CHAVIN DE HUANTAR TOUR... DAY 3

We realized the night before that I didn't have much memory left on my memory card and we didn't even have a flash drive to transfer all the pictures on it. I swear, if it's not one thing it's another. So we got up extra early to try to find a place that had 8G SD cards because I knew I was going to use up most of the memory on the card by the end of the trip :P We went to various stores and finally found one that was 15 soles cheaper than all the other places.

We headed back to our room to get our bags full of snacks for the day and also stopped by the breakfast cart again. This time, we were a few minutes early to the tour agency office. Within 20 minutes a bus came by to pick us up. It was smaller than the yellow bus from the day before. A woman got on to hand us some kind of brochure/map type of thing that was about this city called Huari. It was a very pretty map but it didn't have much to do with our tour. About 5 minutes later, we were off.

From the very beginning, our guide began talking almost non-stop. Once again, the tour would be in Spanish. We weren't too happy about it but it wasn't bad at all. He seemed like he really knew what he was talking about and made lots of jokes. We laughed quite a lot. During the trip, he told us a legend as to how the Llanganuco lagoons and mountains Huascaran (whas-kah-RAHN) and Huandoy (whan-DOY) were formed. He was surprised to hear that our guide from the day before hadn't told us the legend. There are many versions of this legend but this is what he told us:

A long time ago there was a princess named Huándi (WHAN-dee). She was in love with one of her father's warriors named Huáscar (WHAS-kar). One day, one of her father's guards saw them and told the king. The king then banned his daughter from seeing her lover again but she didn't listen. She snuck out one night to see him but was caught by a guard and taken to her father. He decided to punish her by locking her in a room which had no windows so she wouldn't be able to tell whether it was day or night. When Huascar found out, he got a group of his men to help him rescue her and after they did, they all fled towards the Cordillera Blanca. The king's men were right behind them and since they outnumbered Huascar's group, they quickly captured them. The king then ordered his men to take them up to the top of each mountain, tie them up and leave them to their fates. When the two lovers realized that they were never going to be together again, not even in their last moments alive, they began crying. Their tears formed two lagoons. The "female" lagoon is called Chinancocha (chee-nahn-KOH-cha) and it's the 1.450 meter wide lagoon you get to see when you go on the Llanganuco tour. The "male" lagoon, which is behind Chinancocha, is called Orconcocha (ohr-kohn-KOH-cha) and it's only 368 meters wide. A god saw the two lovers suffering and took pity on them. He decided to spare them by transforming them into two glaciers on the mountain peaks. Mount Huandoy (whan-DOY) was named after Huandi and Mount Huascaran (whas-kah-RAHN) after Huascar.

The guide definitely told the story better than I did but that was my brief summary of it.

We were headed south and our main attraction was going to be the Chavin de Huantar ruins (chah-VEEN deh WHAN-tar) but we were going to see a bunch of other things along the way.

Going to Chavin was completely different from the tour the day before. On this tour we got to see a lot of scenery. There were large, open fields, animals everywhere, mainly sheep and cows, and you could a few snow covered mountain peaks in the distance. It was definitely a pleasant change because everything looked so clean compared to Lima. There were a few small houses along the way. It only took us about 30 minutes to reach our first stop for the day.

Our first stop was Laguna Querococha (lah-GOO-nah keh-roh-KOH-cha).

It was another windy and chilly day. Once again, I had decided not to bring a jacket or anything so I was a bit cold. Behind Querococha you can see a couple of mountain peaks but I don't remember which two it is you can see. We were there for about 25 minutes and during that time I really had to go pee. I had no choice but to use a sort of outhouse thing that smelled terrible :( and seriously scared me because I thought I was going to catch some crazy disease. Needless to say, I got in and out of there as quickly as I could. I had never been in one of those where you could see all the nasty feces at the bottom. You definitely need to make sure you go to the bathroom in your hotel beforehand.

 We got back on the bus and about 30 minutes later, we went through a cool little tunnel that had been vandalized (-_-) by Ollanta (current president) supporters. Just outside the tunnel was a Christ statue and we stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures. It's definitely a little difficult to get pictures of you and your partner when you're not with anyone else because then you have to ask other people to take your pictures. Luckily, there were a few other couples that took our pictures and of course, we took theirs in return. Our guide told us we were headed to a small town to eat before going to the ruins.

From there, we continued our journey to this small town (I forgot the darn name) for lunch, which was deep in this valley. There were dirty, nasty looking pigs loose in the street. Thank god I never have to see the pigs I eat because they probably look like that. A few minutes before we got to our stop, we saw that part of the road had flooded and was really muddy. I thought we were going get stuck. For a minute, I actually wanted to get stuck because the thought of having all the men getting down and dirty to get the car out of there seemed like a pretty entertaining moment to look back on :P but luckily we were able to go on.

We finally got to this small restaurant that was surrounded by flowers. It took a little over an hour to get to the town but at least we were going to have lunch early as opposed to the extremely late lunch from the day before. About 15 minutes after I had begun eating, this GINORMOUS rooster came into the restaurant. He was pretty cute because he just walked in like he owned the place. The food was ok. It didn't get me sick so that was good enough for me.

After lunch we got back on the bus and headed to Chavin. The bus ride took about 30 minutes and once there, we had to pay S/11 each to get in. We were 3,150 m.a.s.l. (meters above sea level) and our guide first took us to this small replica of the ruins to describe some of it before we started walking around. Chavin de Huantar used to be a really famous religious site around 900-200 b.c. It was considered the oldest evidence of Andean civilization until archaeologists found Caral. It's located in the Callejón de Conchucos (kah-yeh-HONE deh kohn-CHOO-kohs: Conchucos valley). Ancient Andean people from all over Peru and possibly Ecuador and Bolivia, would go to to see the powerful priests/oracles.

He had us follow him to this stone block which was just a few meters away and about two meters tall. It was a replica of the Estela Raimondi. He basically told us that that particular stone block explained how the earth and mankind were created according to the ancient Chavin civilization. I would explain it again for you guys but I didn't think I would have to re-tell it so I didn't store it in my limited memory space :P The Chavin civilization is considered to be one of the most influential civilizations in Peru because their influenced has been documented almost all along the Peruvian coast. These people were astronomers, agricultural engineers, architects, and artists. Back then, being a priest wasn't something that was passed down from generation to generation.

Anyone could be a priest but only the most intelligent/clever people were able to pull it off. The Chavinenses (chah-vee-NEN-ses: Chavin people) that studied the stars, weather patterns, animal behavior, etc were able to "predict" when it would rain, how heavy the rain would be, when they should plant the crops, irrigation systems, etc. The people of Chavin revered these beings who could predict the future and gave them the highest position in their society as priests/oracles. From there, we walked about twelve meters away to this plant that looked like a sort of cactus. It's actually called el cactus de San Pedro (San Pedro cactus). The ancient Chavin priests used to drug themselves with this plant so they could "talk" to their animal gods.

The plants' skin, when crushed into a powder form and ingested, made it so that they could hallucinate and while they hallucinated they transform themselves into the same animals as their gods.What was somewhat interesting to me is that they didn't just grab any plant. It had to be one that was separated into seven sections because seven was a sacred number for them.

We had to walk for about 8 minutes until we got to the main square. Some of us were a little out of breath. In front of the main square, you can see the temple and to the left and right of the temple, you have two other buildings.The temple is where the priests lived and underneath the main square is a drainage system that they built. They built this to prevent the area from being flooded during heavy rains and when water used to go through them, it created this loud roaring sound that sounded like that of a large cat. Archaeologists believe they did this to scare away any possible threats or to mimic the sound of a feline god of theirs. Closer to the temple there is this area that has a few holes in the ground that are above one of the canals.  

They used to cover certain holes to make music that would shake the entire temple and be heard throughout the area. From there we walked closer to the temple and the guide pointed out that the temple has a slightly slanted structure and the rocks used to build it had a certain pattern which made the temple virtually earthquake proof. The structures you can see now are part of what they call the new temple. I believe the old temple is built under the new temple. There were a ton of changes made to Chavin. However, to the right of the main temple there is this small circular main square which belonged to the old temple. We walked towards it because there's a small building behind it that we could walk around in.

It seemed like a labyrinth and in one of the entrances, we were able to see el lanzón (lahn-SONE) which looks like an upside down knife and it has this drawing of a god on it. The stature is about five meters tall (about 16 feet). From there, we went back towards the temple so we could go behind it and see the only remaining cabeza clava (kah-BEH-sah KLAH-vah) which literally means nail heads because they look like nails with a head at the top of it but I think the technical name for them is tenon heads. Back when the Spaniards came to Peru, they sacked the place of everything they could and threw the majority of heads in the river. A little over a hundred were recovered and when archaeologists went to Chavin in the early 1900s, there

were two heads remaining but somehow, someone stole one and now only one is left in it's original place. After we saw the cabeza clava, we went to some souvenir stands for a few minutes and then left to go to the Chavin de Huantar Museum. I couldn't hear everything my guide said because Daniel and I were busy taking pictures so we got left behind at times. Archaeologists have found sea shells in Chavin that can only be found in Ecuador. There were at least ten tenon heads for us to see, each with a different face. There was also el obelisco. The obelisk looks like a mini Washington Monument with a lot of carved drawings because it was also considered a god. It's 2.52 meters tall (8ft 3in). After we were done looking at everything in the museum, it was time to head back to Huaraz. The tour finished around five in the afternoon and I believe we were back in Huaraz by 7:30.

Overall the trip was a good experience. I was able to learn more about my culture and after writing this post and actually having to remember everything that I learned, I think I'm much more impressed now by what my people were able to do and accomplish back then.

TRAVELING TO THE MOUTAINS...DAY 1

Back in May, my fiance, Daniel, and I went to the city of Huaraz (wha-RAS) which is in the Ancash (AHN-kahsh) department. We were originally planning on going to Cuzco to see Machu Picchu and all that other good stuff but traveling there is much more expensive when you're a foreigner and if you haven't paid a lot of money to book a tour, then trying to save money by reserving things on your own can be hell. Enough digressing...

Ancash is a "state" north of Lima situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Marañon River. Its capital is Huaraz which is 3,090 meters above sea level (10,138 ft). Huaraz is found in the Callejón de Huaylas,(kah-yeh-HONE deh WHY-las) which I guess could be translated to Huaylas Valley. This valley is situated between the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra, (kor-dee-YEH-rah BLAHN-kah/NEH-grah) which means the white mountain range, as this side has snow covered peaks and the black mountain range, no snow at all. The Cordillera Negra is closest to the Ocean and therefore protects the Cordillera Blanca from any possible winds that might threaten to melt the mountain peaks. Tourism isn't extremely popular here when compared to Cuzco, but tourists still go and are captivated by the beautiful landscapes the Peruvian mountains have to offer. 

My grandmother is from Ancash. She's from a city called Caraz (kah-RAS) just 66 km (41 miles) north of Huaraz. She's always talked to me about Ancash and since my plans to go to Cuzco had been ruined, I decided to get to know the place she came from. In addition to that, I just wanted to go anywhere outside of Lima where I could see blue skies and breathe fresh air. 

HOW TO GET THERE.

There are two forms of transportation to Huaraz. By bus and by plane. My boss told me about LC Busre airlines. I believe it's the only airline that goes to Huaraz. The tickets are a little expensive because to fly within Peru the tickets are usually less than $90 for a round-trip flight, tax included for a Peruvian citizen or resident. The cheapest LC Busre tickets are $130-170 with tax and the flight takes an hour as opposed to an almost 10 hour bus ride. I don't mind traveling by bus because you can see the scenery during the day but I wanted to save time. 


Our flight was scheduled to leave at 810 a.m. so we got up at 5 a.m. because we wanted to be there a least 90 minutes before the flight left. We've had plenty of trouble with airlines not letting us on because we showed up at check-in 50 minutes before the flight left. Where I live, it's a little difficult to get a taxi from the street really early in the morning because the main avenue is a few blocks away so make sure when you travel early in the morning, you either call a taxi service the night before or have plenty of time to walk over to the main streets where you can find a taxi. Since there was no traffic, we managed to get there in exactly 30 minutes. We checked in and went upstairs to go through security. At Jorge Chavez Airport, both national and international outgoing flights go to the same area upstairs to go through security and take their flights. The line was somewhat long but it moved pretty quickly. According to my fiance, Peru's great at getting you through security when you're leaving because it's how he manages to catch his flight just in the nick of time since he's almost always running late. What can I say? No one likes leaving me :P If you have a navel ring, I suggest you take it off as well when you go through the metal detector because they'll make you take your sandals off the second time you go through. 

A bus came over to our gate to take us to the plane. It was a jet plane and since there were a few empty seats, we sat where we wanted. Each seat had a small snack box which contained a juice box, some saltine crackers, a chocolate bar and ear plugs. Within less than 10 minutes we were off on our journey. When we were about 15 minutes away from landing, the Cordillera Blanca became visible. The mountain range was beautiful but I honestly think it must have looked much more beautiful in the past when there was more snow. 

Anta Airport. Looks like a small house from here.

The airport was really small and it didn't take long for us to get our things. There are big, clean bathrooms and a small "café." I hadn't planned anything besides the flight so when we walked out of the airport, we didn't know where to go. The plane actually lands in Anta, a small village in the Carhuaz (kar-WHAS) Province. There were a few taxis outside but we had no idea how much they charged and they kind of ignored us since we didn't look like "gringos." I asked an airport employee how I could get to Huaraz and he told me to walk over to the street and cross the road, which is where I took this picture from, so I could take a bus. He told me the bus fare was S/2.50 each and that the bus ride took about 30 minutes. We followed his directions and a slightly bigger micro bus came within a few minutes. On the bus there were a lot of provincianos (proh-veen-SEEAH-nohs), people from provinces that are usually dressed in traditional clothing. 

When we finally got to our stop, we weren't sure of where we were. I asked a couple of people before we got off just to make sure. We were at a bus stop and everything around us looked dirty. I had thought it wasn't going to be hard to find a hotel in Huaraz. Most places with a lot of tourism have streets filled with hotels and hostels. I asked a woman where I could find a cheap hostal (oh-STAHL: hostel) and she pointed to an area that didn't give me a good vibe. Luckily, I had internet on my phone so I decided to look up something on the internet. We walked around looking for a locutorio (low-koo-TOR-eeoh: a phone booth shop) to call the hostels I had found on the internet. I'm terrible at understanding directions over the phone when I don't know an area and somehow we ended up taking a mototaxi (moh-toh-taxi) to one of the places. Danny, being the bright apple that he is, wanted to put our bags in the back of the taxi. I swear, you would have thought he would have learned how to be careful by now as many times as he's been here. I wanted to smack him. Mototaxis are really tiny but we had no other choice but to carry our bags with us in the taxi because someone could have easily stolen our bags. Just because you're in the country doesn't mean you're safe. We took the taxi to a church and started looking for the hostels we had called when we got out. A man saw us standing around and approached us, asking us if we were looking for somewhere to stay. We asked him for directions and he told us that the hostels were just around the corner but that they were probably full and he had a hostel close by we could stay at, at a good price. I wanted to check out the other hostels before I went with him to compare our options. We ended up taking a taxi over to his hostel because one hostel was packed and the other was S/70 a night and it wasn't all that nice. He offered us the room for 30 sols a night even though on the wall it said S/40. We went upstairs to see our room on the fourth floor and it had a wonderful view of the Cordillera Blanca. The room wasn't bad. It had a dresser, a nice bathroom, tv, and a decent bed. We figured it was good enough for at least that one night because we didn't feel like carrying our bags around anymore. We went back downstairs to finish checking in and he ended up talking to us about the different tours we could take since he also worked with a tour company. He wanted to charge us 120 sols each for three tours. Almost everything is negotiable in Peru, so he ended up giving us the three tours for S/110 each. We were scheduled to go to Laguna Llanganuco (lah-GOO-nah yeeahn-gaah-NOOH-koh: Llanganuco Lagoon), the Chavin de Huantar Ruins (chaah-VEEN deh WAHN-tar), Nevado Pastoruri (neh-VAH-doh pahs-tor-RU-ree: Pastoruri Glacier). We headed up to our room to get settled. Anytime you go to a place that has a much higher altitude than what you're used to, it's important to take it easy the first day you're there so you acclimate.

View of the Cordillera Blanca. It looks better in person.

Once we put our stuff away, we passed out as soon as we laid on the bed. We hadn't got much sleep the night before. Late in the afternoon when we finally woke up, we walked around a little to explore the city. We didn't want to stray too far from the hostel because we weren't exactly sure where we were. It took about two days to realize that we were only 3 or 4 blocks away from the main square and the main street in Huaraz, Av. Toribio de Luzuriaga (loose-oo-REEAH-gaah). It's Av. Luzuriaga for short. Our receptionist had told us at check-in, to be ready by 8 a.m. the next day for our first tour, Laguna Llanganuco. So we went to sleep before midnight.