Travel Top 3: April

Supremely Useful

1. Hiking Poles. April saw us conquer our biggest multi-day hike yet: the Huayhuash circuit. This high altitude alpine trek had an uphill and downhill everyday, and hiking poles meant that I made it through all eight days without losing a knee.

Runner up:

2. Pegs. Odd, I know, but again on the Huayhuash trek these came in so useful to dry wet clothes (often pegged to my bag, or between my hiking poles) My group mates were amused that I always seemed to be doing laundry, but it definitely kept the weight down in our packs!

Supremely Joyful

1. The Easter egg hunt in Ollantaytambo, which I wrote about a few posts ago, was such a ray of sunshine. 

2. The Huayhuash circuit. This wasn't pure joy, because there was some very hard moments, but the feeling of friendships forming and settling, and the bliss of sitting by a lake after a hard effort, or reaching a pass and seeing the most stunning mountains and lakes, meant these eight days were filled with joy.

2. The Quilotoa loop. I hiked this not too long after Huayhuash, and on hindsight I think my body was spent. I came down with a flu during the hike, and the second day was rough, but I mentally prepared myself for toughness on the third day, took painkillers, walked slowly, and felt so joyful when I saw the crater lake at the end, a sign that it was almost over but also I sign that I had persevered.

Supremely Tasty

This was almost impossible, since Peru and Ecuador had some of my favourite food of all the trip and so I will cheat a little and instead of individual dishes I shall put three categories.

1. Post hospital food, when it was just so nice to eat again. This included the best empanada of the trip in a cafe in Ollantaytambo, sourdough bread bought in Cusco, and a tub of soya yogurt that we demolished in two days (probiotics are good for the gut, right?) after being released from hospital.

2. Ecuador's street food. Ecuador has had the best street food so far. We tried Cevichocho, a delicious zingy, tangy combination of toasted maiz, plantain chips, popcorn, a tomato sauce, lime, and chocho beans. We also had street grilled bananas, a chocobanana (frozen banana covered in chocolate) and in a reaturant off the street (I'm really stretching this category aren't I) a moist, delicious, banana cake which we bought extra slices of to eat after the first day of the Quilotoa loop hike.

3. Canelazo. This is a drink, and an alcoholic drink which is surprising because I'm not typically a fan of alcohol! But we had this hot drink on a drizzly day in Quito, made from cacao liqueur, cinnamon, citrus juice, cloves, and sugar. It was a warm hug in a drink.

Travel Top 3: March

 

where the camera was left!

Supremely Useful

1. Travel Insurance. In March (on my mother's birthday no less) Jacob and I both found ourselves in hospital in Cusco with an infection of gut parasites. Being able to stay in that cool, clean hospital with an IV drip and anti-parasite medicine was not my idea of how we'd be spending our time in Peru but was also oddly blissful and restful. I felt so well taken care of, and was so thankful that our travel insurance covered the entire hospital stay.

Runners up:

2. A Wise card. In Argentine we transferred money to ourselves via Western Union, but using the Wise card gave us a much better rate overall in Peru and Bolivia despite ATM withdrawal fees. In Peru in particular there were quite a few places we were able to pay with card (sometimes with a commission, sometimes without) and that was helpful as well.

3. Fujifilm XT30 camera. This camera was almost lost for good in the desert in Bolivia, and when I realised I hadn't got it I felt genuinely heartbroken. Capturing scenes of our travels on the camera has been such a joy, and there has been a geeky pleasure in learning how to use it better as well (goodbye auto function, hello adjusting ISO myself!) I was so relieved to retrieve it, not less because its latest photos were dreamy ones from the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve.

Supremely Joyful

A tied first this time:

1. While in the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, we stopped by Laguna Colorado. This lake is known for its pink-red colour, and the flocks of flamingos that strut through it, feeding on the red algae in the lake water. I was excited to photograph the scene, and then realised that my camera had run out of battery. I was feeling a little queasy with altitude sickness, and Jacob was extraordinarily compassionate (although not extraordinary for him, since that is his nature) and went back to the car to retrieve a portable charger, a walk that would take at least fifteen minutes there-and-back, which is no small feat at 4,278m. While he did so, I knelt by the lake, resting, and looked at the flamingos. I felt an extraordinary sense of peace, and closeness, oddly, to people I love who have died. There is a piece of music called The Arrival of the Birds which I walked down the aisle to, a heavenly moment. That music video to that song on youtube has a picture of a group of flamingos, and looking at the birds in front of me I recalled it and it did really feel like heaven.

2. Once again, a joyful moment involving water. We hiked the Colca Canyon in Peru unguided, and it was a wonderful experience overall, although our first day was a little pressured because we had a hard time finding the collectivos that would take us there. At the end of an afternoon of speed walking, we found a hostel for the night in the canyon, and they had a natural hot spring. Slipping into the hot water and letting it was away the day's aches was magnificent. The hot pools were right next to the river that runs through the canyon, so that while sitting in them I could dip my hand into the cold river water next to me. It was dark, and I saw the silhouette of a heron on a rock in the river, so still and then suddenly gone. What was even more magical was when I returned to the pools the next morning and they were gone; they'd been submerged by the river that had risen overnight. 

Supremely Tasty

This was incredibly difficult to choose from, but it would have to be the chocolate we made in Arequipa. On our final day there we signed up to a chocolate workshop (all because I saw a boy at our hostel eating chocolate for breakfast - an inspiration) and as part of that we made twelve bon bons each. It was so fun eating them and remembering what flavours we'd made (coffee and salt! mango and chilli! strawberry and banana!) and the whole workshop was engaging and exciting.

Runners up:

2. On our hike in the Colca Canyon, we realised we'd slightly underpacked food (it could also have been that the parasites in our guts were eating lots of what we were eating, so we weren't absorbing all the nutrition we were taking in), but there weren't exactly supermarkets or even small tiendas easily accessible in the canyon. One the second day, I passed a wild fig tree and there was one perfectly ripe fig. It felt biblical, and tasted sweet.

2. Just before the hospitalisation, we treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at a vegan restaurant in Cusco called Green Point. I loved the starter, a leek and potato salad with a creamy dressing. Not something I'd have typically picked out on a menu, but it was so tasty. For the remainder of the dinner I didn't feel so well (like I said, hospitalisation was nigh) but it began so well.