Fiestas Patrias

Peru is currently in the midst of celebrating Fiestas Patrias, the celebration of its Independence from Spain. As far as I can tell so far, the celebration mainly consists of parades, which is nothing out of the ordinary. Peru seems to specialize in random parades, sometimes for a legitimate reason but usually not. I'm convinced that if I wanted to I could very easily throw my own parade without notifying anyone. It may be unorganized, disrupt traffic, and have no point, but who cares...it´s a parade!

Anyway, because it is a national holiday, Peace Corps gives us four vacation days. Thus, I decided to travel, along with the rest of Peru and three friends, to Huaraz. Located between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra, Huaraz is a bustling Andean mountain city located at 3052 meters above sea level.

Getting here was an experience of course. My friend Susan was put in charge of buying tickets and she opted for the normal bus instead of the one with beds. Mind you it was a night bus, so sleeping would have been preferred. To travel on the one with beds would have cost a whole $3.00 more so maybe that deterred her. She also decided to put us in the two front seats, directly behind the big glass window separating the passengers from the front cabin where the driver and his assistent reside. Now, normally, in Susan's defense, this is not problematic. However, it just so happens that this particular assistant, hired to keep the driver awake on the 10 hour ride, was darn good at his job. In fact, I don't think he could have been better suited for his line of work. He was so good that at three in the morning he was still beating his hands on the dashboard to the raging techno he had a penchant for. The man, who was at least 40, definitely did not look like the techno type. He also had a really loud and distinctive guffaw and a proclivity for using swear words rather heedlessly.

When we finally got there in the morning it was freezing. I packed shoes this time but I still arrived wearing sandals. As the luggage was being unloaded from under the bus one of the compartments popped open by itself and a man crawled out. Apparently he slept under there which had to be an interesting experience given that the bus was snaking through mountains. All in all, the trip was well worth it because the city has some impressive views of some of the tallest peaks in Peru, including the tallest, Huascaran, which tops off at 6768m. The city also boasts its fair share of appetizing restaurants catering to the large number of gringos who come to trek and climb. And there are a lot of them, gringos that is. They are easy to spot of course, standing about a foot above the rest of the crowd and sporting expensive outdoor gear. The prices in Huaraz reflect the tourists that arrive. Aji de gallina that costs S/.3 in Chiclayo can cost you upwards of S/.13 here.