Thursday, February 25, 2010

Baños del Inca and Carnaval Night Life








Day 2 in Cajamarca. I thought the Banos del Inca would be like any other hot springs place I had been before - kind of like a huge hot tub and you just walk up and get in and soak until you're done. However, at the Inca Bathes, there are private rooms for each group. There's a big pipe that runs into the private room from the hot springs and it's mixed with as much cold water as you decide. We made ours super hot. We ended up realizing that since tons of people don't have hot water up here, it's where they come when they want a bath, which is why they're private. The water in the non-swimming pools was about 170 degrees. Somehow some things still manage to grow in there.

Carnaval Night Life - Interested in mostly making a bunch of sound, every little group had their own drum and just kept banging on it the whole night. Little mountain ladies walked around and sold homemade yellowish liquor in reused soda bottles. In one picture you can see this troll doll that had some weird stuff on it. It sort of looked like they were playing "operation." The morning we arrived in Cajamarca, there were still people out in the plaza drumming away. It was 6ish in the morning. It was pretty cool to see the fire/juggling act. Sad to say we didn't catch any picture of floats. The floats were really elaborate, creative and colorful sometimes stuffed in the back of a pickup truck.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Llacanora - waterfalls etc








It's going to be difficult to pick which pictures to use from our whole trip to Cajamarca. For some reason we just took way more pictures than we normally would, so I am definitely separating the days in the Cajamarca region. Day 1 - Llacanora, the waterfalls, the hike surrounding the waterfalls, enormo plants, and goat-cow-pig. Brian and I both really liked this small little town. There were farms that went up the mountainsides and lots of greenery. Of course, with lots of greenery comes mosquitos, so I got bit a lot and am glad to say I don't currently have yellow fever. The backdrops in the mountain pictures and the plants speak for themselves. It was so cool. Brian and I both had our own names for goat-cow-pig. He thinks it should be man-bear-pig, but I don't see it. I think it is so clearly part pig, part cow, part goat. We got to a set of waterfalls first that were already gorgeous and it said there were more waterfalls ahead, so we trekked forward to some even cooler waterfalls, which is what I have posted.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Trujillo








Last week after a solid 10 days of mostly laying around in the apartment being sick, we went to Trujillo. It had been a while since we'd been in the city and we were not too fond of the taxis, the combi ride and all the craziness, but the Plaza de Armas was beautiful. I'd say that I'd never ride in a Combi again, except I already have. But when I rode in one that night, I felt like I was going to die. We ate at a restaurant with a great bathroom (a hard to find luxury item around here) and called it our Valentine's Day dinner. I really liked some of the architecture, so a lot of these pictures are for my mom for her to see too. My favorite is the open sky building with the walking terrace on top and the courtyard. All in all, Trujillo is worth a visit, but not two.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Proof is in the Pudding







We decided last week that we needed some pictures of the bands that come march around town. It was a bit difficult to catch them in action as it is so often at 7 in the morning that they do their marching. But when we'd hear the bands come marching by our hotel, it'd wake us up and we'd hurry to find the camera (which was definitely more difficult than normal since we were half asleep). We finally got a couple pictures. One was obviously when we were in a bus.

Also, there was another festival a few days ago with a very informal parade and some more dancing on the beach, followed by a 'battle of the bands' type situation last night. There was some sort of rock band with Peruvian flutes that was my favorite. We had to stand in the back though as always so that Brian didn't block the whole crowd's view. Then Brian and I went and sat on a bench for a bit on the pier and two little girls came up to the bench and said "Regalame" and pointed to my water bottle. At first I didn't really listen to what they said and I thought they just wanted to sit and flirt with Brian, so I told them they could take a seat, but they just repeated "regalame" (which means "Give it to me" or "Gift it to me"). And then Brian and I realized what they said. I don't really even know what to say in that situation. Um no, thanks I like having water.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Moving Day

We're in our new apartment now. The apartment is farther away from where the bands are always marching, but I think that might be over anyway - it was possibly part of a month long fiesta in town. But really impossible to tell. The canons have really hushed as well. I won't miss that. The landlords seem nice. It's got an extra room. TV with English speaking channels. So happy to have a kitchen. Can't wait to get peanut butter. The bed is horrible.

All in all, I am just super bored because Brian has been sick for 3 whole days, like he barely wants to walk to a Bodega sick. We were hoping to go to Chan Chan this week, maybe Saturday. We'll definitely try to get pics of Chan Chan.