Saturday, June 21, 2008

Energizer bunny spotted in Peru

Warning!!! There is lots of pictures in this post (and many more on Flickr if you don't get enough here).
Dad just left today and so far he receives the award for "American in Peru with the most energy." Let me show you an example: We went out on Thursday night until the wee hours of the morning (1am) to Usha, Usha bar for some traditional Peruvian music, clapping, singing, story telling, drinking and dancing.

Then on Friday early morn we woke up hours later to venture out to hike out to the "windows in the mountains" of Combayo. We didn't know the route or how we would get back into town, but all agreed we would embrace the adventure. We took an hour taxi ride through breath taking curvy mountain roads - my Dad described it as an amusement park roller coaster ride. No seatbelts or safety features though. We arrived in the town of Combayo after an hour plus of our roller coaster trip. We hiked through amazing mountain country - all new sights for me. Hugo seemed to know where to go, we only had to ask a couple people along the way, all of which said, "you're close, it's just over there." 3 plus hours later we saw our first ventanillas, windows, in the mountain. These windows date back to pre-Inca times as burial sites. These windows are much more preserved than the windows of Otuzco, closer to Cajamarca, so Dad got an out of the ordinary tourist experience. Along with cows, donkeys, sheep and angry dogs we also witnessed lots of precious little jewel flowers along the way. Upon arriving to the highway we only had to wait an hour before we found a ride half way back to town. We rode with a group of 5th grade girls on a school trip in their school minibus for about 40 minutes back towards Cajamarca. 40 minutes of song, dance, and absolute craziness. They stopped at the fish farm and we got off just in time to catch a different crowded mini bus that took us all the way into town. A full day, arriving in Cajamarca close to 5pm. And, my Dad still wanted to go out that night. Hence, he holds the energizer bunny title.



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