Wow, how time flies! (Heading home...)

The last month of the trip was kind of bittersweet, both in knowing it was coming to an end, and having to stay in place, when there were so many other places we wanted to visit...

We woke up in our small adobe room we had been staying in, at Adam's Tierra Langla, on the 4th of March.  It was such a strange feeling to realize that it had already been one full year that we had been away.  I was both excited to return, but also not wanting to be finished yet.

We had a semi easy journey to complete, in order to get to the airport in Lima, and semi easy meaning up to this point, we've already traveled some 14,000 miles, so another 2 hour bus ride is literally nothing!

We said our goodbyes to all of the people at Tierra Langla, and with our bags packed, trudged up the dirt driveway to the street above.

Within minutes, a passing collectivo van stopped, and we threw our backpacks on top of the van, and brought our guitars inside.  A rather short journey back to Imperial, and then Canete, where we boarded "Peru Bus" headed for Lima.  We were graced with a sleazy Steven Segal movie all the way there, which of course was dubbed horribly in Spanish.

When we got to Lima, we jumped into a cab, and within about a half hour, we were at the airport.  Now it really felt like we were heading home...We had a few hours to kill, and started by stuffing our semi-malnourished bodies with a healthy serving of McDonalds Quarter Pounders, that perhaps never tasted so good, especially since we had been eating mostly vegan for the past month.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 1 AM, and was almost an hour late, so we were a little worried about our connecting flight in Atlanta.  When we arrived there, it was bright and early, and nobody was in the airport, so our connection was smooth, and quick.  It was pretty funny, going through US immigration, as the officer looked at my well worn passport, with what seemed like hundreds of stamps, especially from Chile and Argentina...He asked how long I was gone, and when I told him a year, he asked "why?"  Then he asked how Peru was, and how I was able to make it back in one piece...I told him he should get out more.

We boarded our second plane, and we were slightly disappointed that nobody greeted us in Spanish...Now was the final stretch...We would be in Los Angeles in a few hours, and my mom would be there to pick us up from the airport, one year later.

Lunahuaná - Volunteering, and finishing off an amazing trip...

We arrived in Lunahuaná about 3 hours after leaving Ica.  It was pretty straight forward, a bus to Canete, then a small bus to Imperial, then a smaller bus to Lunahuaná.  We passed several apple and peach orchards on the way in to the valley, and passed a fairly large winding river on the way in as well...

We were dropped off in the center of town, which was pretty small, and every other building was a tour guide to take you river rafting.  I guess that's the main source of income here, besides the grapes, which line the river up and down, and they too, have a major Pisco production going on, but in small, handcrafted, artisan style.

I ran into an internet cafe, and used the net briefly to check for Adam's phone number.  After a few minutes of figuring out the payphone out front, we were connected.  He told us how to get to his property, and we were almost there...

Exactly a month spent at this beautiful property would teach us a lot...It was community living, which neither of us were very used to, and the diet was a little (a lot) different than our previous couple months spent in Argentina...

All in all, this place was amazing, and we learned a ton, from Adam, as well as all of the other folks staying and volunteering there.  Building with Barro (adobe), was one of the main themes employed here while we volunteered.  If done properly, it can really be a beautiful, strong, and inexpensive way to build.

During our stay, we went river rafting, which was very fun, utilizing the backyard river that has some pretty intense rapids.  We visited a Pisco distillery one day, that was very interesting, and had quite a bit of local history, not to mention delicious, well made Pisco...

We also all took turns cooking (for the most part), or at least some of us more than others...Lucy, one of the girls volunteering with us, probably did more cooking than anyone.  Looking back at the meals we ate, there really were a lot of delicious, and interesting concoctions.  One thing I think that's safe for both of us to say, is that we ate enough oatmeal to last a frigging lifetime...

Huacachina, a beautiful, but not so peaceful desert oasis...

Our one night stopover in Nazca was perfect...Now, the question was, if we were going to make it all the way to our volunteering spot, just south of Lima, or spend one night in between.

We left Nazca at about 10am, and jumped on the 'Flores' bus just down the road, for 7 Soles a piece, to Ica, which was about 3 1/2 hours north.  We we're referencing our now-aging Lonely Planet book, and thought about hitting up Paracas, the coastal town for a night...

After waiting for a bus to Paracas, that never showed, we stumbled upon a small section on Huacachina, just 5km outside of Ica, where we already were.  We flagged down a cab, and for 5 Soles, we were in Huacachina, within minutes...

Surrounded by massive sand dunes, and nothing more, this little village of about 300 people is fueled by tourism from foreigners and Peruvians alike, who come for the escape of the much bigger Ica, and to ride down these dunes of sand like snowboarders high in the neighboring Andes.

We jumped out of the cab, and of course the man had no change to break a 50 Sole bill...I ran around for 15 minutes, and finally had to buy a water bottle at the nearby liquor store to break change.

We found a small hostel just down the road, where we decided to call home for the night.  The entrance lead you into a fairly large and well equipped bar, then past it, an outdoor back patio with a nice sized pool.

We had a small room right near the pool, and we bargained for the right price.  It was a Saturday, and after checking in/giving our passport info, the guy working there noticed our guitars we're traveling with and asked about what kind of music we play...After chatting for a few minutes, he asked us if we wanted to play that night, out back by the pool, and told us we could hook up to their sound system, which was pretty legit.  We were pretty excited, first of all, it's been a while since we played a gig in front of a crowd, the last time being at a party in Patagonia, Argentina.  He said we'd get some free drinks, and I was planning on putting out a tip jar, of course...

We settled into our room, and I walked around a bit to catch the coming sunset, out over the dunes.  It was unbelievable.

This is what surrounds all of Huacachina...

 

After taking in the incredible sunset and surrounding landscape, I broke out the guitar, gave 'er a good tune and cleaning, and started getting excited to play some music that night.

A couple hours passed, and I figured we'd probably start playing soon, and I walked out to the bar area to ask the guy...A DJ walked in, carrying a big mixer board and computer.  10 minutes later, the walls were vibrating with god-awful reggaeton, which we both despise...

I still had a little hope that maybe this guy would only play this crap for a little while, but no...The crowds of Peruvians, with their weekend off, rolled in like tumbleweeds dressed in way-too-tight clothing, awful cologne, and gigantic high heels.  There was no way we were going to play.

That wasn't the worst part...The horrible music that rumbled the entire hostel, played until 5am, and as you can imagine, we got no sleep.

The next morning, at about 9am, we arose from our nook, still angry from the night before, and starving...We walked to the lagoon in the center of the pueblo, which had some restaurants surrounding it, to grab a bite to eat, and possible connect to a wifi network.

Found a nice little spot right on the water, and ordered the local breakfast, which sounded great...Steak and eggs Peruvian style, with coffee and orange juice.  We had our Mate equipment on hand, and were dying for a Mate, just needed some hot water, as the waiter said he was bringing some...

After one hour...LITERALLY one hour, neither the water, nor the food came, and we walked out.  Luckily, there was a more hopeful looking spot right next door, where we dined on greasy burgers for breakfast, with oil drenched fries, and a soggy salad!

I emailed Adam on HelpX, and let him know we were on our way to Lunahuana, where we decided we'd spend the last of our trip, or at least most of it, doing some volunteer work.

A cab back to Ica, and an almost immediate bus towards Lunahuana...

Huacachina was a disaster for us, but it was gorgeous...At least there was something pleasing for the eye in this case, but I wouldn't recommend going there on weekends...

Extremely hard to believe that we've only got about a month to go...Wow!

In transit...Iquique, Arica, and back to Peru!

We made the border crossing at about 7am, once again, high up in the Andes.  This was to be our last Chilean entrance, and that was pretty exciting on its own...

Once on the other side of the border, we jumped back on the bus, and headed into a very familiar stretch of highway...It just so happened to be the same stretch of highway we were on, after leaving the Uyuni tour in Southern Bolivia, and entering into Chile, headed for San Pedro de Atacama.

We, infact, pulled into the bus terminal in Atacama for a few minutes, then continued on, north, to Iquique.

As we approached Iquique, we started seeing massive sand dunes, and finally started to feel as if we were near the coast again.  We came to the summit of a large hill/dune, and at the top, you could see all of Iquique, just as the sun was setting.  The view was spectacular, and the diminishing light over the Pacific was gorgeous.

We spent the night at a shitty hostel near the beach, which was 10,000 pesos for a dorm bed...We were so ready to be back in Peru...

Next morning, we flagged down a cab to the bus terminal, and jumped on the next bus to Arica, which took us about 5 hours to get there.  Endless desert sand 360 degrees, with massive dunes and drop-offs...

The desert-scape of Iquique

Still in Chile, on the way to the border...

Non-stop desert

Once in Arica, we exited the terminal, crossed the street, and found the collectivo station for heading to Peru.  After figuring out which bus to get on, we were off.  One Chilean exit stamp, and one Peruvian entrance was all we needed...

Easy border crossing, and we were in!  Once again, and now it's really closing in on the end of the trip...Amazing.

We pulled into Tacna, Peru, at about 7pm, and found the office window for "Civa Bus" that travels all over the country...At this point, we had no plan, other than a possible volunteer gig a few hours south of Lima, where we wanted to head, but had to choose another stop in between...

We figured we'd head back to Nazca for a night, and therefor, skip traveling into the Andes again.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the bus terminal, in the form of more empanadas, and then jumped on our 7:30 bus to Nazca.

We awoke to the sound of "Nazca, Nazca" being yelled by the bus driver, and we hopped out, onto the heated sands of the Nazca desert once again, only this time, coming from the opposite direction.  We found a fairly cheap hostel for the night, at "Nasca Inn," only about 5 blocks from the center of town, where we cooked some dinner, and hung out with two other travelers for the evening, a guy from Japan, and a Swede.

With wifi access, I emailed the HelpX posting once again, and told the owner we were on our way, which he had said was fine, whenever we wanted...Our trip was almost over, but not before doing a little more volunteer work, thankfully, because we're getting pretty broke!

Cusco

We arrived in Cusco bright and early on our overnight journey from Nazca, and planned to meet back up with our friends Mark and Carlie, who are traveling by motorcycle.  They told us of the hostel they were staying at, for fairly cheap.  $40 Soles/night, for a private room, shared bath.

We spent 2 nights at "Estrellita" hostel, not far from the Plaza de Armas, or center of town.  It was a cool place, good vibe, had a kitchen, and allows bicyclists and motorcycles to park inside, which is why they were there, obviously.

That night happened to be the AFL grand finale game (Australian Football League Championship), which I, of course know nothing about...Well, Mark, being an Aussie, was obviously looking to watch the game, and I accompanied him.  We walked about 7 blocks from Estrellita, to another hostel that he had pre-sought out for the game festivities...I was imagining maybe 5, 6 Aussies there to watch it...Wow, was I wrong.  We walk into the place, and the bar inside is jam packed with about 65 Australians, waiting anxiously to watch the match.

We shared a table with, of course, an Australian couple, also there for the game, and waited for it to air.  It was to be aired on a projector screen, from a pre-paid website, and for some reason, the internet began to slow...The reactions were priceless, as you can imagine, and it turned out to be a good game.  The game streamed on through the night, and I enjoyed myself, despite being delirious from the night bus from Nazca.  Moral: I had no idea that many Australians could possibly be in Cusco on a given night!

Mark, Carlie, Danica and I at 'Estrellita'

Cusco is a beautiful city.  While coming in from atop the mountain, you get an overview of it all, and it fits perfectly into the valley below.  The buildings are colonial looking, and the streets are mostly cobblestone.

By this point, we were very excited to do the whole Machu Picchu trek, and after hearing tons of peoples experiences along the road, it was our time to do it.

We set out to pre-purchase our entrance tickets in Cusco, and wanted to do it all the "cheap way," as opposed to the hundreds of dollars that could potentially be spent hiking the Inca Trail, or taking the classic train ride in...

Lima, en route to the south...

We arrived in Lima in the evening time from Huaraz.  The bus ride was fairly smooth, and we passed some pretty incredible looking coastline along the way.  Sand dunes for miles, and very desert-like scenario.

We jumped in a cab at the bus station, and headed to Hostal Iquique, which was semi near the center of town.

We were starving, and after checking into the hostal, we walked out, looking for some dinner.  First place we found was just a couple blocks away, and looked nice, cheap, and was full of people, so we decided to give it a try.

I wasn't paying too much attention to the menu they had out front, and the older guy waiting tables told us they had a 'mixed plate' sorta thing, where they would give us a little of everything, which sounded good.  We ordered a beer as well, and while we waited, we kind of discussed what the food would be like.

Turns out, we were both given a huge plate of cow stomach, intestine, and heart.  The heart was the only thing semi edible, as it was shish kabob syle, on a skewer.  I tried eating as muth as I could without getting sick, not to be completely rude, and plus I was starving.  It smelled horrid, and the consistency was like eating slime and leather.  Danica took a couple bites of her beef heart, and didn't touch the rest.

A man entered the restaurant, with a pan flute, and started blowing on it with a vengeance...

He then came around table to table asking for tips...We didn't really have much to give him, and told him sorry, but he quickly eyed Danica's full, hardly touched plate of slop...

He asked if he could have it, and very excitedly, she replied "SI!"

He put it all into a bag, and the waiter hadn't a clue she hadn't touched her meal.  Perfect.  Now, we left disgusted, and of course not full, or satisfied in the least.

Moral:  Check what you order.  Normally I would have, but after traveling all day, wasn't on my toes.

2 nights in Lima, and we spent almost a full day walking around in Barranco district, which was quite beautiful.  Rather ironic it was though, as we spent the time walking around trying to find a micro brewery we saw on the net...Nobody had ever heard of it, but we finally found it, only for it to be closed...We banged on the door, and the owner came out and said they only have 2 beers on tap...Super lame, oh well.

We walked down the road and found a burger joint owned by a British guy, and he sold us a couple of unbelievable IPA's from "Barbarian" brewery, which is another craft brewery in Lima, on the opposite side of town.  We enjoyed them to the fullest, and recommend trying them out if you're in the area!

8% unbelievable IPA!

The second morning, while we were waiting for our bus, there was a 7.0 earthquake centered just off the coast near Nazca.  Several people in Lima felt it, but luckily it was in an area where nothing was, and nobody was hurt.  On to the famed and mysterious Nazca Desert to take it all in!

2 nights in Huaraz

We jumped on a 'micro bus' in downtown Caraz, and it took only about an hour and a half to reach Huaraz.  Beautiful day it was, and the sun was hot as hell.  Upon our arrival, we looked for about a half hour for "Caroline Hostal," which was in our 3 year old Lonely Planet book, and nobody was of any help.  Maybe they shut down...

We found "Hostal Rapido," just off of the main drag, and used it as our home location for 2 nights.  Wifi, hot shower, and a 3rd floor room, was a nice place for our stay.

As many do in Huaraz, we didn't come for any intense climbing or trekking.  Instead, we were winding down from our 2 weeks volunteering in the middle of the Andes, on Eilif's organic farm.

We did, however go for a day hike, which turned out to be quite nice.

We took another micro bus into the hills behind the town, to check out "Wilcahuain," which is a stone structure dating back to pre Inca times, used for funerary purposes.  It was situated on a hillside overlooking the city below, with 3 floors, that were still very much intact, which we went inside each one and looked around.  There was a small museum next to it with info, and we ended up walking up a nice trail across the road, and up the hilltop to a lookout point, with a gorgeous view of Huaraz and the Cordilleras behind it.

Apart from our nice hike, we had some excellent ceviche in Huaraz, and walked around the town quite a bit.  A quick glance at our map would dictate that we needed to head south, and on a direct bus to Lima it was...

"Wilcahuain" ruins near Huaraz

View of the city of Huaraz from up above

Caraz

We left the farm in Aticara on Friday afternoon, and hopped in a cab to Caraz.  Normally we would have taken the bus, especially since it was about a 4 hour drive, but Eilif had taken a cab home from Caraz, and paid for us to continue back, down the road in it.

The drive was unbelievable.  On the way into Aticara, we took the night bus, and missed the incredible scenery, but on the way out, we left at 4:30 PM, and were blessed to be able to witness the sunset over the Canon del Pato, which is NOT to be missed!

The canyon is literally up there with the Grand Canyon back in the states, but in a different way.  It was an all dirt road, and the cabby, Victor was driving it like the grand prix.  We bounded down the mountain, as the sun was setting over the canyon, and could see the gradient volcanic colors of the mountains dipping into the distance.

This road was a nail biter to say the least.  We were both silent, sitting in the Chinese minivan Victor was driving, but there wasn't a need for words...

After a couple near misses with oncoming buses, we were into the sunset, and down the mountain in half the time it would have taken to be on the bus to Caraz.  After the sun went down, and darkness closed in, we were down in the valley below, and starting out ascent into the next high altitude city of Caraz.

We passed through a hydroelectric town of Huancayo, and through several tunnels that were just cut into the rock, with no cement support.

We finally made it to Caraz that night, and checked into the hostel "Chavin," before making our way out to eat at "La Terraza," which turned out to be quite a treat, after eating vegetarian cuisine for the last 2 weeks on the farm.

We headed to a liquor store to pick up a couple beers after dinner, and ended up being invited to sit with a couple locals and chatting for a few hours.  We ended up in the plaza de Armas, with a firework and hot air balloon show for the evening, and talking late into the evening with Daniel, a Peruvian man, who kept insisting we visit him and his family in Lima for dinner, over a small bottle of "Cat's Claw liquer" that was made by one of the locals.

Aticara - Volunteering on an organic farm for 2 weeks!

We left Chiclayo at about 10 AM on a bus to Chimbote, which is further south, and on the coast.  We again had a couple corny movies aboard the bus, and had an unbelievable scenery on the journey.

Out the window were stretching deserts, and jagged coastline in and out.  There were a couple stretches of highway that had signs reading "archeological area, keep out," leaving me wondering if there was some work being done on uncovering some new Peruvian findings...

We reached Chimbote, which is the biggest city in the Ancash region of Peru.  We were warned by the owner of the farm we were to visit, that in Chimbote, we needed to be on our toes, especially with taxi drivers.  We found and old man taxi driver, who was very nice, and took us across town to the tiny bus station heading up and into the mountains where we were to go.

Aticara, where we were headed, was not on our map, or in the book.  Turns out it was the tiniest little town we were to see thus far.  The neighboring town of Corongo wasn't even in our book, and it was quite the sight to see!

We got on the bus to Aticara in Chimbote at about 5:30 PM on a Friday evening.  We arrived in Aticara at almost midnite.  The bus ride was on a very windy mountain road, which we could see nothing outside, of course.  Eilif, the owner of the farm, was there to pick us up in Aticara.

We jumped in his old Subaru station wagon and headed off into the night.  We would spend the next 2 weeks working on his beautiful organic farm, and helping out around the property.

2 weeks seemed like it would be an eternity there, but it went by very quickly.  We awoke the next morning to an incredible view of the farm, at about 10,000 feet (3000 meters) up in the Andes.

Eilif was a really cool guy.  He's Norwegian, and married to a Peruvian woman.  He taught us tons about organic farming.  He is all about doing everything the natural way, and was full of information and insight on everything natural, from planting to animal feed.

Our second week there, we were left alone while he went to Lima with the family, and we were in charge of feeding all of the chickens (about 30 of them), and watering and caring for the crops.

His farm had no electricity, or running water other than a creek, and we were out in the middle of nowhere.  But, it was the experience of a lifetime, of course, and we cooked some great meals, and really got into the feel of being primitive for 2 weeks.  There was a hot spring just down the road, that we visited twice, and during our overall stay there, we had an incredible time.

The house

View from the property

a small view of the farm with a view of some sun chokes and potatoes...

The hotspring just down the road from the farm

Eilif giving us the lowdown on the farm

Danica, with a pitchfork in all her glory

Chiclayo - just passing through...

We had our date set for our next volunteer gig, and after our Peruvian debut, we took a couple buses down the path...

We jumped on a collectivo style van from Mancora to Piura, which was about 2 1/2 hours away, then on a proper bus from Piura to Chiclayo, which took another 4 hours.  Sometimes on these buses, we get a little entertainment in the form of a Hollywood movie, dubbed in Spanish...Sure enough, we got just that this time around, and perfectly placed in our 4 hour ride, were "Rambo," 1 and 2.  Ironically, I'd never seen either of them, and apart from my frequent chuckles in the script and special effects, I enjoyed them nonetheless.

We pulled into Chiclayo, thinking that it was a small(ish) beach town, similar to Mancora in size...It was gigantic!  I believe there's over a million people in Chiclayo, and we were literally the ONLY tourists in town, that sure enough stuck out like a sore thumb.

While walking through the streets, in a part of town called the "Mercado," where it's a permanent, giant flea market, I was tried as a part of a robbery scam.  Quite funny, and sure enough, exactly like I had heard it might be...

A woman walked in front of me on the crowded street, "tripped," and fell in front of me, spilling several Sole coins on the ground...As she was sort of blocking me from walking past, a man, obviously working with her, reached into my pocket, and tried to remove my camera, but, I felt it, and grabbed his arm...He turned and ran, and the woman quickly disappeared.  Lucky for me, I was on my toes, but this just goes as a reminder...ALWAYS be on the lookout, and never be unguarded!

Two nights in Chiclayo was definitely enough for us, and as for our ongoing search for another volunteer opportunity, we were ready for the next job...Just a bit further down the road to spend a couple weeks...

atop our hostel