Head in the Clouds in Huaraz, Perú

Well Dave and I have separated again. I woke up in the bus to Lima to Dave standing over me with a knife I decided it was time for a break. I'm kidding of course, but Dave and I did parted ways as I jumped off in the middle of a town called Nowhere, Perú, clambered on to the next bus that came by, and ended up in Huaraz. Dave continued on to meet a friend who came to hike the Inka Trail with him. I will be meeting up with them in Cuzco in a few days.

Huaraz is the main jump off point for the Huaraz National Park. May-July is the high tourist season for climbing mountains and people from all over the world, especially Europeans, come to this area to take on the Andes. I had a great time wandering around town during local patron saint festival, bathing in hot springs, hiking around some pre-Inca ruins, and the highlight was a mountain bike ride though a glacier covered pass.

I woke up one morning a caught a bus up to the top of the pass headed east from Yungay over to the Amazon Basin. Before starting off on the decent, as is customary for every male, I had to pee on the other side of the pass so that I could race said urine to where the Amazon river meets the sea, where I hope to be in about ten weeks. After writing my name in the dirt (snow was too far away) it was just the gravel road guiding me back the way the bus had brought me. I had nothing but the Andes' glacier covered peaks to keep me company.

The road was all gravel and quite bad in parts. I was very glad to be going down for about 95% of the 45 km because at the top of the pass at 4767 m (15600 ft) just holding onto the bike was a hard enough work out. There was one section that required pedaling, and after three minutes of minimal work I couldn't buy a breath. In all my forearms burned to let go as my mind forced them to work. I was riding the brakes all the way through the 50-some-odd switchbacks, and by the end was ready to sit in the natural hot baths to soak away the pain, cold, and dirt that had collected on me all day.

The thing that was most curious to me about this area is how I was treated by the locals. I am used to being single out and looked at, over-charged whenever possible, asked for money, and generally put in the spotlight. In most tourist locations upon seeing a gringo generally a) don't stare as much or b) better disguise their looking. Not here! One might have thought that they had never before seen someone as white as I am (and I'm about as white as they come). I was asked several times to pose in a picture with random Peruvians, complimented for having blue eyes, yelled at, gawked at (different than staring), had my arm hair rubbed, and chased by kids while on the bike. Most of this stuff had happened to me before. The quantity of times it happened in a short period was what made me notice, because even in the depths of the Panama I was never followed so closely. I guess it is also different when you are familiar with the people staring -as in Panama, and when they are complete strangers -as in Perú. Basically it surprised me that a town with so much gringo tourism would be so shocked by my presence. Enough of me ranting, I'm off to Ica to see some sand.