a bizarre few days...

sorry, this is a looonnnggg one.

So it was great to spend my birthday with fun people in a beautiful village. Nicole and I made a ¨cake¨ in Rosemary's convection oven, and I am using the word cake in the loosest sense. We had to add eggs mid bake (oops), and then after and hour it was pretty much liquid so we added a flour/condensed milk mixture, which kind of worked, but created a chocolate cake with white lumps. The cake was supposed to have a meringue middle, but as the cake wasn't fit for cutting into layers, and because I am an meringue idiot (ie. I didn't realize adding the egg whites, sugar and water at the beginning together was a bad thing). The chocolate pudding for the icing also didn't firm up. But it had a candle on it and was the best darn birthday cake I've had at 3000m. The evening finished with some pisco drinks and lots of Uno. I also got a bottle of pisco filled with local peaches for my birthday. Just got to figure a way to get it back into Canada.

The next morning was filled with teary farewells (on my part) and a bit of traveller's ¨sickness¨. My stomach had been off for a few days, and was acting up. Nicole gave me a plastic bag for the windy road ahead. Pamparomas was fantastic. There is so much opportunity and culture and friendliness and beauty and so much more. My itinerary changes everyday - perhaps I can pass through on my way back down south. So the road to Caraz went up and up and up, and then down and down and down. The road through the cordilleras negras was fantastic, and then when the bus topped the pass and I saw the cordilleras blancas, with snow and the highest mountains in Peru, I gasped. I am such a mountainphile. The road was so windy and narrow, and the drop offs so steep, I felt funny taking pictures because it felt like I was taking my eyes of the road and somehow that was dangerous, even though I wasn't driving. Defiinitely not a drive for the weak hearted.

Caraz is a bit bigger than I expected, but there are few tourists. I think I have met all 7 of them. My hostal is great. I am splurging on a 11$ room - hot water, my own bathroom, comfortable bed, and VERY clean (vacuumed and cleaned everyday!). And quiet. My first full day there I popped down to the main trekking agency in town to see if there were any treks or tours going out, and I happened to meet 2 brits and a german going on a day tour to some glacial lakes. After having a bit of withdrawl since leaving Nicole and David, it was nice to meet them. The lakes were a crazy blue, and the Andes surrounded us. I love geology. Very peaceful. We did a bit of walking as well, but it's hard. The lakes were at almost 4000m.

After coming back, I had made plans to meet up with the two brits for dinner after a shower, but I meet an italian (Chiara) and we made plans to do an overnight hike together on Wednesday. Whats funny about this is that she obviously speaks italian, but quite good spanish, a little bit of french, and even less english (pretty much none). Whereas I can do french and english, but barely spanish, and no italian. We are communicating in spanish. It's a mental workout. I am bringing card and mastermind for the hike. No talking necessary.

Now while we were chatting, we ran into two ladies from Pamparomas who had come down in the same combi (van) the day before. This worked out perfectly for me as I wanted to buy a toilet seat to send up to Nicole, so we went and got one and I took them out for dinner to say thanks for bringing it up to Nicole. The whole situation was intensely humourous for me. Trying to explain to them that I wanted them to take a toilet seat back to Pomparomas. At dinner I was trying to ask them why they were down in Caraz. At first it sounded like one of them has a husband here who is married to another woman. Then I thought they said they both had the same husband. Then what I understood is that both of their husbands have passed away (they made a very clear throat cutting gesture). I never really understood why they were down here. Anyways, I hope the toilet seat made it home safely.

Today was my last full day here before Chiara and I go hiking. I slept in, as I have been a lot, as my stomach is still not happy. I can't tell if it is the standard travellers sickness, or if it's because I am eating much more meat here than I normally do at home, or too many late nights in Pomparomas, or the altitude, or a combination of all of the above. After I got up and was about to shower, I decided to do something about my hair. It had been driving me crazy here. So I took my swiss army knife to it and how have about 5 inches less. Fantastico. Anyways, the plan for today was to find a combi going to Huallanca, which would pass through Canon del Pato, a very narrow, and beautiful gorge. I must be spelling gorge wrong, it looks so weird. After 2 hours, I finally found one, and it was great as there were just two passengers and I got a great view in the front seat. Now getting back was an adventure. I waited quite a while, chatting with some locals and going through my dictionary with a young boy, and trying to understand a mumbling older man. I have to say I have been so impressed with how friendly everyone is here. Now I haven't made to any major tourist centres yet, but Í am much happier and open here than I was in general in SE Asia. Perhaps that will change as I hit Huaraz (the main hiking centre).

Anyways, over 2 hours later I squeezed into the hatchback of a 4WD toyota car with 3 others. There were 5 in the front and 4 in the middle. 13 in total in a 5 seat car. The view I was hoping to get on the way back turned into a view of the dusty back window and the shoulder of the man I was nuzzled up against. Ah well. Now Chiara and I have picked up all of our equipment, and are meeting at 6:15am tomorrow to try to find the combi stop. We are heading to Laguna Paron, which can be reached by a very expensive taxi, but we are going to walk up to it and then explore the far end of the lake, and a further lake. All surrounded by peaks and glaciers. And lots of bugs. I have already been ravaged, and have a lot of bites. This in addition to a few fleas I seem to have picked up in Pamparomas. I am consistently itchy, and have dreams of picking bugs out of my scalp.

We will be at over 4500m. It will be below freezing at night. I rented a thicker sleeping bag. At least it's only one night!