly departed when seeing the prices, lol. We then headed to a burger place with all 5 star reveiws, upon ordering burgers we noted the free cookie you receive if you leave a 5 star reveiw, soo ofc we left our review before even seeing the food and gained a cookie! We then watched the sunset before taking a walk home.

Our second day in Lima (after a slow slow morning at breaky) was spent in Milaflores (the neighbourhood we were staying in), here we saw more street art, found Paddington bear, and walked along the coast admiring the veiws of the oceans and various parks. We watched the sunset while having a lovely chat with some local guys before heading to the supermarket to find some dinner. Lima is kinda expensive, so supermarket food is of course cheaper, the neighbourhood is very modern and the supermarket is very cool cheap pre made healthy meals (todays choice, a pesto chicken, sun dried tomato pasta). Milaflores and Barranco are known to the safe heaven of Lima, apperently the other areas are not really safe at all for tourists, so we’ll be staying in our little bubble, in hope not to have any negative vibes coming our way (my cold/flu was still going strong, so this was negative enough for me lol).

The last day in Lima, was a very chilled one, we walked along the shore line, visited the beach (where i attempted to swim and got pumbled by the rocks of the rock beach and soon ran away from the waves), and then chilled in the hostel before our night bus. Lima has been a very chilled out vibe. We definitely could have seen more, but I’ll be honest I didn’t really want to, I was happy just relaxing and staying in the bubble that was these two neighbourhoods. I needed to R and R before more business followed!

Our night bus to Huaraz was actually very chilled and drama free. Unfortunately, this didn’t continue on arrival. The taxi driver we got agreed on a 10 sol price, but once in the taxi, he started saying he wanted 20. We argued and kicked off and then demanded we get out, but of course, he still wanted some money, and he locked us in the car until he got it. Some people truely are dickheads. We walked to rest of the way to the hostel and luckily things improved from here. We had some breakfast, had a nap and then spent the rest of the day just wondering around the town, and booking some excursions for the following days. We had plans to do a small hike however the rain came and stopped this. For dinner we made a very nice sausage and veggie pasta, and we even treated ourselves to a pudding from the bakery, a Berry cheese cake type thing. It was veryy nice! I spent the evening finishing my book, as i now had a new one to start that I acquired in Lima!

Our first excursion in Huaraz was to Lake Paron, sitting at 4200meters above sea level. I thought the day would involved more hiking, but the hiking was actually just 2 hours! It was a really easy hike though, and the veiws were very spectacular! The only bad thing was sitting in a car for 8 hours in total (this is not my idea of fun!).
The second excursions was to Laguna 69, this was a shorter drive (2 to 3 hours) thank god! The hike up to the Laguna was incredibly nice, not to much incline all at once, crazy good veiws of the glaciers and water falls, a really lovely stream running along side at the beginning! When I reached the top, I sat down and waited for carley, and had a wee snack break. This unfortunately was rudely interrupted by a cow, who came up to me, went into my bag, ate my orange and the plastic bag it was in! The cow was an expert and clearly had done this before! We then spent the hour admiring the veiw (and the cows) before hiking back down the trail. The journey back to the hostel was unfortunately not as smooth as the ride there, it felt alot slower and was far more bumpy, and by the time we reached home both me and carley had headaches and wished for our beds. We made our sausage and veggie pasta again (good post hike fuel i will admit) and then headed straight to bed.

Our travel day from Huaraz to Cusco was long, and slightly dramatic. It began at 6:45 am where we got picked up to head to airport no. 1, where our first flight was delayed. We eventually arrived in Lima and actually had 4 hours to kill in the airport to our connection to Cusco. We killed time by antagonising carleys mum on Facebook and playing cards. Then we boarded for our flight to Cusco. I had a really weird gut feeling that the plane wasn’t going to land (scary i know), and 1 hour later, we had a failed landing… it’s fair to say I shit myself, and at that point believed I had foretold my death. Another failed landing later we were told by the pilot the plane was heading back to Lima as it wasn’t safe to land. Luckily our flight was re arranged for 10pm that night and after a quick bite to eat we were back on a plane heading to cusco, this time hopeful we’d land! Fair play to the pilots this time round, managing to land in some bad wheather conditions, the pros for sure! We checked into our hostel very late and then headed to our beds, tired bunnys indeed.

Our first day in cusco was kinda relaxed. We met up with a guy so was contemplating doing the same trekking as us at the same time, he kinda knew cusco so he showed us around the area, and we had a chit chat about all our travels. Cusco was celebrating the begin of carnival season, along with the rest of Latin America, so there was a city wide water fight going on. This meant that on occasion we were hit with water balloons or attacked with silly foam! Craziness indeed! We walked to the Archaeological ruins, headed to the veiw point over Cusco, checked out the various markets in the town, and of course spotted some street art and art shops along the way. I then had a big nap due to a poor night’s sleep, before we headed for our dinner. Cusco is super touristic and alot of the restaurants are westernised, so we actually ended up in a Burger restaurant. I opted for the Alphaca burger, and it was pretty daym tasty I shall not lie! Before heading to our beds, listening to the sound of the rain, rainy season was well and truely still here!

My second day in cusco was kinda a write off. Come 11am I’d been struck down with a migrane, my first in 5 years! So after organising the things that really needed sorting i headed back to the hostel to sleep/chill. Hoping the migrane would be gone by the next day when we would be starting our 5 day trek… maybe I was stressed. In the evening the migrane was subsiding slightly and I ventured out for some dinner, opting for pizza tonight. The pizza was stone oven baked and it was unreal I will not lie, maybe one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had! The comfort food i needed! After packing and organising it was time for an early night, with our day beginning at 3:45am!

Day one of the Salkentey started with a very early bus to the start of the track. We had some breaky. The first day was an easy hike day. We hiked up to the lagauna for an easy 6.5 km. Unfortunately the veiw was questionable but still a very good hike. We had lots of hours to kill, so I taught Carley and Marik to play dildo, and the afternoon was filled with lots of fun and giggles. Too many jokes were made and it was realised that we’d formed a good group to complete this hike! We had some dinner, where the hostel manager kinda acted like a nazi man wanting people to sit in specific places, almost like being at school, it was very odd lol. That night, it was very cold outside. However, luckily for me, I had a very cosy sleep in my bed of many soft blankets!

Day two began with an early start and an interesting breaky of a strange oatmeal like meal, I ate it anyway due to the energy needed, but it was a very odd consistency! It was a 20km hike day, starting with some mild rain and carley kicking off about the mud (it had rained a lot overnight). Then the rain started to get crazy heavy, and from here, we got colder, lol. Part of the hike is at 4600 meters, and at this point, I  thought I’d get frost bite. We got soaked for hours, yet we all managed to keep up the morale. For Carley, this ended, when at a river crossing she fell in, i attempted to help but subsequently got half dragged in, too, lol. Her reaction was quite funny, and she just walked through the rivers from then on. It might not sound funny to read, but we all laugh a lot now! We had a lunch break, where we made tea and brought a quick meal. However, of course, by stopping, we all got cold and morale dipped temporarily! The rain luckily stopped, but just 1 hour before the end of the walking day, it was very typical but at least meant we could enjoy the end of the day and finally got some good views! We arrived at our hostel and had a warm shower before playing more games and having some more giggles. We had dinner and met back up with 2 other people from the hostel the night before, where we all discussed the days ahead! We then all headed to bed, but not before the kind lady offered to dry our shoes for us!

The following day was a very interesting start. There had been rain and land slides overnight again, causing a big power cut, so we ate our lovely breaky in the dark uncandle light (almost remantic!). We then had a big day of walking. However, it was  mostly slightly downhill! Intotal we crossed 5 land slides. For me, this was quite cool, and it made me feel like an explorer. Some were a little sketchy, but these ones usually had queues of the tours, so the guides helped us along the way, too! We got to see the locals in action chopping down a tree halfway up a land slide too which was kinda mad. In the afternoon we arrived and found a hostel, which was a very cute place. We then headed to the hot springs (or should i say the warm springs) for a chill and relax before returning for an absolutely incredible dinner and a good nights rest.

The final day trekking together was a huge day walking to agua calientes. It started with 1000 meters elevation gain over 5k then 1000 meter down over 3km then another 12km kinda flat. The up wasn’t too bad as we began trekking in the cool weather, but going back down was so hot and felt like it was never ending.. Many blisters occurred, and some minor shoulder crippling from my ruck sack took place. We stopped for a bite of lunch, and oh my, we were all very tired. With mariks, positive must go energy also depleating! Along the way, Carley also got ATTACKED by mosquitos, which was less than ideal for her legs! We did at last arrive in Cusco, we located a hotel with breaky included for cheap, showered and got settled. We had our own room again, which was how blissful given how tired we all were! We went out to scope out some dinner options and settled with trying cow heart kebabs and having a burger from a burger van, followed by a chorres for pudding. It was super cheap and crazy nice! Along the way, we bumped into Paddington in Peru again and then returned to the hostel to play some dildo before an early night, all knackered from the big hike!

On the final day of the trekking to machu picchu, we woke at 6 am to all have a final breaky together, with Marik leaving earlier than us to go to machu picchu! We enjoyed a lovely breaky (eating as much as possible of the buffet, lol). We then said our peaks and pits of the trip and said our goodbyes, having started the trip together as practical strangers, and now marik definitely knows far too much about us and our bodily fluids! Carley and I just had a wee chill before our final hike up to machu picchu. You can get the bus, but we aren’t pussys, and we aren’t gunna to quit now so close to the end, lol. (We also forked out on the expensive train back to cusco that night for our comfort, so the bus isn’t in the budget!). The hike up the Machu Picchu was kinda short but also felt very difficult, mainly due to the exhaustion from the previous days! On arrival to machu picchu we were very apprehensive, after being told it’s usually cloudy at 3pm (our booked time slot), but we had absolutely perfect wheather for the first half, and a little rain for the second, but the whole sky was clear and we had amazing veiws! We walked around and explored the area while also listening to the guided tours around us to learn about how the Incas built machu picchu and why. It was quite interesting, considering it’s a bunch of rocks! I was sad to learn that a lot of the structure has actually been re-created, but there is a part of the area at the end of the hike that you can see is still the original ruin. The hike back down was CRAZY wet, lots of rain… ending the hike how we started, lol. We walked back, straight to the food stands where we had a starter of pig heart kebab, followed by marys burger and cheeros once again! It was once again amazing. The train back was very cramped and also kinda cold, but we arrived back to the hostel in Cusco and dived straight into bed!

Our final day in peru was spent doing sweet, nothing! I really could not be bothered to do anything, so I took the day to watch netflix and relax before our flight to Ecuador. I did get my washing done (at an absolutely extortionate price), at least! We went for lunch at a nice “italian” style restaurant and then headed to the airport, where we’d fly first to Lima and then to Quito!