On the road: PERU: 4500 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

PERU: 4500 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL

This was today. I was hitchhiking in a little mountain village called Los Libertadores and everyone was "helping" me. We played flute, sang songs, ate grapes and soup, practiced martial arts...did everything but hitchhike. One woman, after asking the regular "where do you come from-where are you going" question invited me to join her and her husband on their truck.

That is the picture of their vehicle:

Dina and Nasario owned this shop on wheels and travelled with it to the villages far away from everything. We made several stops along the way, not only in villages, but also near some lonely houses in the mountains to sell the provisions. As we parted in a place called Rumichacta Dina gave me a bag of coca leaves and told me to chew them as I go. "When chewed, coca acts as a mild stimulant and suppresses hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue", says wikipedia. Dina said that it also helps one´s organizm deal with the heights.

I reached Ayacucho with friends of Dina and Nasario, around 3 pM, tired. The changes of climate within last two days from desert-like coast, to freezing Andes´mountain tops must have done it. Here in Ayacucho I have again put away my sweaters and scarfs to enjoy some mild mountain air.

This is my route from Quito (Ecuador) to Ayacucho (Peru), started February 23rd. I reached Peru on the 25th, spent two days in Lima from where continued on the last day of February towards Pisco.

Here are some ON THE ROAD images from Pisco to Ayacucho. If you have trouble viewing the slideshow click HERE to see the pictures in the album.

2 comments:

Hugh Smith said...: Hello Carina,
This is the teacher from the Hutterite colony you visited near Gem, Alberta. I check your blog every so often just to see how you are doing: your story (the continuing travel updates) never fails to inspire.

My students (with no access to the internet) think of you often, and today they asked me where your journey has taken you now. Tomorrow, I will fill them in on your progress.

With all best wishes,
Hugh Smith
author: When Lightning Strikes
When the River Calls; March 03, 2010
Carina said...: Thank you for your comment, Hugh. I remember the class we had in your school as if it was yesterday. Do give my best to your students. They are travelling with me in my heart!; March 04, 2010

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CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE THE LATEST PHOTO ALBUMS

TO VILLA ANGOSTURA

This is the story of how I unexpectedly discovered another paradise corner of the earth. The truck driver Pedro was merciful enough not to let me out on an empty crossroad in the middle of the night and brought me home in Junin de Los Andes. When the next morning I was looking at the map, the idea of going back in itself became alien, even after Pedro and his wife Olga had said the road to Villa Angostura be empty and dangerous for the lack of pavement. These landscapes I saw when traveling from Junin de los Andes to Villa Angostura on May 12th were thus a true surprise present. The photos were taken thanks to my kind ride - Jorje and Lucia, who stopped every now and then to record at least a tiny bit of what we saw.

AS SOUTH AS POSSIBLE

A good-bye to Chascomus (in the province of Buenos Aires) on the 8th of May ment a new beginning - a return to a round zero where past was just a story and future a white sheet, yet to be written. I met people and got to know them for the given time - for however long the journey lasted. At night there was always a safe place to stay as if prepared, and not once I experienced hunger. I was on the road in total for seven days arriving to my destination in Punta Arenas on May 15th.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Confucius

Kenji Miyazawa

not losing to the rain
not losing to the wind
not losing to the snow
or to the heat of the summer
with a strong body
unfettered by desire
never losing temper
cultivating a quiet joy
every day four bowls
of brown rice, miso
and some vegetables to eat
with everything
never letting emotion
get in the way
watching and listening,
and understanding
and never forgetting
in the shade of the woods
of the pines of the fields
being in a little thatched hut
if there is a sick child
to the east
going and nursing over them
if there is a tired mother
to the west
going and shouldering her
sheaf of rice
if there is someone near death
to the south
going and saying
there's no need to be afraid
if there is a quarrel or a suit
to the north
telling them to leave off
with such waste
when there's drought,
shedding tears of sympathy
when the summer's cold,
walk in concern and empathy
called a blockhead by everyone
without being praised
without being blamed
such a person
I want to become

2001: Summary

Destinations: 1) Louvre Art Museum, Paris, France; 2) "where the green meadows reach the snowy mountain-tops, and in the sky you can see the weather forming", North of Scotland; Travel companion: Piia Taremaa (until Paris). In the second part of the journey I hitchhike on the wrong side of the road and end up in Italy. Scotland is cut off once again when I spend the night in a British prison in Dover, as I enter the country illegaly (unknowingly). After my deportation to France I seek to find the tundra in the North of Sweden and Finland. Duration: 6 weeks. Budget 100 DEM

2005: Summary

MY HITCHHIKING CV