| The final parts of Matt
Pendle's account of his gap year trip to Peru (apologies
for missing out the middle parts)
Sunday 10th July, 2005 Well my second from last week in Peru is over, and unfortunately it wasn´t the most interesting of weeks. Having managed to get up the central and Northern Highlands over the previous week, I then had to get back, and that was a mammoth journey.I started Monday morning, waking up at 5:00am to get a 6hr bus to Huanuco at 6am. When I arrived in Huanuco, I booked myself onto a 9:30pm bus to Huancayo the same day. 7hrs later I arrived in Huancayo, and got a 6:30am bus to Ayacucho that morning, ariving around 6:00pm. I decided to spend the night in Ayacucho, and booked a 6:30am bus to Cusco, 20 odd hours away, for Wednesday morning. Wednesday I got to Andahuaylas, a halfway point between Ayacucho and Cusco at 5:00pm, and then had to wait till 7:00pm to get the connecting bus to Cusco. I then went to the Izcuchaca bus stop, and got a 5:30am bus to Izcuchaca, arriving at 6:00am, where I caught a combi to Zurite on which were the people who I work in the church with. I arrived in Zurite, and had rung the bell by quarter to seven in the morning. Lucho answered after a short while, he had obviously just gotten out of bed, his shirt was untucked, and his laces untied. I then spent an hour talking to Tila and Lucho about my travels, and eating a very welcome fried egg sandwich. It was at this point that they told me the house had been robbed, the night before last, and that cameras, mini-disc players, money, and passports had been stolen from the two girls rooms. Thankfully my rooom had been locked, and so nothing was taken. The others started to stir around 8:30, and it was good to see them again, and the three new volunteers, Audrey, Jack, and Sally, who had arrived the day before the robbery, and Audrey had ended up losing the most. Thursday I spent washing clothes, and watching DVD´s, and we had a small party that night as both myself, and another volunteer were leaving on Friday, and heading to Cusco together on Sunday. Friday I spent packing, not particularly interesting, but a fantastic logic puzzle, trying to get about 100 litres of stuff into a rucksack with a capacity of 75litres. Thankfully I had a second bag I could put the overspill in. In the afternoon we headed to Cusco, going out for a bit in the evening. Saturday I spent a good whack of the day in bed, recovering from my very arduous journey, and in the evening we all properly went out, to say goodbye to each other. It was a good night, some good photos, and it will be a shame not to have any more nights out in Cusco. Ah well. See you very soon, less than a week to go now Sunday,
17th July, 2005 Hello for the final time. This week marked my final week in Peru, and it started off with an 18hr bus journey from Cusco to Lima, arriving at 11:00am Monday. I checked into a hostel and did very little else for the rest of the day, though I did find the energy to shower, which makes a nice change, especially for the other people I was sharing a room with. Tuesday I hit the museums, walking for about an hour to the first one, on archaeology, and art, and going round others for the entire day, ending thankfully very near to the hostel. The most interesting one was on the Peruvian Spanish inquisition, housed in the actual building used by the inquisition, where you were shown life-size models of the tortures used. At least I think they were models, they were very quite if they weren't. The inquisition lasted for 250 years in Peru, and at the end of it only 32 people had been put to death, so a lot less bloody than the Spanish inquisition. Wednesday I did two more museums, but had to walk two and a half hours to get to the first one, which was on the history and archaeology of Peru. The second one focused mainly on pottery, with a collection of over 40,000 pots, and the worlds largest collection of Peruvian erotic pottery. Rather than walk, I caught a couple of buses back to central Lima. Thursday I didn't feel particularly well, so didn't go anywhere except a chemists. I did do a lot of reading though. Friday I was up at 3am, at the airport at 4am, and flying to Miami by 8am. I arrived at 3pm local time, sat waiting for my connection for 3 hours, and by 9pm was in the air heading back to Heathrow, London.I arrived (and thankfully so did my bags) Saturday, and despite up to that point having felt that I had been away for ages, the second I walked through to the arrivals hall and saw my parents, I suddenly felt like it was only yesterday that they had dropped me off. We then went for breakfast before my dad left to fly to Beruit for a week. I got home, unpacked, kind of, most of my things are in piles on the floor, and then went to the Black Buoy for food. When we got home I promptly fell asleep. So that's it from Peru, thanks for your patience, and I am sure I will see you around at some point soon Matt Click here for the start of Matt Pendle's story and here for the second part |