After all that hard word from the Huayhuash trek it was time for some relaxing.. so I headed up north to surf paradise Mancora. (*) I checked in at hostal Sol y Mar, but found out that during the holiday only families with children where staying here.. so I layed down at the beach the hole day doing absolutly nothing! That night I also headed out alone for a diner and a drink and watched the young surfers walking down the street all night long and doing crazy handshakes. After a while I got in touch with canadian couple who where sitting next to me and the evening got finally better.

The next day David showed up in Mancora and I switched to hostal Loki, a much better choice!! Loki was totally full, packed with backpackers. Super chill hotel with huge swimming pool. Also a direct port to the beach. Perfect! So we spent two days doing again absolutly nothing! I was lying on the beach or at the pool the hole day, drinking and eating, and in the evening we had a great party. The nightlife in Mancora starts late, but I managed to make a 5 o`clock night! Pff had to recover the next day.

So Mancora I relaxed, defenetly worth going to! It`s a place where you can stay longer than planned. But after two days of doing really nothing it was time for me to go. Otherwise I would stay there too long :)

* From the Huaraz I took a nightbus to Trujillo first, together with three people from the Huayhuash trek. Our ways seperated there, because I bought a bus ticket for the next night to Mancora. But I had a day to spent because my bus left at 8. So I headed up to Huanchanco to check the beach and to have a breakfast. Nice place for surfing, but not for chilling on the beach. On my way back I stopped at Chan Chan. Nice ruines but not really amazing. So I went back to Trujillo and did some sightseeing. Boring city btw..

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From Lima I took the night bus to Huaraz, a small place at the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, at high of 3052m. It`s about 420 km north of Lima. From here a lot of fantastic treks starts. The Huayhuash trek - 10 to 14 days - is considered to be one of the most beautiful treks in South America!!

I arrived in hostel Joseline - which is absolutely a recommendation! - I joined the early breakfast and came in contact with some dutch people! Carla from ’s-Hertogenbosch and Kirsten from Haarlem - my hometown! They were speaking about doing the Cordillera Huayhuash trek the next day, and so I joined. Besides them both and me we added a German guy called Gunner, an English guy called Sam, an Israelien guy called Shakar, Kistens boyfriend Maarten, and another Dutch girl called Karen. With the 8 of us we booked the 10 days tours.

Each of us paid 160 US dollars and that included everything! Meals, tents, sleeping bags, donkeys to carry our stuff, a horse for emergency’s, a donkey driver, a cook, a guide, etc. And we didn`t have to do anything! Really, we wake up and breakfast is ready. While we eat our breakfast, the donkey driver is packing the tents and stuff. We just follow the guide to the next camping, and when we arrive, the tents are already put up and hot tea with popcorn is waiting for us. After a mid-day sleep diner is ready. So nice that we didn`t had to do anything. Well, except for walking of course.

The trek was absolutely fantastic! During the 10 days we crossed some high peaks and had a perfect view on the 6000m mountains. Really amazing! All the campings where on about 4000m, so during the night it got really really cold. But during the day the sun warmed us up again :) The hike up the mountains where not too difficult so that made the trek just perfect.

Besides walking from one camping to another we did some side trips, one of them was the 5104m high San Antonio. The hike up was pretty hard, but once up there the views where amazing again! Really worth going up there.

The group was also fantastic. It`s always a question if everyone can get along with each other. But having 5 Dutchies in the group it shouldn`t be a problem ;) Hereby a big thank you to the ¨Hi 5¨ team, I enjoyed every day with you guys! See you hopefully soon again and of course save travels!

See all photos from the trek here!!

And here a list of campings and passes we made every day:

Day 1
with minibus to campside Quartehuain at 4170 m

Day 2
from Quartehuain to campside Janca at 4200 m, walked over the Cacanapunta pass 4690 m.

Day 3
from Janca to Incahuain at 4200 m

Day 4
from Incahuain to campside Huayhuash at 4325 m, crossed Co. Azulcoche at 4800 m

Day 5
from Huayhuash to campside Atuscancha at 4365 m, crossed 4785 m, ended in hotsprings!

Day 6
from Atuscancha to Huanacpatay at 4356 m, from here up to San Antonio at 5104 m!

Day 7
from Huanacpatay to campside Huayllapa at 3500 m

Day 8
from Huayllapa to campside X (somewhere underway in the middle of now where at 4500 m

Day 9
to campside Incahuain at 4000 m, crossed Yaucha Punta at 4847 m

Day 10
from Incahuain to Llamac at 3300 m, from here back to Huaraz.

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Well what can I say about my stay in Lima.. Lima is just a big big city and for me kinda boring. I met up with Camaron and we explored the city in two days. Our neighbourhood - Miraflores - was really nice. I stayed in hostal Priwa which is in a very secure area. From there we went to Barracas and Central Lima.

I think Lima has a lot to offer, if you are interessted in big cities. I am not, so after two days I moved on. So no big story about Lima :)

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Oh man, I stayed almost 2 weeks in Cusco! Time really flights when your having fun.. I arrived in Cusco together with David and Cameron - both from the UK. We didn`t had any hostel booked in advanced so we ended up switching hostels 6 times!! Good for getting an impression about different hostels but not really good for getting some rest. But we didn`t had to sleep on the street :) We also saw the Inti Raymi festival, held only once a year on the 24th of June.

Cusco

What can I say about Cusco.. well its a great city just like Arequipa. Smaller thought but the centre had enough historical buildings to keep me busy for 1 or 2 days. Unfortunately I wasn`t able to do much walking the first couple of days because of my huge blisters from the trek to Cusco from Arequipa :(

But I managed to get myself to some touristic sights like the Coricancha Temple, the Cathedral of Cuscon and the wonderful Sacsayhuamán plus it`s great viewpoint over the city. I also visited the Inka Museum, which was not really worth going to. Other sights had to be skipped because I had to give my feet a rest for most of the day.

So whenever I wasn`t walking through the city I spend my time watching a movie in the hostel or at Mythology - big disco in town - or drinking tea and watching sports at Real McCoy`s. The days past by and my feet were getting better and better again, so we booked our alternative Machu Picchu trek. With still a couple of days to spent we visited the Inti Raymi festivalon June the 24th at the Sacsayhuamán ruins. It`s a great show invloving hundreds of people in traditional cloths and with traditional music. But halfway the show we had to go, because the people behind us were getting too aggressive. In the first half we already witnessed people fighting, throwing stones or other objects to each other and people getting pushed away. So to save our lives we left.

Music and Carnaval

During the two weeks people were getting ready for the Inti Raymi festival, so on the Plaza de Armas many local carnaval groups made their performances. Really great to see! Every group had their own traditional clothes and music. And they danced all day long!

Hostels

So switching hostels 6 times in 2 weeks in 1 city.. a new record! So for people how come to Cusco, here are my top 3 hostels:
1. Gringa 1
2. Sammy Wasi
3. Pirwa Minihostel

All have free internet (also wifi), breakfast and a TV room with many DVDs. Prices are 30 to 20 soles.

Photo`s of Cusco.

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