So, from Lima the next destination was supposed to be Chachapoyas, taking 20 hour bus ride, to meet up with my brother, who was coming in from Ecuador.
Going ahead of the events - I did meet my brother, and we went to Chachapoyas, and we have left already, but all has its time.
A mystery place Chachapoyas - getting there was not easy. Firstly, it takes time to find a bus company that goes there! Once you get there, or rather on the road you see many, but as a newcomer to the country you have few possibilitiues to really get into the bus system here. Well, its not that bad - guess I wrote it - each bus company has its own terminal, ticket office, departure zone and fortunately they are located in the same area of the city. But finding the ones that goes whee you want to, means walking aound. If anybody wants to go to Chachapoyas (or Chacha for further reference), use Movil Tours. They do seem better, although their website does not work. In any case, you cant get your tickets online and arriving to their bus termina will be necesarry. I made a mistake taking Civa. Well, not really a mistake - the credit has to be given to the drivers - they were excellent! But, the bus was not the newest and I saved 10 soles to go with them, but that I guess cost me comfort. Got a seat 52 (there are 53) that meant last row. And with that the adventure started.
For the context - you may have heard of heavy floods in Ecuador (for that see my brothers blog in the links, but it will require that you read Latvian), and that ment also constant rains in Northern Peru. This after all did affect my travell, and at one point I was ready tot turn back to the coast, but did not do it, because communications with my brother were not possible as we both were out of reach of any mobile network for most of the time of this trip.
We left Lima at night with some delay (Peru time...), and the first part on the Panamerican highway was great. I even managed to sleep! That was a miracle, but prooved useful laterf. We passed through the desert, the oasis of Trujillo, Chiclayo and some othe places, and got to Lambayeke. See the link in the photos - the gas station and neaby mill San Jose. Well, thats how the villages on the road looked like. More pictures to follow. From there the road took us in to the mountains towards Amazonas. By this time all was going smooth, we even got breakfast served on the bus, and after good nights sleep slowly started to learn who the fellow passengers were. The road from Chiclayo into Amazonas is nice. Ascending the mountains we were fortunate to have nice weathe to see the views. Only briefly we were in the clouds, but otherwise all was nice. On the descent we got our first ¨rumbo¨ or a landlide or whatever in that given plce gan block the road.
So, the first time was mid day, we did not know what has happened, but the line ahead was so long that did not go to see it. Here I first time learned the ¨Peru time¨ concept. Delay in Lima does not count. They told us that in 30 minutes we will be able to pass, but it took 3 hours. As I learned later, when a time is given you at least have to multiply it by 3. So, this time it was more, but multiplication by 3 or 4 actually seems to work in general!
As a side note - they love diminutives here. For those with some Spanish knowledge, you would here many ¨ahorita¨, ¨minutito¨ which means that it will take longer than if they would say ¨ahora¨...
Well, the 3 hours sitting on the road were spent well. Learned that one of the women sitting with us at the end would have to spend another 8 hours walking-riding-taking a boat to get to her village once we arrive in Chacha. Another had to get to Kuelap (one of the sites we visited - moe later), others also would have to travel hours. Considering that we would with the delay arrive around midnight, this would of course not happen the same night. Well, and as we all were hungry, shared the latvian bronw bread that I had by accident with me with some, and of course had to answer many questions -why are you travelling alone? Are you married? Where are you goging? Why are you going to Chacha... Etc, etc. It helped to say that I will meet my brother in chacha, othewise a concept of a woman travelling alone was not that clear to many. But, this was the time when some of the passengers heard about my brother, whom they would meet later.
well, time passed by and finally we started moving. As we got to the landlslide site, could see huge rocks that had fallen, and a path cleared as wide as to get trucks and buses though. Here again - the credit to the drivers!
With this we thought our delay will only be those 3-4 hours, but no... that was not it!
at 8pm we got to a place called Los Naranjitos (again the diminutive). In English - the ornges place. There was no sign of oranges there, only bananas, but the story is not about that. We were stopped there. The road was covered in mud, and passing through the village was not possible, because of another landslide. And, we were stuck there for 12 hours - another night in the bus. When we saw the place next day, I think the mud had taken down some 50 m of the road, and the road maintenane people had managed to BUILD a part of that road in one night! All respect! Again, the photos are not that great, but there were some. Will try to organise them by the events later (this means ¨times 4¨ and it could be after the trip- am getting used to Peru time).
This night however was good. First the drivers did not know whether to turn back to the previous town, or stay there. Reason - couple of days before in that are there was a robbery attack on one of busses (as I found later, 2 of the guys were cought soon after that). But after realsing that there were some 12-15 buses, trucks and other transport, an attack would have to be very organisd, so it was safer to stay there. There we were, all lined up and happy... (its irony ...). This meant to know the fellow passengers even better, and since the bus was too hot (lights off, aircon off, windows cant b opened, door closed...) with some we were standing on the road and soon drinking cubalibres, loca champagne (inca cola taste, with bubbles and some alcohol) and beer, and even visited nearby food stand (shack with 3 tables where you could get everything) for ore beers. Company was great - both from our and the next bus. The guys with drinks in the picures are those how were up almost all night: mapamundi (map of the world - because he was the only one who knew were Latvia was), bombero, Christian and others. I however was so tired by 2.30 that I had to go to sleep! Missed eating chicken stock at 4 am in the food stand, missed more conversations, but had great fun listening to jokes, talking about travels and almost was persuaded that after Chacha will have to head into Amazonas. Housing and gude
services were of course offered, but with the details of housing offer wont bore you :)
well, so I went to sleep, and after some hours, got up to realise that finally will be leaving beloved Naranjitos, and with that the company of Mapamundi, Bombero, Christian and others.
The rest of the travel involved moe waiting, more talking and when we were stuck for another 6 hours at the pass to chacha which sis closed during the day for road works, my brother arrived! By then our bus already had imagined him, and now they got to see him. Since before I was the only ¨gringa¨ or ¨gringita¨ as the others were calling me, now we were 2. Kids had fun, we took loads of pictures, and after 48 hours arrived to Chacha! Tired, but found a nice place reccomended by Luis, also once of co-passengers, and slept to preapre for the next day adventures. About those, later....
Going ahead of the events - I did meet my brother, and we went to Chachapoyas, and we have left already, but all has its time.
A mystery place Chachapoyas - getting there was not easy. Firstly, it takes time to find a bus company that goes there! Once you get there, or rather on the road you see many, but as a newcomer to the country you have few possibilitiues to really get into the bus system here. Well, its not that bad - guess I wrote it - each bus company has its own terminal, ticket office, departure zone and fortunately they are located in the same area of the city. But finding the ones that goes whee you want to, means walking aound. If anybody wants to go to Chachapoyas (or Chacha for further reference), use Movil Tours. They do seem better, although their website does not work. In any case, you cant get your tickets online and arriving to their bus termina will be necesarry. I made a mistake taking Civa. Well, not really a mistake - the credit has to be given to the drivers - they were excellent! But, the bus was not the newest and I saved 10 soles to go with them, but that I guess cost me comfort. Got a seat 52 (there are 53) that meant last row. And with that the adventure started.
For the context - you may have heard of heavy floods in Ecuador (for that see my brothers blog in the links, but it will require that you read Latvian), and that ment also constant rains in Northern Peru. This after all did affect my travell, and at one point I was ready tot turn back to the coast, but did not do it, because communications with my brother were not possible as we both were out of reach of any mobile network for most of the time of this trip.
We left Lima at night with some delay (Peru time...), and the first part on the Panamerican highway was great. I even managed to sleep! That was a miracle, but prooved useful laterf. We passed through the desert, the oasis of Trujillo, Chiclayo and some othe places, and got to Lambayeke. See the link in the photos - the gas station and neaby mill San Jose. Well, thats how the villages on the road looked like. More pictures to follow. From there the road took us in to the mountains towards Amazonas. By this time all was going smooth, we even got breakfast served on the bus, and after good nights sleep slowly started to learn who the fellow passengers were. The road from Chiclayo into Amazonas is nice. Ascending the mountains we were fortunate to have nice weathe to see the views. Only briefly we were in the clouds, but otherwise all was nice. On the descent we got our first ¨rumbo¨ or a landlide or whatever in that given plce gan block the road.
So, the first time was mid day, we did not know what has happened, but the line ahead was so long that did not go to see it. Here I first time learned the ¨Peru time¨ concept. Delay in Lima does not count. They told us that in 30 minutes we will be able to pass, but it took 3 hours. As I learned later, when a time is given you at least have to multiply it by 3. So, this time it was more, but multiplication by 3 or 4 actually seems to work in general!
As a side note - they love diminutives here. For those with some Spanish knowledge, you would here many ¨ahorita¨, ¨minutito¨ which means that it will take longer than if they would say ¨ahora¨...
Well, the 3 hours sitting on the road were spent well. Learned that one of the women sitting with us at the end would have to spend another 8 hours walking-riding-taking a boat to get to her village once we arrive in Chacha. Another had to get to Kuelap (one of the sites we visited - moe later), others also would have to travel hours. Considering that we would with the delay arrive around midnight, this would of course not happen the same night. Well, and as we all were hungry, shared the latvian bronw bread that I had by accident with me with some, and of course had to answer many questions -why are you travelling alone? Are you married? Where are you goging? Why are you going to Chacha... Etc, etc. It helped to say that I will meet my brother in chacha, othewise a concept of a woman travelling alone was not that clear to many. But, this was the time when some of the passengers heard about my brother, whom they would meet later.
well, time passed by and finally we started moving. As we got to the landlslide site, could see huge rocks that had fallen, and a path cleared as wide as to get trucks and buses though. Here again - the credit to the drivers!
With this we thought our delay will only be those 3-4 hours, but no... that was not it!
at 8pm we got to a place called Los Naranjitos (again the diminutive). In English - the ornges place. There was no sign of oranges there, only bananas, but the story is not about that. We were stopped there. The road was covered in mud, and passing through the village was not possible, because of another landslide. And, we were stuck there for 12 hours - another night in the bus. When we saw the place next day, I think the mud had taken down some 50 m of the road, and the road maintenane people had managed to BUILD a part of that road in one night! All respect! Again, the photos are not that great, but there were some. Will try to organise them by the events later (this means ¨times 4¨ and it could be after the trip- am getting used to Peru time).
This night however was good. First the drivers did not know whether to turn back to the previous town, or stay there. Reason - couple of days before in that are there was a robbery attack on one of busses (as I found later, 2 of the guys were cought soon after that). But after realsing that there were some 12-15 buses, trucks and other transport, an attack would have to be very organisd, so it was safer to stay there. There we were, all lined up and happy... (its irony ...). This meant to know the fellow passengers even better, and since the bus was too hot (lights off, aircon off, windows cant b opened, door closed...) with some we were standing on the road and soon drinking cubalibres, loca champagne (inca cola taste, with bubbles and some alcohol) and beer, and even visited nearby food stand (shack with 3 tables where you could get everything) for ore beers. Company was great - both from our and the next bus. The guys with drinks in the picures are those how were up almost all night: mapamundi (map of the world - because he was the only one who knew were Latvia was), bombero, Christian and others. I however was so tired by 2.30 that I had to go to sleep! Missed eating chicken stock at 4 am in the food stand, missed more conversations, but had great fun listening to jokes, talking about travels and almost was persuaded that after Chacha will have to head into Amazonas. Housing and gude
services were of course offered, but with the details of housing offer wont bore you :)well, so I went to sleep, and after some hours, got up to realise that finally will be leaving beloved Naranjitos, and with that the company of Mapamundi, Bombero, Christian and others.
The rest of the travel involved moe waiting, more talking and when we were stuck for another 6 hours at the pass to chacha which sis closed during the day for road works, my brother arrived! By then our bus already had imagined him, and now they got to see him. Since before I was the only ¨gringa¨ or ¨gringita¨ as the others were calling me, now we were 2. Kids had fun, we took loads of pictures, and after 48 hours arrived to Chacha! Tired, but found a nice place reccomended by Luis, also once of co-passengers, and slept to preapre for the next day adventures. About those, later....
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