Olmos lately

I really wish that I had been keeping up with this better, because there are so many things to talk about, that I don't know where to start! I've been cheating, and just keeping a Sticky Note of blogworthy things on my desktop. That list is now 23 items long- I suppose I should start telling stories. I am posing a personal challenge to myself: Tell all these stories-one every three days. That would bring me up to date on 6 October, which actually means that I would still be behind, but I would be closer up. Right? And anyway, there's a huge possibility that I would write more than every three days, as long as I can make a habit out of it. So, all three readers that I have-keep me on track. It is your duty as readers of this silly blog. And I want to know what you think! So, go forth, and tell me what you think.

I will start with a fantastic story of a vacation that my sitemate and I took in April. I believe that the dates were April 20 to 25. We left Olmos (I really should post a map of Lambayeque on here soon, it would help you all a lot-Sticky Note updated). Our destination? Laquipampa National Wildlife Refuge, in the foothills of the sierra of Lambayeque. Everyone remembers that Lambayeque is the department (state-type designation) that I live in, right? Good. We thought it would be brilliant and awesome to go up there and hike and camp and see awesome wildlife for a few days. And it was. But there were a few setbacks. I mean, adventures.......

Our first adventure was just getting there. We took the normal minivan ride from Olmos to Chiclayo just fine, and stayed overnight to get food and other supplies for the trip. We thought it would be great, since this was Sarah's first backpacking trip, to go real barebones, and just get the necessities. We walked out of Plaza Vea (read: Peruvian Walmart) with tuna, mayo, crackers, peanut butter, jam, bread, cookies and water. That it's. And that's what we brought with us. Did you see a fork or plate or cup on that list? Nope. You sure didn't.

So, we head out to start our journey the next morning, about 10am. We're told that it's a 30 minute collectivo (station wagon packed with as many people, sacks of food, and chickens as possible) to the point where we can take a combi (rusted out old bus) the 2 hours to Laquipampa. Once we get to the combi, we realize that there actually isn't any room for us, and asked if they could please find room. So we rode the whole way perched on the jump seat over the engine, on top of some sacks of who knows what. Sarah got sick of it about and hour and a half in, and sat on the top. Everyone in the combi thought she was crazy, since it was drizzling outside, but I think she had a better ride than I did. It really was beautiful. As we cut our way up rocky valley walls, and rounded up the sides of some steep cliffs, I was reminded that Lambayeque is not all the dry forest that I live in, and is a very diverse and beautiful place to be.

It was late when we got to the town of Laquipampa, about 4pm (nothing ever happens at the time that you expect it to here), and since it was drizzling, the park rangers would not allow us to go out on the trails. As it turns out, the don't let girls do hardly anything on their own anyway, but we didn't know that at the time. We set up camp in the lot behind the school house along with a few others groups, much to the delight of who I assumed to be the locals. They were absolutely enthralled as we set up the tent, and insisted on helping. Yes, people: we're girls who happen to be of a much lighter skin color, and we can set up camp just fine, thankyouverymuch.

So, we get to the subject of dinner next. We had thought that we would make tuna crackers, which sounded delicious. However- our only utensils were the tin cans that the tuna was already in, a dinner knife and a pocket knife. Note the lack of ideal food preparing objects in our possession. Next time, don't be quite so cocky, you might be saying. Well, we didn't get to that point until a little later in the trip. Thankfully, a very nice group of Chiclayanos were near us, and offered us, without knowing that we sucked at food packing, some ramen noodles. AND two plastic forks! We ate up, and took care to store the forks in a safe place for later. What luck.

The next morning, we set out to find a waterfall and see the cool wildlife. A very nice guide took us out on a lovely 2.5 hour hike to a small waterfall, pointing out the giant mountain called Nuevo Mundo (new world), that not many people hike, and all the little birds and trees. Of course we wanted to hike up Nuevo Mundo, and talked about it a lot, trying to figure out how to do it. The hike came complete with a canine companion, an adorable white dog named Paloma (dove). Apparently, there had been a Peace Corps volunteer in this town about 4 years before, and Paloma (whom we later learned had been re-named Princess) was her dog. She paid us more attention than normal, and we thought it might have been because not too many American girls pass through the area, and she thought we were her volunteer again. It was a sad parting.

In the evening, we took a hike down the hill/street from the town to look for the Pava Aliblanca (White Winged Guan) that live wild in the area. With the same guide as the earlier hike, we walked down about 30 minutes to the designated spot (which looked to me like a bunch of rocks on the side of the street) and sat for almost an hour looking for the birds. We saw 9, which the guide said was a lot, and we were happy. Let me tell you, those things are impossible to take pictures of. They never leave the trees for more than a few seconds, and like to hide in the branches. But it was a really cool feeling to have seen such an endangered animal in the wild, even if it wasn't exactly their historical habitat.

We set off to set up camp after that, very excited about the days activities. As we expected, the guide was nervous about us camping at the normal spot because it had been sprinkling, and insisted that we set up out tent under a boulder on the side of the trail. We did, headed out to the actual campsite where another volunteer friend was waiting for us, and immediately decided that it was better to NOT set up our tent underneath a big, albeit sturdy looking, rock. Again, our fellow camper saved us with his tasty food, and we shared a super tasty dinner.

And this is where it got interesting. One of the main reasons that Sarah wanted to come on this trip was that she had heard of an ancient Incan burial ground in Laquipampa and really wanted to visit it. Everyone that we had talked to said that the burial ground was still being excavated and that we coulnd't. But, after a nice little chat with another parkguard, we found out that there were TWO burial grounds, and the one that we wanted to see was actually open to the public. We just had to walk up the side of the mountain to our right. No big deal, right? he said there were trails, so we went off without a second thought.

We should have thought again. The trail ran out after about 10 minutes, and we still had at least 3 hours to go. No big deal. We could SEE where we were headed, so we tried just blazing our own trail, and following the trail when we found it. Well, turns out that the only things that actually explore that area are cows and their herders, and even then, they must not go very high on the hill. The brush was incredibility thick and was annoying adept at hiding cholla cactus that always seemed to pop out right as I was about to fall. We were exhausted. It got to be that coming to a clearing was the most exciting thing to happen all day, so that we could gauge which direction to keep going.

By about 5:30, one hour before sunset, we look up, sweating, breathing heavily and covered in dirt. We had been going straight up the side of a mountain for about 4 hours now. We were at a rocky outcrop, at the top of which was purportedly our burial ground- goal for the day, and campsite for the night. We could think of nothing but the moderately small amount of water in our packs, and the cookies right next to them. As much as we wanted to get to the top, see the valley at sunset and set up camp, we had to conceed that, at the rate that we were going and factoring in that we really had no idea where we were going, it was going to be between 2 and 15 hours before we actually got to where we wanted to get. Dejectedly (but, secretly, happily) we turned around and sought out the closest and flattest spot from where we were. An hour later, we find a slanted, but open rocky area and squeeze the tents in next to the rock, the happiest that I have ever been after taking off a backpack. And the smelliest. It was terrible. If we hadn't been so tired and bummed that we didn't make it to our destination, we would have realized how awesome it was to be camping literally in the middle of nowhere, not sure what else was around, with a fantastic view of the moon. We polished off the rest of the tuna without much fanfare or even much discussion at all, and fell into our sleeping bags.

The next morning we were able to appreciate that the area that we were in was actually very pretty, with a nice view of the valley and the town. We slowly breakfasted on the rest of the cookies and peanut butter, and crawled down the mountain, expecting it to take us maybe 3 hours to get down. It took one. We were mildly impressed, though mostly a little bitter that we took the wrong fork in the road from basically the beginning. oops. If trail maps existed here, we would have caught that. Next time.

Because it was the end of the month and we were all really broke (I think we had about 100 soles between the 3 of us), we decided to walk to the closest town where the cheap mobility would take us to our friend's site for the night. We had zero idea how long it would be, and estimated about 4 hours based on the drive up. It took 6.5. Just trudging along the road. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever hiked, to be honest. You could see everything (once we got off the mountain), and could trace the road through and out of the valley, unhurried and tranquilo. About and hour and a half down the road we stopped for a while at the river, and washed up. It was the best bath I've ever had. The water was cool, not too fast and there was a perfect spot where the blazing sun did not reach my already fairly burnt skin. I didn't want to leave, but, sadly, all good things come to an end.

The walk back, which beautiful, was uneventful. We pushed ourselves really far, and made it back. When we finally made it to a town outside of the valley, we almost squealed in happiness. It was Easter day, we realized, and a lot of people were going between home and easter dinner, and we took advantage of a nice family going in the direction that we needed to go, bouncing down the highway in the back of their truck.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend adventure. While we didn't see the burial ground, we saw some endangered birds, a beautiful waterfall, made friends with a cute little dog, and explored somewhere new. I was finally able to walk normally about 4 days later, and life went on.