The Andes!!

I have always dreamt of coming to the Andes… and here I am! It may be the top end and not as high as other parts but it is the Andes all the same!
Chiclayo was not as chaotic as Lima and Trujillo and felt like a much friendlier city. Unfortunately it wasn’t a great day as I had really bad stomach cramps; my stomach has been playing up since we arrived in Peru. We went to the market but I had to make a swift exit! The girls stayed a bit longer and had more of a wander around. Our bus to Chachapoyas was at 7.30pm and I was thinking that I would not be able to manage an 11 hour bus journey but luckily I felt a bit better.

The bus journey was OK, semi reclining seats, so we were able to doze a lot of the journey, we were all aware of the bus meandering up and down mountains, if we had have travelled during the day I imagine it would have been both spectacular and terrifying! We arrived at 6.30am and came to a hotel I’d read about in the rough guide. It is an old colonial style building with massive rooms, like dormitories, it is a lovely building which the girls hate because it is old and does not have cable TV!Chachapoyas is a lovely little town, completely unspoiled and nestled in the mountains. A complete contrast to the coastal towns we had visited. No hooting of horns continually and people are laid back and calm.

As I knew would happen the girls do not want to do what I want to do, which is visit Kuelap and the waterfall. I think we have now managed to reach a compromise; we are moving hotel tomorrow to one that is a bit cheaper but has smaller more cheery rooms and has TV and wifi. They are going to stay in tomorrow and watch TV and play on the internet (would I have been like this when I was their age?? Maybe, I can’t remember!) and I am going to have a day trip out to Kuelap. I have persuaded them to stay an extra night and we will all go and see the waterfall on Sunday. Then on Monday continue on towards the Amazon We have also found out via facebook that their dad is getting married to someone on Saturday, hence why he had gone walk about, the girls obviously have mixed feelings about this!

This afternoon a lovely taxi driver took us to some amazing view points, the driving as usual was terrifying and he nearly managed to kill several young children, a sheep and a small horse. We saw lots of sights including the woman walking her pig and a lot of elderly women carrying huge loads of their backs. The views from the top of the mountains were breath taking, even more breath taking when the taxi driver jumped over the edge of a precipice to demonstrate what a good place to take a picture…. Luckily there was a small ledge the other side! We are at about 2,500 meters here and have been feeling a bit breathless today, as we have had a quiet day we hopefully will have acclimatised!