3 days after my last beautiful experience, I did Machu Picchu and yes, it was beautiful, a perfect end to my hike. I did it slightly more unconventionally and had the place to myself. It was perfect. I dont know how to explain the experience, other than, imagine sitting totally alone on a mountain top surrounded by clound in the morning light, patches of distant hills appearing and dissappearing through the silent mist. It begins to rain and you wandered down 2000 steps to mingle with ancient stone walls and buildings, the edge of this world dropping hundreds of meters to cloud forest and a twisting river that encircles this peninsular. The first place you come to is a huge carved funeral rock, with a top flat surface that would have held the dead bodies of kings as they were mumified. A few meters more and an eerie sentinel house, the hut of the care taker of this rock, looms over the whole complex, narrow and tall, vague in the mist.
More wanderings amoungst the un-prepaired, cheap poncho clad tourists brings you to beautifully aranged buildings with intricate stone work, temples for wind and sun and moon and water. Perfect channels taking a trickle of water under, through, down and around rocks and paths and walls.
I exhausted the sights at mid day and headed back down the 400 meters of spets and paths to the river below, pack up my life again in to my backpack and set off walking down the train tracks to Cusco, to save me the insanely expensive train ride. The following day i complete the journey on buses and arrive at the belly button of the world, to stalk the fusion of inca and spanish streets, neetly cleaned and de-personed for the tourists.
Now I am on my 15 day excurtion to Santiago in Chile to meet up with a frind there for 2 and a half months, my route takes my to the Isla de la Sol on Lake Titicaca, down through the Bolivial Salt Flats, in to Argentina, desserts, mountains and wine growing country, before crossing west to Santiago. Hopefully all hitch hiking. A bit faster paced traveling now! x
Thursday 22 September 2011
Sunday 11 September 2011
Choquequerou to Machu Picchu
Im walking in the cool after-rain morning. The sun sieved through the after-rain clouds. The mountains he now rests on one of many green and laden in the unscorched hours, that dissapear in turn in to the distant blue haze, way down the valley.
The path Im on, a wet dirt road coils through the cloud forest, above a stoney maountain fed river. The tributarys, some rushing down from steep floow washed valleys, others tubmble in a tangle of branches and thankful plants through pools and waterfalls.
From the road margins spring grass and docks and weed plants, digesting the sun and road clearing brings to them, but just a meter in, the forst floors autumnal, homely in its brown leaf coating, tantalised by the smell of cooking fires and wet earth. From the lef mound shoot the lanks branches of coffee, sparingly adourned with leafs and closely held red and green berrys. The classic torn banana leafs thrust up above these, and draped with velvet purple fibonachi chandeliers. And just there, a quiet reminder that this is a jungle sit in their infinite wisdom, old growth canopy trees, protective and towering, hung with ferns and moss.
The air around always filled with the rivers flow, upstaged by the chirps from the undergrowth, chatter from the canopy and infected with shrill song from goodness knows where as parrots dart in florecent groups from tree to tree. A cockeral adds its odd announcement to the mix. And behind me my back pack creaks rhythmically as i search the skyline for The Lost City Of The Incas, after 2 1/2 months, now not half a day away.
The Eden Project in real. Small wooden houses peek from the shading and a motor bike putters past me, school uniformed girl on the back. No Smiles, too many tourists here, but I imagine at least the chickens are smiling as they scratch in the forests leafs. x
The path Im on, a wet dirt road coils through the cloud forest, above a stoney maountain fed river. The tributarys, some rushing down from steep floow washed valleys, others tubmble in a tangle of branches and thankful plants through pools and waterfalls.
From the road margins spring grass and docks and weed plants, digesting the sun and road clearing brings to them, but just a meter in, the forst floors autumnal, homely in its brown leaf coating, tantalised by the smell of cooking fires and wet earth. From the lef mound shoot the lanks branches of coffee, sparingly adourned with leafs and closely held red and green berrys. The classic torn banana leafs thrust up above these, and draped with velvet purple fibonachi chandeliers. And just there, a quiet reminder that this is a jungle sit in their infinite wisdom, old growth canopy trees, protective and towering, hung with ferns and moss.
The air around always filled with the rivers flow, upstaged by the chirps from the undergrowth, chatter from the canopy and infected with shrill song from goodness knows where as parrots dart in florecent groups from tree to tree. A cockeral adds its odd announcement to the mix. And behind me my back pack creaks rhythmically as i search the skyline for The Lost City Of The Incas, after 2 1/2 months, now not half a day away.
The Eden Project in real. Small wooden houses peek from the shading and a motor bike putters past me, school uniformed girl on the back. No Smiles, too many tourists here, but I imagine at least the chickens are smiling as they scratch in the forests leafs. x
Sunday 28 August 2011
Huancayo and Ayacucho
Much much to catch up on! A good few strong days walk over a couple of biiiig hills and down in to a huge flat bottomed valley sporting boulivards of eucalitus trees and green irrigated fields brought me to the city of Huancayo, my half way point in time and physically on the route too. I had arranged to Couch Surf with someone there for a couple of days before heading on, but I got on rather well with my host and ended up staying 11 days - the limit I calculated that would still allow me to complete my trip by foot.
I really enjoyed wandering around a chill city in the evenings wiht company and snacking on sweet treats from street vedors, it was very nostalgic of London, and great to have a frind. My time passed making biscuits and wandering in to the city and sittign my little rivers in the sun and relaxing, but my day came to move on and calculated 6 days to the city of Ayacucho, given I would had a couple of hills and the rest was straight down a valley. I was wrong.
The two hills were ok, and lasted a bit longer than I though, but they dropped me from about 3500m down to 2300m, the lowest I have been on the whole trip, and in to a massive v shaped valled with the Rio Mantario at its centre. There was no path, just one gravel road that wound (and I mean wound) its way excrutiating slowly down the very curvy bank. One minute walking west, the next east as i headed south, sort of. I spent 3 days doing 30km on each to get out of valley, but it was an intereasting place in its self. There where, then the vast steep sides permited, small farms growing a wonderful range of beutifully named tropical fruite, including avocardo and bananas and mango and papaya! I love the feel of those tropical trees and the climate they are in, my first experience here with that, and one night i camped amoungst Chirimoya (sp?) trees uinder the stars by a river on the land of a small family. Very beautiful.
The valley exited not in to more tropical forest, but in to dry dry dry desolate dessert, with every variety to leathally spikey plants mother nature has produced. And it was, on my 8th day, a days walk from Ayacucho, descending a steep loose path one to one of these wonderfully defended plants, I fell. With the weight of a 20kg backpack and unfortunatly aided by gravity. I retrieved an impaled hand and plucking spines lodged in to my palm, rapidly realised that a quick exit was necessary by other transport means and to get to Ayacucho as quickly as possible. This I did and sought the hospital as it felt like I still had a point grating down my ligament in my palm. The hospital was usless and I left with out tretment or useful diagnosis of the pains to find a private practice.
I was instructed after repeted journeys to the pay desk and after being prodded to wait a day to see how my body reacted. And it didn´t, which is very good news because it means i don´t have wood stuck in me. I have had 3 days here now and found some other travelers to spend time with and enjoy the company of, but today I must move on, 4 or so days and I start my final 9 or 10 day trek in to Machu Picchu, im really excited for this section because the route descends in to could forest and i really miss trees - there arent too many up here. And of course Machu Picchu signifies the end of my trek here, and the start of another section of my journey in Chile. The next blog will be from Cusco I expect, and I will have finished! x
I really enjoyed wandering around a chill city in the evenings wiht company and snacking on sweet treats from street vedors, it was very nostalgic of London, and great to have a frind. My time passed making biscuits and wandering in to the city and sittign my little rivers in the sun and relaxing, but my day came to move on and calculated 6 days to the city of Ayacucho, given I would had a couple of hills and the rest was straight down a valley. I was wrong.
The two hills were ok, and lasted a bit longer than I though, but they dropped me from about 3500m down to 2300m, the lowest I have been on the whole trip, and in to a massive v shaped valled with the Rio Mantario at its centre. There was no path, just one gravel road that wound (and I mean wound) its way excrutiating slowly down the very curvy bank. One minute walking west, the next east as i headed south, sort of. I spent 3 days doing 30km on each to get out of valley, but it was an intereasting place in its self. There where, then the vast steep sides permited, small farms growing a wonderful range of beutifully named tropical fruite, including avocardo and bananas and mango and papaya! I love the feel of those tropical trees and the climate they are in, my first experience here with that, and one night i camped amoungst Chirimoya (sp?) trees uinder the stars by a river on the land of a small family. Very beautiful.
The valley exited not in to more tropical forest, but in to dry dry dry desolate dessert, with every variety to leathally spikey plants mother nature has produced. And it was, on my 8th day, a days walk from Ayacucho, descending a steep loose path one to one of these wonderfully defended plants, I fell. With the weight of a 20kg backpack and unfortunatly aided by gravity. I retrieved an impaled hand and plucking spines lodged in to my palm, rapidly realised that a quick exit was necessary by other transport means and to get to Ayacucho as quickly as possible. This I did and sought the hospital as it felt like I still had a point grating down my ligament in my palm. The hospital was usless and I left with out tretment or useful diagnosis of the pains to find a private practice.
I was instructed after repeted journeys to the pay desk and after being prodded to wait a day to see how my body reacted. And it didn´t, which is very good news because it means i don´t have wood stuck in me. I have had 3 days here now and found some other travelers to spend time with and enjoy the company of, but today I must move on, 4 or so days and I start my final 9 or 10 day trek in to Machu Picchu, im really excited for this section because the route descends in to could forest and i really miss trees - there arent too many up here. And of course Machu Picchu signifies the end of my trek here, and the start of another section of my journey in Chile. The next blog will be from Cusco I expect, and I will have finished! x
Monday 1 August 2011
Lago De Junin
I feel very lucky in my experiences over the last few days as i seem to have collected a group of friends!
It started with loosing the Carmino Inca whilst on very gently rolling barren open grassland. I ended up diverting to a town i didnt want to go to, in the wring direction to pick up food, and sleep a night in a church, before catching a bus to a town a bit more on route, here I was told to sit and wait in a restaurant by a couple of locals whilst they fetched their american friend. And there turned up an american girl living in the town of Vicco for a couple of years as a PeaceCorp volunteer! So of course i spent the whole of that day chatting in blissful English and relaxing before falling ill that night and spending the next day with her very generous host family recooperating and watching school children marching disturbingly in their Independance day parade.
To my total suprise and enjoyment my new friend (Briana) decided she would join me for a couple days walking as she was due in a town just south in a few days anyway. SO I have had my first propper company on this trip and we headed off down the west side of Lago De Junin or Lago Chinchaycocha. This lake is a nature resrve and is very shallow supporting vast areas of reeds perfectly suited for migratory and local birds, and i had the wonderful pleasure of seeing my first wild Flamingoes (i think - unless there were some in Africa).
I am now in San Pedro de Cajas after joining two other PC volunteers who live around, so I have spent the last few days with some wonderful people, but tomorrow I head off on my own again to Tarma and on to Hauncayo, so for now I am going to go enjoy my company! x
It started with loosing the Carmino Inca whilst on very gently rolling barren open grassland. I ended up diverting to a town i didnt want to go to, in the wring direction to pick up food, and sleep a night in a church, before catching a bus to a town a bit more on route, here I was told to sit and wait in a restaurant by a couple of locals whilst they fetched their american friend. And there turned up an american girl living in the town of Vicco for a couple of years as a PeaceCorp volunteer! So of course i spent the whole of that day chatting in blissful English and relaxing before falling ill that night and spending the next day with her very generous host family recooperating and watching school children marching disturbingly in their Independance day parade.
To my total suprise and enjoyment my new friend (Briana) decided she would join me for a couple days walking as she was due in a town just south in a few days anyway. SO I have had my first propper company on this trip and we headed off down the west side of Lago De Junin or Lago Chinchaycocha. This lake is a nature resrve and is very shallow supporting vast areas of reeds perfectly suited for migratory and local birds, and i had the wonderful pleasure of seeing my first wild Flamingoes (i think - unless there were some in Africa).
I am now in San Pedro de Cajas after joining two other PC volunteers who live around, so I have spent the last few days with some wonderful people, but tomorrow I head off on my own again to Tarma and on to Hauncayo, so for now I am going to go enjoy my company! x
Saturday 23 July 2011
Hauri to Yanahuanca
Very very shortly after posting my last blog (10 minutes) I saw a group of gringoes/ white people strolling through the town. Never to miss an oppertunity, I went right over and started chatting. It turned out they were an American family of missionarys living in Peru for a couple of years, and they had also for that week, other missionary friends staying with them. With out a blink they invited me to a game of basketball and netball they were just heading to, not before they had offered to wash my clothes and drop my bad off at their house.... The game of basketball turned in to a week with the 5 of them and their 5 frinds, doing sight seeing, teaching at a local school, playing many many games and chatting wonderfully (in English), cooking and baking and just being as entertained and cared for as I could possibly be! Even when I spent the night being sick... Refreshed to my soul and loaded with yummy food they kindly dropped my at Hauchis, to start on the Inca Trail propper!
This is my 10th day since leaving the Bredbenner family and I have crossed an amazing amount of valleys and rivers and towns and people and experiences allready. I have spent 3 nights with local familys (and of course being fed their wonderful food), had milk straight from cow 3 times, been asked for money by a man with a gun, been asked for money by a man wiht out a gun, had my hand shaken and had beautiful smiles more times than I can count. I have met with extrodinary kindness at every turn, and everything seems to be working out beutifully.
Right now I am an hours walk or so from Yanhuanca at a school where they invited me in to use their brand new second hand computer sweet and internet... And was also given food here... Food is very graciously and easly given.
About ah hour back I crossed a pass (4500m exact) where I had views to the north and south for AT LEAST 200km in each direction. Those are my favourite moments on the trail. I just LOVE topping out on a hill or a pass or rounding a bend, for me they are magical and aweinspiring and breath taking. I alwasy take the last few steps to the top with anticipation, where the new view inevitable pops in to sight, and I can say goodbye and many thanks to valley I have just walked through, from one area and set of experiences to another welcome unknown one. Often i can trace my trail for the next few hours untill I loose it round a bend, the two rows of stones that mark the Carmino De La Inca, what remains of the cobbled and steped 1000km + route.
Another little point to wonder over is that every bit of water i cross, every lake or river or stream is flowing just 6,500 km East to the mouth of the Amazon, how can water possible run down hill for that long? That is a 1:1625 average gradient... wow, beat that river Dart.
As for where my thoughts lie, they are still very scattered, I am more in the moment and enjoying whats around (like sunrise this morning wiht a heavy frost and light low fog, next to a peaceful river on my own was breathtaking as the orange glow crept down the hill to my tent) but I am still dreaming of England, Devon, walking there, being with family and frinds, but it isnt taking me away too much from the now.
I am trying to obtain the WWOOF list for Peru at the moment incase there is somwhere near I could rest at for a week, but otherwise I head to Cerro De Pasco! Love for now x
This is my 10th day since leaving the Bredbenner family and I have crossed an amazing amount of valleys and rivers and towns and people and experiences allready. I have spent 3 nights with local familys (and of course being fed their wonderful food), had milk straight from cow 3 times, been asked for money by a man with a gun, been asked for money by a man wiht out a gun, had my hand shaken and had beautiful smiles more times than I can count. I have met with extrodinary kindness at every turn, and everything seems to be working out beutifully.
Right now I am an hours walk or so from Yanhuanca at a school where they invited me in to use their brand new second hand computer sweet and internet... And was also given food here... Food is very graciously and easly given.
About ah hour back I crossed a pass (4500m exact) where I had views to the north and south for AT LEAST 200km in each direction. Those are my favourite moments on the trail. I just LOVE topping out on a hill or a pass or rounding a bend, for me they are magical and aweinspiring and breath taking. I alwasy take the last few steps to the top with anticipation, where the new view inevitable pops in to sight, and I can say goodbye and many thanks to valley I have just walked through, from one area and set of experiences to another welcome unknown one. Often i can trace my trail for the next few hours untill I loose it round a bend, the two rows of stones that mark the Carmino De La Inca, what remains of the cobbled and steped 1000km + route.
Another little point to wonder over is that every bit of water i cross, every lake or river or stream is flowing just 6,500 km East to the mouth of the Amazon, how can water possible run down hill for that long? That is a 1:1625 average gradient... wow, beat that river Dart.
As for where my thoughts lie, they are still very scattered, I am more in the moment and enjoying whats around (like sunrise this morning wiht a heavy frost and light low fog, next to a peaceful river on my own was breathtaking as the orange glow crept down the hill to my tent) but I am still dreaming of England, Devon, walking there, being with family and frinds, but it isnt taking me away too much from the now.
I am trying to obtain the WWOOF list for Peru at the moment incase there is somwhere near I could rest at for a week, but otherwise I head to Cerro De Pasco! Love for now x
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Cordillera Blanca and South
I washed yesterday! mmmmm
So I started my hike last Monday from Colcabamba to do the classic Santa Cruz trek that goes east through the Cordillera Blanca Mountain range 8 hours north of Lima, it passes up a long vally in to incredible 6000m snow capped mountains. The scenery is mindblowing and all the mountains are so ragged and aggressive. The track topped out at a 4800m pass which I got up 3 or 4 steps at a time, and my completion of the pass coincided with the a Mexin group of mountaineers/ trekkers, who I fell in with that evening and were a great relief to my solitude, feeding me and generally being good comany (english speaking at least).
So being on my own in a country I barely speak the language of is presenting its own set of emotional challanges, I am finding my thoughs endlessly returning to the things I miss, friends, family and home comforts. The last few days have been better though, and I hope I continue to move more towards the moment.
My route over the next 10 days seems sparsly populated, but beyond that the route goes through alot more larger towns. It will be intereasting to see how it goes with very little outside contact, and then in to a more built up area, I wonder which I will prefer...
All the towns/ hamlets I pass through are built with hand-made adobe bricks, and are either bare, painted white, blue or have political slogans in white, red and blue (allways) concerning mining, local voting or loving the earth. I would love to know who paints all these on as they are very uniform in apperance and message.
Well I am thinking of eveyone who reads this (too much for my liking!) and I think the test will be the next 10 days. x
So I started my hike last Monday from Colcabamba to do the classic Santa Cruz trek that goes east through the Cordillera Blanca Mountain range 8 hours north of Lima, it passes up a long vally in to incredible 6000m snow capped mountains. The scenery is mindblowing and all the mountains are so ragged and aggressive. The track topped out at a 4800m pass which I got up 3 or 4 steps at a time, and my completion of the pass coincided with the a Mexin group of mountaineers/ trekkers, who I fell in with that evening and were a great relief to my solitude, feeding me and generally being good comany (english speaking at least).
So being on my own in a country I barely speak the language of is presenting its own set of emotional challanges, I am finding my thoughs endlessly returning to the things I miss, friends, family and home comforts. The last few days have been better though, and I hope I continue to move more towards the moment.
My route over the next 10 days seems sparsly populated, but beyond that the route goes through alot more larger towns. It will be intereasting to see how it goes with very little outside contact, and then in to a more built up area, I wonder which I will prefer...
All the towns/ hamlets I pass through are built with hand-made adobe bricks, and are either bare, painted white, blue or have political slogans in white, red and blue (allways) concerning mining, local voting or loving the earth. I would love to know who paints all these on as they are very uniform in apperance and message.
Well I am thinking of eveyone who reads this (too much for my liking!) and I think the test will be the next 10 days. x
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Peru - primera dias
Expectations - out of the window with the first sight of land (from the plane), thinking:
"no, this is just the industrial fishing area, surely the rest can't be this desolate and parched and poor looking"
wrong. totally wrong.
Cacti, crubmeling buildings and abusive sentient advertising grow well. Not much else. Compassion, respect, timetables - gone. Maybe it's obvieous to 'them' that the far, far gone van (on a tilt) hurteling towards us with a bloke shouting something incomprihensible at us, is in fact a bus that is going to Miraflores. Maybe oneday I will understand, but I doubt it.
¿Peudo hablar Inglese?
- More or less
Where are my bags?
- Probabily in Miami
Oh. So when will they get here?
- In next 24hour maybe
All I can say is I owe alot to the people who are hosting me, Alan and Nati, who offered to pick me up at the airport at 4.30am, then actually did at 11.30 when my delayed flight got in. They have taken me to a local restaurant and Nati took the afternoon out to take me around down town and show me the Plazas and only buildings that dont look like they should be demolished, "oh, the president lives there..."
Then (seriously and urgently)
- Ricky - walk, just walk!
Whats up Nati, you look scared?
- You here that whistle? It means we are going to get robbed, its a group communicating. Walk quick...
So we walked, 'but wheres my bloody knife?!', oh yeh, in Miami...
Miraflores is slightly kinder, but there is still the delapadated house crouching between the new office blocks, and one street away the same crazy trafic and confusion and alienation. God, I really must look as bountyful and white as those dumb tourists.
I can't wait to get out of here - just give me my own hill to walk on. x
"no, this is just the industrial fishing area, surely the rest can't be this desolate and parched and poor looking"
wrong. totally wrong.
Cacti, crubmeling buildings and abusive sentient advertising grow well. Not much else. Compassion, respect, timetables - gone. Maybe it's obvieous to 'them' that the far, far gone van (on a tilt) hurteling towards us with a bloke shouting something incomprihensible at us, is in fact a bus that is going to Miraflores. Maybe oneday I will understand, but I doubt it.
¿Peudo hablar Inglese?
- More or less
Where are my bags?
- Probabily in Miami
Oh. So when will they get here?
- In next 24hour maybe
All I can say is I owe alot to the people who are hosting me, Alan and Nati, who offered to pick me up at the airport at 4.30am, then actually did at 11.30 when my delayed flight got in. They have taken me to a local restaurant and Nati took the afternoon out to take me around down town and show me the Plazas and only buildings that dont look like they should be demolished, "oh, the president lives there..."
Then (seriously and urgently)
- Ricky - walk, just walk!
Whats up Nati, you look scared?
- You here that whistle? It means we are going to get robbed, its a group communicating. Walk quick...
So we walked, 'but wheres my bloody knife?!', oh yeh, in Miami...
Miraflores is slightly kinder, but there is still the delapadated house crouching between the new office blocks, and one street away the same crazy trafic and confusion and alienation. God, I really must look as bountyful and white as those dumb tourists.
I can't wait to get out of here - just give me my own hill to walk on. x
Tuesday 31 May 2011
USA - Pacific North West
Walking has now pretty much ceased in hope that my Abductor Digiti Minimi stops hurting. I strained it (or something with an equally stupid name) in my foot shortly after getting here whilst checking out my new walking boots. So I am being as cautious as possible and looking in to insurance cover to get some treatment from a heinously expensive podiatrist (although those prices are normal - it is the US..). I am really hoping that this will not impact on South America - as it is possibly one of the worst muscles I could pull given the hiking plans.
Other than that frustration, it is glorious to be able to spent time with Nika at long last. I have just had the privilege of meeting Nika's parents over the weekend and I was given a water tour of the locality by Rodger (Nika's dad) on his 'Vessel Assist' boat, as well as having a barbecue, eating out, seeing a film, reading and doing lots of nothing in between. We enjoyed a couple days of sun as the north west still seems to be dragging its self out of the winter greyness.
I am slowly collecting the last bits of equipment that I need for South America, making use of sales and the internet to regularly find items at half the price - until post and packaging is added - then I might as well just go to the shop and get it full price.
The house Nika lives in is full of the outdoor type, who just this weekend competed in a 7 leg, 100 mile, multi sport relay race starting on a mountain with skiing and ending at the sea with kayaking. So I am glad that I bought my climbing gear as we have been a number of times already, and Nika and I will be heading out to the east of the Cascade mountains to spend a few days camping in a unique landscape called 'channeled scab land' - characterised by the rectangular cross section valleys - created by periodic cataclysmic flooding over the last 2 million years.... hmm, lets see if it is as cool as it sounds.
For the nest 10 days I will be on the back burner as Nika finished papers, reads books and revises for finals, so there will be plenty of time to do a bit more ambling. x
Other than that frustration, it is glorious to be able to spent time with Nika at long last. I have just had the privilege of meeting Nika's parents over the weekend and I was given a water tour of the locality by Rodger (Nika's dad) on his 'Vessel Assist' boat, as well as having a barbecue, eating out, seeing a film, reading and doing lots of nothing in between. We enjoyed a couple days of sun as the north west still seems to be dragging its self out of the winter greyness.
I am slowly collecting the last bits of equipment that I need for South America, making use of sales and the internet to regularly find items at half the price - until post and packaging is added - then I might as well just go to the shop and get it full price.
The house Nika lives in is full of the outdoor type, who just this weekend competed in a 7 leg, 100 mile, multi sport relay race starting on a mountain with skiing and ending at the sea with kayaking. So I am glad that I bought my climbing gear as we have been a number of times already, and Nika and I will be heading out to the east of the Cascade mountains to spend a few days camping in a unique landscape called 'channeled scab land' - characterised by the rectangular cross section valleys - created by periodic cataclysmic flooding over the last 2 million years.... hmm, lets see if it is as cool as it sounds.
For the nest 10 days I will be on the back burner as Nika finished papers, reads books and revises for finals, so there will be plenty of time to do a bit more ambling. x
Wednesday 11 May 2011
Start of the Americas (But still in England)
On Monday I briefly reveled in the ability to plunge my hand in to a cold fridge and pull out a decadent bag of pre-grated motzerella. Then munch on a carefully selected un-moldy couple of handfuls. This I know will not be happening too often in the next couple of years. Rather it's going to be: counting pennys; going for the option thats cheaper than the 'cheap' option, being resigned to the fact that the vegetarian dish may very well contain meat, and everything is in a language I don't understand (also intermittently applicable to the USA, I expect).
So starts what I have been planning for the last 8 months. Initiated by a friend met traveling in New Zealand with "Lets cycle a tandem bike across Argentina". "OK" I said! And now, though the inevitable process of change, I'm going to spend 5 weeks int he US with my girlfriend (Nika), 3 months walking in Peru on my own, 3 moths wwoofing and hiking with Nika in Chile, and then another 3 months doing something somewhere in South America.
I do have a flight after that back in to the US, but after being stuck in immigration for 2 hours and being quizzed about my: itinerary; monetary situation; what illegal narcotics I take; and just quite who is this person you say is your 'girlfriend' but actually barely know, I am seriously re-considering under what pretense they will let me back in to the States, for a longer time, with less money, and with an even vaguer agenda....
I have been here in the Pacific North West a couple of days now, and I feel very welcomed, the house that Nika flats in is awesome, the other people are all outdoorsey and up for adventures, so I have already been rock climbing and had a barbecue and a big pot luck dinner and wandered around a farmers market, and slept lots (it didn't help that I was awake 22hours the day I flew in).
I'm just off for a walk now, smugly leaving Nika to do her geography assignment at uni (no, I am not jealous). x
So starts what I have been planning for the last 8 months. Initiated by a friend met traveling in New Zealand with "Lets cycle a tandem bike across Argentina". "OK" I said! And now, though the inevitable process of change, I'm going to spend 5 weeks int he US with my girlfriend (Nika), 3 months walking in Peru on my own, 3 moths wwoofing and hiking with Nika in Chile, and then another 3 months doing something somewhere in South America.
I do have a flight after that back in to the US, but after being stuck in immigration for 2 hours and being quizzed about my: itinerary; monetary situation; what illegal narcotics I take; and just quite who is this person you say is your 'girlfriend' but actually barely know, I am seriously re-considering under what pretense they will let me back in to the States, for a longer time, with less money, and with an even vaguer agenda....
I have been here in the Pacific North West a couple of days now, and I feel very welcomed, the house that Nika flats in is awesome, the other people are all outdoorsey and up for adventures, so I have already been rock climbing and had a barbecue and a big pot luck dinner and wandered around a farmers market, and slept lots (it didn't help that I was awake 22hours the day I flew in).
I'm just off for a walk now, smugly leaving Nika to do her geography assignment at uni (no, I am not jealous). x
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