johnnypovolny

[johnnypovolny]

Huayhuash

Cast of characters:

Marcelo and Rafael, uncle and nephew from Brasil

Amin: from Qatar, wants to go back to Namibia

Yuri: Mexican woman whose eye swelled up like crazy

Benito: Spaniard with the most Spanish accent ever

Rebecca: Aussie who knows Haley from antartica

Linda: doctor from Canada

Ohn: Israeli military guy with mohawk and drone (I want to visit him, he's cool as hell)

Michael and Amelie: French couple who live in Geneva. They were so laid back and chill that I'm making a rule: no more talking shit about the French

Estrella: badass guide. Always addressed us with "ok, chicos" and had a fun sense of humor

Kelly: other guide, much quieter but still nice

Enoc: chef. Skinny with a big-toothed smile, seems to own every business in Huayllalpa

Elmer and Russell: donkey drivers. Friendly, salt of the earth guys with badass wide brim hats and the ability to run seemingly forever in the high altitude

Day 1: 

Met at the office in Huaraz. Long drive up to our start point, through a couple villages where we had to pay an entrance fee and get let through some gates. Spent most of the drive talking to Amin about Namibia. When we got closer to the start, saw HUGE grey granite slabs poking out of the hillsides with steep and slanted but sheer/flat faces. Our campsite was in this green gold valley with one sharp snowcap rising up above the hill next to us (before dinner we climbed up there to see the view on the other side of the full mountain)

-leaving dinner we got staggering views of the milky way in a totally clear sky. Not sure if it was the clear air of the altitude or what but the twinkling of the stars was the strongest I've ever seen it.

Day 2:

-Immediate climb up and to the right out of the valley (about 600 meters climbing to Qaqanan). Could see the whole green valley stretching out away from us as we climbed.

-view from top (4800m): brownish red river cutting into green/gold valley. Descended and then took break, watched the donkeys gallop by with the handlers running after. RUNNING.

-walked along the valley for a while- river wandering along next to and below us with patches of grass next to it glistening in the sunshine.

-came to a turn where there was a road cutting left and our trail cut right to a check point. (Waited for Amin because he dropped his cell). View of huge snowcaps!

-after the gate, the other group who had gone through the checkpoint turned off right and went into the valley to Mitucocha Camp in a big open field below the mountain, while we continued to the left, over a little river bridge and up a steep climb to meet Enoc and the horse and have lunch on a beautiful hillside looking back over the camp and the valley.

-after lunch, continued up the valley, sloping gently up to the second pass of the day- Punta Carhuac, where we got the first view of the three mountains together that dominated the landscape for the rest of our walk.

-down into a brilliantly green valley to the left of a hillside. As we walked the three mountains got bigger and bigger: Yerupajá, the 2nd tallest mtn in Peru in the center with vertical chimneys in the ice of it's sheer center face at the top, to it's right a really triangular one with lots of colors including deep maroon and cream (Rasac), and to the left a more rounded peak with brown and white layered horizontal stripes (Siula). I was laughing with delight like a crazy person and playing aesgir songs to accompany the descent. Ended up in a more tan/green valley that was right below the three mtns with this really mystical feel.

-continued descending along the left side of a hill (I ran for a while because it felt really good) and was first one to come up a small ridge and get a view of our first lake, Laguna Carhuacocha. It's a long strip of brilliantly royal blue that ends in a golden field cut by dark snakes of riverbed and then the 3  mountains (from a slightly different angle) TOWERING up over it. I watched two white birds soar from above us, down to the lake with their shadows on the surface and then land on the bank.

-We hung out on the ridge taking photos and drone videos and then went to our campsite, at the far end of the lake.

-Went to sit at this stone house at the end of the lake and look at the mountains. Same as in the campsite and on the ridge beforehand, the mountains are SO insanely huge it's difficult to comprehend them. People on the ridge above me looked laughable in comparison. And they're so steep- they soar straight up from the meadow, gold and slate grey down below, white above, and dappled in sunlight and cloud. Just insane.

Day 3:

-super sunny morning on the bank of the lake, but quickly turned to cloud

-walked around the far end of the lake then back towards the mountains, then cut left through a scrubby valley to a dark lake.

-hiked up the first mirador to see two of the three famous lakes. The middle (name?)is darker blueish green but the one on the right (name?) is a brilliant, stunning turquoise (a more concentrated version of the bright blue of a swimming pool in direct sunlight) with a ring of ice on the left side, below a sheer face of ice fields/galciers with falling mixed ice and water coming down in rivulets into the lake

-climbed up to the left of the lakes until we got to the famous Siula mirador: you can see a chain of 3 lakes: farthest are the two i just described and then closest to the mirador is another of the same amazing bright color, but reflecting the mountain and the sky so it had a sharp white glare on it like sunglasses. Behind the lakes closer are slate grey icecaps and in the distance (off to the right) are sharp mountains whose knife-like ridges divide a brown side from a mossy-green gold side 

-i was a little disappointed to not have a totally clear day to see the lake colors, but the sun did peek through for a few minutes and make the turquoise lakes glow like jewels. And no matter what the weather, it's crazy to be among mountains this dramatically huge, lakes these insane colors, and tramping through high meadows like we're in the sound of music- they're sights that few people have the privilege to enjoy

-put the lakes to our back and went up another two hours to Siula pass (4850 m). View from there down to a big brown hill kind of triangular shaped like rainbow mountain and a small dark colored lake.

-descended to a flatland and then again down a series of sort of bog mounds (terraced green mossy mounds with mud between). On the right side were icy mountains with glaciers and on the left was a set of 3 or 4 slate grey peaks that were all connected and had sheer, flat faces.

-ended the day with a descent into a valley with those grey mtns to the left side, Huayhuash mountain to the right, and some brown craggy peaks in the center, the 3 mountain sets sheltering a wide field of greenish tan filled with sheep circles, stone walls, and dotted by the bright colors of our tents.

-played soccer with the donkey guys- so hard at altitude

Day 4:

-Climbed to Trapesio pass, kind of unremarkable climb because mostly clouded/fogged in. Actually got snowed and hailed on at the top. But 5010m elevation so new highest

-we crossed and the fog started to lift to show lakes on the other side! A string of like 5 small ones (including two that were like bright metallic glacial blue) and then a larger, dark blue one with a giant butte behind it, covered partly by a dramatic ceiling of fog

-stopped for lunch on the way down- donkey had fallen and gotten injured and was left to die. Made me really sad that it's whole life was to serve people and then when it got hurt they didn't do it even the service of putting it down. I wanted to help but had no

-descended to the lakes: super incredible up close because the dark blue lake is surrounded by rows of buttes of columnar brownish orange rock that look like they're made of carved wood, some of them with curved deformities that look exactly like termites have been eating away at them. The contrast of the orange/brown with the color of the water was amazing.

-at the end of the lake is an especially huge one of these that's so tall and cylindrical it looks like a cathedral or a keep (kind if the twin of the one in Torres del Paine), so I nicknamed it The Citadel.

-beyond that was a row if more normal shaped mountains colored in brown, tan, and this odd sort of shiny steel that looked like silver in the sunlight. The whole color palette has changed: before it was greens and gold's and now it's oranges and browns.

-i descended through fields of orange and grey rock, having a ton of fun with my imagination: making up a story in my head involving the citadel and a sort of scout/lookout on another planet

-came to final viewpoint over our camp: this huge green and gold valley that looked surreal in the misty partial rain and fog, with at the far end these protruding rock formations that look like an elephant and a serpent. Looked exactly like a scene out of Lord of the rings, I half expected horses to come galloping out of the gap between the figures. It felt extra cinematic because I was looking out at it from under my hood and through my bangs which was sort of framing the whole scene in a cool first person perspective.

-It started raining harder as I went down and I took my hood off to feel it in my hair. Got to camp as it turned to hail, which fell strongly for like 10 minutes, filling the camp with hail bits, and then abruptly stopped, leaving the camp bathed in sunshine

Day 5:

Perfectly sunny warm day, FINALLY! Left the campsite with the elephant and serpent and climbed sharply out of the valley over ground covered in snow/hail combo. Leapfrogged with a group from Colorado for a while. Passed on the left next to a brown mountain and then approached Santa Rosa Pass on the right side of another snowcap. Steep snowy climb up to the top of the pass, revealed amazing view: huge snowcapped mountains towering over a dark blue lake and with a smaller one above and to the left. Pass is at 5238m, the highest I've climbed as far as I know. Stood at the top shouting to hear the echo and feeling so accomplished, drinking in the view. Descended (listening to "Tierra del Olvidos" and chatting with estrella and a cook from the Colorado group named Cristian) to a ridge next to the lake and we could see another one to the right, more mint colored. Took a really cool widening frame video of Ohn (Israeli guy I really liked).

-Went to the left down the valley- first carpeted with green and big stones like a high meadow in the Alps, then a sort of high walled arid canyon like Arizona- I walked ahead and enjoyed some solitude for a while. Waited for the rest of the group at a gate- path now runs next to a river. Passed through and suddenly the valley narrowed like we were going to get ambushed from above and we came to a large waterfall and a section where the river was running in weird rivulets directly through the grass. The valley got more and more lush, with large skinny trees standing out above it and the river running quickly through it: started to look like the shire or rivendell, this insanely lush green paradise. Further down the valley the town of Huayllalpa was huddled in this tiny ledge in the shadow of the towering mountain. Tiny boy blaring music passed us sprinting down the hill and we descended into the village: ate dinner literally in the bodega where we'd just bought snacks (and ate them right there and some people bought eggs and then asked the bodega owner to boil them- she probably thought we were totally crazy).

Day 6:

Climbed back up the steep stairs that lead into Huayllalpa and then turned up the valley. Hot climb in the sun up the valley, watching Amin struggle to get his horse to keep walking. Crossed over the river and came into a high mountain meadow and then up to Tapush Pass (kind of stoney last ascent)- Amin and his horse and I arrived first: view on the other side was our first look at the black mountains, serving as a backdrop to a lake in a green meadow, divided into two sections by a much shallower pinched section in the middle. Camped down below the lake in a big compound surrounded by stone walls called Quashpapampa. Washed my socks and then lazed in the sun. I got up to pee in the middle of the night after moonset- refreshingly cold on my bare torso and amazing stars in the clear dark sky.

Day 7: Our last real climb: Michael, Ohn and I warmed our feet in the sun and then left the circle of rocks. Up through a valley and then steep climb up a set of switchbacks through big rocks and then grey gravel (sometimes iced over like a frozen river) to Yaucha Pass. At the top (Ohn and I got there first), sat on a big rock and looked at the mountains across from the pass- they seemed really blue because the sun hadn't gotten high enough to shine on their faces yet. And the foothills off to the side somehow seemed to be backlit even though the sun was almost overhead- dark blue with a sort of lighter halo that made them seem like the fake mountains that run along the edges of a planetarium sky. When the rest of the group got there, we cut laterally to 2 miradors. First one showed us the the full view of the mountains: turns out this was the backside of the 3 big mountains I described on day 2 (there were actually 4- get names again from map). Incredible views of these mountains- they just tower over everything with these impossibly steep upper summits of ice and foothills of red and tan dirt in some places and in others then amazing gold-green that's all over in Huayhuash. And all around we could see brown mountains and lush valleys and other cordilleras in the distance. Second mirador was further along and revealed a pair of lakes nestled in the valley below the leftmost mountain: one darker blue with a green sheen close to the edges (turned out to be some sort of huge green pond plant like kelp) and another higher up that was that impossible glacial blue like a piece of polished jade. CRAZY steep descent- stopped on this huge rock that just drops off like a cliff where we were literally looking down on gliding birds, and then sort of half-walked half-skiied down the valley next to it in a series of switchbacks. The little jewels of our tents in the camp were TINY and seemed to not get any bigger for a really long time during the dusty descent of switchbacks. Eventually got down to the valley- seemed like paradise: this green lush slice through brown hills with a lazy river running through it, which comes from a waterfall that spills down the hillside and under a little suspension bridge over rapids and a deep pool. And at the top of the valley is the totally imposing, serene presence of the mountain. Ohn, Michael, and I arrived first and were commenting on how the camp seemed like somewhere fake that got created just for a brochure, but it's real! Russel greeted us by sharing his beer ("para tu sed") and then we took a (very brief) jump into the little pool below the bridge. I read in the sun lying in the pile of sleeping bags and luggage, and then pulled a blanket over me to protect myself from sunburn and sort of half-napped like a cat in a sunbeam, enjoying the view and sound of the waterfall and the sense of absolutely 0 responsibility. Might be the most idyllic campsite I've ever been to!

When sunset came, the mountains turned really orange and then this amazing pale white backed by a sky that was this incredible lavender color I've never seen in a sunset and was an amazing contrast/backdrop for the snowy mountains. To the opposite side of camp the dark hills were backed by the purply halo glow of the setting sun. We watched the stars slowly come out one by one, then played cards and had dinner. After dinner the sky was dark but we could still see the white silhouette of the mountains in the light of the half moon.

Day 8: went down the valley following the river on a sort of twisty path on the scrubby hillside. Nothing special in terms of the walk but because we weren't huffing and puffing from a hard climb, had more of a chance to talk- chatted a lot with Rebecca, Linda, and Ohn about the future of medicine (the girls are both in the field), relationships and physical types, etc. It was a nice discussion, really interesting. Dropped down another steep set of switchbacks to reach our final destination, the village of Llamac (small, clean, and cute but at first really deserted in a way that felt really twilight zone-esque. Especially the old woman with cloudy blind eyes who just didn't respond to anything i said to her..). Bought a beer and some chips and then hung out waiting for the minibus back to Huaraz. All in all a super successful trip- there were times when I would have preferred not to be with a group, if they were complaining or I wasn't feeling social, but sometimes it was nice to have company and it was amazing to not have to carry a full bag, deal with cooking and pitching a tent, etc. And the views were INSANE- Easily comparable to Patagonia, just one after another place that was so beautiful as to not seem possible to be real. Main differences from Patagonia: less glaciers but also way less trees, you're above the treeline so literally nothing obstructs any view. Glacial lakes in Patagonia were more of a slate blue like Gatorade, these are more turquoise like a swimming pool or tropical shallows.

The whole place also kind of reminds me of Ireland on steroids because of the greenish gold lowlands around the mountains, the old stone sheep pens and huts, and the mysterious kind of misty quality to the air on cloudy days but brilliant green glow in the sun.

[johnnypovolny]

[johnnypovolny]

Cusco/Macchu Picchu - June 31 - July 3

Sammya and I flew to Cuzco (much smaller airport than I expected) and the whole crew from the Panamerican games got into a bunch of vans and went to our hotel- sits up on a hill looking over the Cusco valley so it has a beautiful view but is pretty far from the main city center. Took a hot bath and Sammya and I had a nap (in this huge suite that turned out to be the wrong room- I was off by one and the door wasn’t locked..). Then I got a collectivo to the plaza de armas to print out our Inca Rail tickets. Cusco in general has a lot of brownish-red brick and beautiful architecture (including some really stunning buildings around the plaza and a sort of castle-looking church that’s built on an old Inca temple site. The city center is charming and pretty but also kind of overrun with people insistently selling tours, massages, and souvenirs.

First night in town, I went to meet up with Hailey from the Antarctic cruise and her family- we got drinks at Limbus Bar, a restaurant up on one of the hills in San Blas with a spectacular view of the city at sunset. Nice to catch up with her and meet her brother and best friend. After dinner we walked around a bit looking for a cheesecake shop I read about online (I ended up finding it at a new location after the rest of the group headed for home- it was up the stairs behind the fountain where there was a little night street food fair happening. The cheesecake wasn’t very good, but the people were really sweet and welcoming so it was still nice). 

Next day (Monday the 1st), Sammya and I got up at like 3 and went to meet the taxi driver I’d gotten to agree to come pick us up the previous night. He took us to the Inca Rail offices where we started chatting with a trio of American girls: Stephanie and Rachel were a pair of friends working as freelance videographers for a few weeks in Peru and the third girl was an engineer who they met at their hostel whose name is escaping me. We took the bus through to Ollantaytambo and bought some sandwiches on the little street leading to the train station, which made me think of Harry Potter because of architecture and the colorful old-timey train. Train ride to Aguas Calientes- not as cool as I had hoped because the windows were super fogged from the temperature contrast early in the morning so you couldn’t see much. Train took us along a little river and into an increasingly steep valley to the small town of Aguas Calientes- kind of a cool little village: cluster of tall wooden buildings packed together around and sort of leaning out over the train tracks, which are spanned by pedestrian bridges, and surrounded by the super steep green hills of the valley. 

Grabbed some empanadas to take up for lunch and got a guide to share a tour with the American girls (a kind of quiet but friendly short guy named Julio Cesar who sometimes cracked sly sarcastic jokes). Shuttle bus took us up to the site itself- along a road of steep switchbacks looking out over the dramatically streep valleys of cloud forest. 

Julio took us first to a few places where we could look down on the site itself- I had low expectations because of how oversold Machu Picchu is but it was actually really pretty. I don’t think it’s a life-changing experience but it was cool to see it in context- the surrounding mountains (especially the Inca-face shaped Huayna Picchu right behind the old city) are really beautiful and the city itself is this little green and stone jewel perched on the ridge. Julio took us to walk a piece of the original Inca trail and told us some interesting facts about how there were resthouses for travelers all along it that were kept stocked with food and about how they had a sort of runner version of the pony express that could get a message from Machu Picchu all the way to what is now Ecuador in like 5 days (someone running 24/7). The trail took us out to look over the valley and see the old Inca bridge (closed off by a gate)- one of my favorite parts were the super steep stone walls supporting the path we were walking on, crazy that they could build effectively on a hillside like that. Went back and descended into the site itself: first we stopped on one of the terraces (essentially huge planter pots filled with large stones, gravel, sand, and then turf) that Julio called “my office” and he gave us a brief history of the site’s “discovery” by a British explorer (who was looking for El Dorado and paid a local to take him to another lost city they’d discovered). Next we went down and walked among some of the actual buildings- storerooms, temples, etc, some with collapsing walls from earthquakes, others with windows looking over the valley. There’s a rock that is placed exactly as to show where the cardinal directions are and a half buried inca cross (the buried bottom half represents the underworld and I think the top half represents the other two sections of the cosmos: the Inca’s divided the “pachamama” or mother earth into 3 realms: the underworld represented by the serpent, the middle realm represented by the puma, and the upper world/sky represented by the condor). One of the temples actually has a carved condor- a V of two huge rocks representing the wings and then a grey stone on the ground for the body topped by a white stone representing the head and the white chest. One of the hills is terraced like a huge amphitheater- that was cool because I’ve never seen the extent of that in photos, it was much bigger than expected. I also really liked this tree that stood alone in the middle of one of the terraces- it was tall and skinny, with a spreading top like an acacia, and was totally by itself- one of my favorite memories was seeing it silhouetted by the sunlight as we were walking out, with the site in the background glowing this impossible green in the strong high-altitude sunshine and the hills behind framing the whole scene. 

We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo (which was much prettier this time because we could actually see out of the windows) and then got in a mini bus to go back to Cusco.

Back in Cusco, we got massages (my masseuse kept stopping to text with one hand during my appointment which would make her massage super weak and distracted until she resumed with two hands- SO WEIRD and unprofessional, I’ve never had someone do something like that before! I was kind of annoyed but it was also so ridiculous as to be kind of funny). Afterwards we went to a restaurant called Morena, which was super pleasant and cozy- an open kitchen with a couple tables around it and then a basement with this sort of white stone dining room where a guy pushes a drink cart around and makes cocktails at the tables. Not the best food of my life but good enough, and the atmosphere was super comforting. 

Slept in late the next day and then in the evening went to go meet Stephanie and watch the Copa America game between Brazil and Argentina at an Irish bar called Paddy’s. Brazil won (I was supporting them because of Sammya), but I lost, by which I mean about an hour after eating shepherd’s pie there, I got food poisoning and was throwing up all night (at one part so hard that people in the lobby thought the noise was someone making a baby and started to clap and cheer). I most of the whole next day in bed recovering before my flight back to Lima and my (thankfully very restful) night bus to Huaraz. 

[johnnypovolny]

[johnnypovolny]

[johnnypovolny]

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[johnnypovolny]

Paracas/Huacachina/Nazca

Thursday June 6th

Took a morning bus to Paracas, a fairly typical beachside town of touristy seafood restaurants along a promenade that borders a sandy beach and a pier, and checked into Kokopelli Hostel. The hostel this sprawling sort of walled complex with a pool area, a large bar/restaurant with tables, hammocks, and a little couch nook, and then a gate that exits out to the beach. Worked next to the pool all day and then participated in a beach cleanup (free beer and getting to feel superior). Chatted with a British surfer named Wilf while we cleaned up trash. After the cleanup, he and I went and got dinner at a sort of rasta themed restaurant with a big painted lion on the front door and then headed back to the hostel to drink. I met an English guy named Andrew and his Irish girlfriend Sandra who I really clicked with- we had a bunch of really interesting and provocative conversations about real topics, rather than the Big 2 that I get so sick of (“Where are you from”, “where/how long are you traveling”). Andrew and I entered a fusbol tournament that we immediately got knocked out of (literally first round), and then we all just drank and hung out talking in the hostel bar. 

Friday June 7th

Got picked up by and went to go organize gear the guys from Peru Kite (Scott, a British expat who owns the school and Memo, a Peruvian kiting instructor, and Max, a local kiter/college kid). We drove into the reserve to go to Laguna Grande. I had a little bit of a challenging day, so I’ll describe the reserve/spot in tomorrow’s entry (because I have better memories from that day)- but one thing to remember is that one of the bays we passed early on had this gorgeous turquoise color. I basically felt really out of kiting shape/practice, and also think I was too overpowered for the wind we were riding: I had so much trouble staying upwind and I felt like I was struggling the whole time to not get pulled off my board or hurt myself. At the end of the day, I actually took a big fall, lost my board, and ended up floating for like 45 minutes trying to find it, before giving up and coming to shore. Luckily, Scott was able to take my kite and his board and go find mine, so everything ended well!

After the session, I got to thinking: what a waste of a day: I feel that part of the reason I rode more frantically/less smoothly and controlled was because I spent a lot of time worrying about the fact that Max was so much better than I was even though we’ve ridden for similar amounts of time. I think that’s dumb- not only do I have no idea how much he’s ridden, gotten professional instructions, etc- but more importantly, the point of doing something you enjoy is to enjoy and progress yourself, not worry about other people. And my own inability to relax and focus on just having fun meant I wasted my time and money that day- I resolved to have a better attitude tomorrow. That day in general prompted what I’m trying as a new approach: getting really invested mentally in the success of others when they’re doing the same activity as I am (I like to pretend I’m their coach)- that way my natural competitiveness works on my behalf because I get to enjoy their successes instead of feeling jealous. It becomes us against the challenge, not me against them. It’s honestly been really transformative, allowing me to be excited about watching other surfers and learning from them instead of being angry that I’m not there yet! Talking to my counselor that evening also helped give me some perspective: digging into the idea that a lot of what I’m doing lately (work, kiting, surfing, etc) are all things that require mental and physical effort. None of them is truly relaxing, so my brain sometimes gets exhausted- I’m going to work on building in more mental rest time. 

I got back to the hostel and the day really started looking up. Met up with Andrew and Sandra and we had a blast that night- Andrew and I entered a beer pong tournament and ended up winning the whole thing. I love playfully trash talking during games like that and the last shot I joked around to the crowd about making it and then just sank it dead in the heart- the bar gave us a free drink and a tee shirt from the hostel (it’s my impression that they don’t usually do that, but one of our opponents was a staff member and liked playing with us). I enjoyed playing with and talking to this pair of British friends (Lamar, a black guy with dreads and a warm, friendly smile, and his other buddy who’s name I’ve forgotten but who was Middle Eastern, tall, and really tranquil). 

Saturday June 8th:

This is the kiting day I was hoping for! Scott had me jump in a van with some people from another school and they took us out to Laguna Grande again. I was really excited because while we were loading up I could see the flags snapping and the sun shining (apparently unseasonably, but I got nothing but sun all weekend) and I just felt excited by the opportunity to come at the day with a better attitude. We drove out into the reserve with the driver Jose Luis bumping a mix I’m pretty sure he burned himself- mostly Shaggy, meaning I heard Wasn’t Me and Angel both about 6 times that day. Both are uptempo, funny, and a little nostalgic, providing the perfect adventure backdrop. We took a different route out to the Laguna, one that brought us much closer to the incredible golden dunes of the reserve and the backdrop of blue ocean in the bays we passed. I was hanging out the window singing along to Shaggy and drinking in the gorgeous sunny day as we crested the ridge that looks down over Laguna Grande and saw whitecaps on the surface- I was so excited to get back on a kiteboard (still am, sitting here in this Lima cafe thinking about Ecuador in a few weeks..). We drove down to a spot a little closer to the end of the bay, parked the car (still bumping… you guessed it- Angel), and started setting up our gear. Laguna Grande is incredibly beautiful and unusual- the whole Paracas national reserve is known as “Where the Desert Meets the Sea”, and from what I’ve seen, this spot is the crown. It’s a wide bay of flatwater that in many spots is only a few feet deep so as you kite you’re racing over submerged seaweed, sand and rocks visible through the clear sometimes-dark-blue sometimes-jade water. The backdrop is a single huge golden dune dominating the horizon like a volcano and towering over a cluster of buildings and boats used by the local fishing community as a sort of staging center for their operations. I spent the day just exulting in adrenaline- started getting some really good control on larger jumps based on advice Scott had given me, practiced my backrolls, toe side riding, and downloops. At the end of the day I crashed the kite and it burped out all the air and got waterlogged, which was a little challenging, but I was able to gather it up and wade back to shore without anything getting permanently damaged. It wasn’t my favorite way to end a day, but I’d already had so much fun that I wasn’t too frustrated. 

Back at the hostel, things were in full swing. It was Saturday (a night when they play dance music at an entirely earsplitting volume), so lots of locals and visitors from other hotels had come to party (I get the impression that the hostel is something of a local hotspot). There was a bachelorette party there that I had fun chatting and dancing with and I had a blast talking to a toweringly tall Swiss girl who reminded me a lot of friends and family in terms of the funny, crazy, unselfconscious energy that I enjoy. 

Sunday June 9th

Caught a morning bus (after about 2 hours of sleep) to Huacachina. It’s a small town nestled around an oasis lake in the middle of 2 shockingly tall dunes. I was sitting on a bench, exhausted from the lack of sleep, when I was approached by one of the hawkers that sell tours and expeditions in every town like this in the world. I tend to usually brush these people off because I hate being “sold to” and would rather approach a tour company myself when I’m ready. But rather than the normal frantic “Hey buddy- Tours? Quad bike? Sandboard? BUDDY” that I’ve come to expect, this guy just gently approached and said hello, asked me some questions, talked a bit about how much he’s enjoyed the paragliding lessons he’s been taking, and actually made me feel a rapport of a real human conversation. I ended up describing what I’d like to do with the day and he talked to me a bit about options. I felt really comfortable with him, so I went and signed up for a few tours, and then he gave me a recommendation about where to go get something to eat (a delicious menu of coffee, a broth soup with lime and aji, and then rice with carne seco, served by someone I’m still not sure was a man or a woman but either way was very sweet to me). The first tour was quad bikes and it was laughably terrible- I was hoping for a quad bike tour of the reserve like I got to do in Namibia and instead it was basically a sandy junkyard where I road quad bikes in a circle for a hot, boring hour with these boorish, irritating, entitled Spaniards in their late 30s who were everything I hate about guys who go to Vegas in groups. I didn’t mind that much because I knew I’d still get to take the dune buggy tour later and it was only 20 bucks, but the sheer terribleness was pretty funny. I went back to town and sat by the lake to video chat with Amelia for a while, then picked up my sandboard and went to practice. I’m glad I did this because the view from the main dune above town was spectacular- a patchwork of dunes with buggys roaring through them and out into the reserve with other areas of fields, stone, and cities (including the nearby main city of Ica which has a solitary dune sticking up right out of the city itself). I tried sandboarding down this and then another nearby dune- on the first run, I think I tried to carve too much and got bogged down (it’s not like snow because there’s so much more friction and weight so you can’t take big wide S turns) and on the second one I’d wiped too much wax off before descending so I just slid to a halt. Later on the sand buggy tour I figured out how to ride better and it was pretty fun (especially my last, longest run from the dune where we watched sunset) but nothing to write home about- I’ve always wanted to try this out of curiosity but I’ll definitely stick to snowboarding, it’s way more fun and lasts for much longer. The sand buggy tour was pretty cool- for part of it I got to sit up front, and it was fun flying up and down the dunes (especially after sunset when everything was dark and you’re powering through the desert lit only by the lights of the car. And it was cool getting to see the groups of buggies parked on the ridges with everyone milling about taking photos- the buggies are this huge multi-seat contraptions with exposed engines, neon-painted roll cages, and aggressive names and racing stripes, so seeing a bunch of them together in the desert made me think of Mad Max. Overall, I think my favorite part of the day was the view from the top of the dune when I climbed it- it was the most dramatic view and I got to enjoy it with far fewer people. After the dune tour got done, I shared a taxi back to Ica with Gustavo and Jem, two Peruvians from my buggy tour- we grabbed a rushed meal and I got on my bus to Nazca. 

I arrived in Nazca around 9:30 and exhaustedly got a cab to my hostel. I intended to go to bed right away, but when I got there, I walked in through basically a london-bridge tunnel of the staff salsa dancing in the lobby, who all greeted me like family “Oh you must be Johnny, WELCOME!” 

They invited me to share a drink and a joint and we sat talking and getting to know each other for a while. One of the guys was a Turkish kitesurfing instructor who pumped me up the most on how fun Ecuador is going to be- telling me how much he loved the town where I’m going, how the wind is amazing in August, and how I’m probably going to see humpback whales! I salsa danced with a beautiful German girl named Kaija and finally dragged myself away from the group to put in my earplugs and crash into sleep.

Monday June 10th:

Today was my flight over the Nazca lines! We packed into a small airplane (8 seats including the pilot/copilot) and took off on a perfectly clear, blue-sky morning. The pilot circled and banked for about 30 minutes as the copilot pointed out each of the figures. Some of them were really beautiful, particularly the birds (the hummingbird, the condor, and the gannet) and it was cool to see the precision with which they were built (especially the huge triangles- it’s impressive that the sides meet up perfectly). However, honestly I enjoyed the flight itself just as much as the lines- the views of the jagged brown teeth of the surrounding mountains were beautiful and it was fun to be in a small plane- it’s a more raw experience, like being on a motorcycle compared to being in a greyhound, where the experience of flying feels more immediate, noisy, and intimate. 

After the flight was over, I headed home, got a delicious menu at a restaurant on the main square, and then napped for like 4 hours. It was so nice taking a leisurely daytime nap after how crazy work had been the previous weeks. After I got up from my nap, I walked around town a bit with two French Canadian girls from the hostel- we got dinner at another restaurant in the Plaza de Armas area (another customer welcomed us in as we looked at the menu and then started joking to the woman who owned the place that we were her family and she should treat us well), and then we searched for a long time for picarones (never found them, they got cake instead and I had my first emoliente- a hot spiced drink that comes in lots of varieties of herb and fruit infusions, delicious). After dinner, I went and jumped on my night bus back to Lima!

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Catacombs/Downtown

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The catacombs!

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Downtown Lima- The Basilica/Catacombs de San Francisco

Fernanda and I went to Lima center to go visit these famous catacombs that are under a church there. On the way there we saw the famous “balconies of lima”, these intricate wooden screened, projecting balconies that reminded me a lot of the muslim architecture in Jaisalmer. It was really neat- on our way into the church, someone gave me free wine (literally no idea why, I think it was some sort of festival celebration- I originally thought maybe communion but no one was administering bread). Once inside, we first we got a tour of the basilica itself, including beautiful open hallways around courtyards of trees and this beautiful old library that looked like something out of Harry Potter- spiral staircases, dusty old leatherbound books, the room lit basically only by shafts of sun coming in the skylights. There was also a choir balcony in the church with wooden seats for all the monk. I got to sing in there a little bit- I loved imagining latin chants in those acoustics, and there was a huge “lazy susan” style book stand that they could use for the gorgeous hand-written and engraved hymnals (which are the size of a child in order for the music to be readable from a distance) and which spins so that they can switch from one piece of music to the next quickly. Really neat. Down in the catacombs there was a labyrinth of passages and rooms, with stone receptacles filled with bones of different types like rice in a bulk food store- femurs in one stone bin, hips in another, skulls in a third, etc. SO WEIRD. And then there are these earthquake wells, designed to dampen vibration, filled with bones laid out in geometric patterns. (It’s not clear to me if this bone arrangement was done in modern times or originally, but either way it was creepy and cool). We also walked around Chinatown and checked out the bridge that runs over this pedestrian walkway and shopping area near the river. It was a good day checking out an area I hadn’t been!

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Our guide caught this wild cayman... WITH HIS BARE HANDS. And then let me hold it (that’s my hand!)

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Slow boi

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That’s a whole lotta nope