misadventures on the road

We have now been on the road for about a week and half and to be honest, nothing has gone as expected...To start off, we traveled through the mountains to see the beautiful landscape of the Haunacavelica and Junin regions. That was totally worth it and beautiful, especially the city of Huancavelica itself. However, one of the main points of the trip was to arrive in Hauncavelica and take a train, the train Macho, to Huancayo. Supposed to be gorgeous. Turns out the train hasn´t been running for three months...

We got to Lima on Thursday and had a nice lunch with a friend of mine there and visited a the Museo de la Nacion, specifically to see the exhibit on the Shining Path and civil war that took place in Peru in the 1980s and early 90s. For me, and more so for Edu who is from Ayacucho, it was really powerful because the shining path originated in Ayacucho and much of the violence occured there.

That was a great day but then I got sick and our trip got a little more delayed again. We ended up not leaving Lima until yesterday (Tuesday) morning. Our destination was Paracas, a beach area a few hours south of lima with access to the Ballestas Islands, which are supposedely a galapagos islands "light." Near Paracas is the city of Ica with access to sand dunes and popular oasis called Huacachina. We got on the bus hearing rumors that there were potential road closures between Lima and Paracas but we´d probably get there by the night. Nope. About an hour before our destination the bus came to a complete stop and we were stranded in the town of Chinca. Still thinking we´d be able to get through soon, we got off the bus, got a hotel and decided to take advantage of seeing a new place.

Turns out, getting out of Chincha wasn´t so easy. There is a massive strike by cotten growers in the area who have shut down the Pan American highway between Chincha and the city of Pisco. There are trucks and buses that have now been stranded for two days straight.

We however, thought we´d be clever and take a taxi to Ica since they claimed the side roads were fine. Nope again. The taxi ride through the cotten fields turned out to be a crazy adventure. There were roadblocks every 100 meters, the majority of them manned by children, charging a "toll" to get through. Now, from what I understand the cotten workers are striking because they would like the government to raise the price at which they purchase a kilo of cotten. Fair enough. But what I saw today, was mostly thugish teenagers taking advantage of the situation and essentially robbing any vehicle for a few soles that wanted to get through. When we got to the main highway, the main blockade had gotten further then we thought and we still weren´t able to get through. The highway is filled with giant boulders, tires and small fires so we actually had to walk awhile until we finally got passed it and got a bus to Ica.

Tonight we are safe in Ica but I must say this was one of the craziest experiences I have had yet living in Peru, or anywhere really. The good news is that we have made it past the strikes and are free to finally start seeing the stuff we want, i hope. Tomorrow to the oasis, huacachina but I think we might have to skip paracas for now.

Keep you posted!!
Lindsay