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By 8 am this morning...
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By 8 am this morning, ¨what¨ you ask? By 8 am this morning, I had climbed a mountain. That´s right, mother. You daughter can climb mountains. I can´t say that it wasn´t one of the hardest things i´ve ever done, and I certaintly can say that my entire body aches from the hard work.
But I climbed a mountain today. A little background. After Haucachina (the sand dune place), Josh and I traveled on an overnight bus to Ariquipa where we have been ever since. The first day here was spent by me being very sick, which was awful. I think it was the combination of eating raw fish called ceviche (picture to hopefully follow), a bumpy 12 hour bus ride, and a change in elevation. The second day, I actually left the hostal (whopee) and saw Ariquipa. It is the largest town we´ve been in so far, and it has been quite nice to walk around. Yesterday very early in the morning, we left to take a 6 hour bus to Cobanaconde, where we were planning to hike the second largest canyon in the world. So we get to the bus station around 7 for our 8 o´clock bus only to find out that the next bus isn´t until 11:45. Damn Peru busses. They are never when, where or what you want them to be. The bus ride was well worth the wait, i must say. The entire bus ride took us through endless, beautiful mountains. I just couldn´t pull myself away from looking out of the window and taking pictures constantly. Most definitely the most beautiful place i have ever been.
When we finally arrived in Cobabaconda, we honestely couldn´t believe where we were. Legitimately in the middle of nowhere. The town had around 3,000 people, I think, but there is really no connection to the outside world. If they want to get to another neighboring town, they either have to take the bus (if they have the money) or they have to walk across mountains to get where they want to go. Crazy. We checked into our hostal which in the inside was surprisingly nice, and from the outside, we could see a mule tied up right outside our window.
So much more to say, but people are waiting for the computer so I´ll skip to the next morning when we left to hike down the canyon. The whole thing took about 3 or so hours and was, obviously all down hill. My legs were shaking by the time we got all the way down. The hike that we did lead us to an oasis with hot springs, a family and a few bungalows that they built for travelers. We were so happy to see the pool, we jumped into our bathing suits quickly to cool off from our intense down hill hike. The rest of the day was spend in our little bungalow. Just us. And when I mean just us, I mean us and the wide variety of animals that also populated the oasis. It´s funny, we thought we were in the middle of nowhere when we got to Cabanaconde, but once we hiked down to the oasis, we really were surrounded by a huge canyon,some dogs, sheep, goats and other identifiable animals, and that´s it.
This morning, we were up and climbing by 5 am hoping that the morning sun wouldn´t beat down on us too much while we were hiking. It´s a very crazy feeling starting to climb a mountain that you can´t even see the top of. It seemed like we hiked forever. I was so out of breath as a result of the high altitude, it really was a tough time for me, but I am so glad I did it and equally glad that i´m done.
Hopefully the pictures that I will attach soon will be able to describe what i saw and experienced a little bit better than my words. Thanks for all of your responses from my last travelpod. I apologize if you have not gotten a response... it´ll come eventually.
A glance forward: Either tomorrow or Sunday (depending on our stomach´s, unfortunately) we will start heading to Santiago Chili. Many bus rides follow, and looking forward to eventually getting to another country that is a little (just a little) but more westernized.
Love to all,
Jamie
Latest Comments (2)
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hi from mommy Bunny (reply)
Feb 25, 2006 10:12 EST by bhonigman
Stop already with the raw fish!! Glad you made it to the top of the mountain. Sounds like you guys are having fun. We are proud of both of you. Do I sound like a mother?
Love,
MOM
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from a mountain top (reply)
Feb 25, 2006 10:09 EST by cobar
Good job, did Josh wear his flip flops? We can't wait to see the pics. So, how is your Spanish?
Take care and love from all of us.
Love
Always
Dad
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