Our secret valley in Huaraz

It was already dark when we got to Huaraz, unintentionally directed a poor gringo in the wrong direction, and then quickly did our walking "research" and found a place to stay. 

The air was chilly and crisp as we walked out of our (yet another) family-owned-hotel to find dinner.

It felt like being out of the city again. Though the town centre is pretty crazy, with taxis honking every time they pass by a person (which is pretty much every 30 seconds).

Huaraz is a mountain town. That means the town itself is not too interesting, but the surroundings are amazing bits of the Cordillera, glaciers, lagoons, amazing hikes and climbs.

Nice looking car in the uninteresting town centre.
(the quietness is because of the early hour in which this was taken)

 As things were, it was impossible for us to acquire all the gear necessary for mountaineering (let alone hire a guide), so the snowcapped peaks of the Andes are gonna have to wait to our next trip to South America.

Still, the day-long hikes up the mountains looked extremely tempting, and we devoted our first day to research and organize ourselves, all while becoming close friends with the local stray dogs.

Friend.

As our research indicated, it seemed like most of the hikes have tour agencies organizing them: they pick you up, take you to a base with a bus/van, you hike up a mountain with your group, arrive at a pretty place, stay for a while and take photos and then go back with your group on the bus/van.

Pros of such arrangement: 
-no chance of getting lost
-they know exactly where to go, so you just sit back and relax
-getting there is very direct

Cons of such arrangement
-you have to stick to someone else's time
-it loses a bit of the sense of adventure
-pickup time is at 6 AM.

To be honest, even if the only con was the last one, it would have been enough for us to decide not to do it with a tour... but on top of that we always like to do things our own way (putting the "random" in The random adventurers).

So the second morning in Huaraz we got up at a decently early hour, grabbed some coffee at a small local bakery (where they give you the coffee in a little glass jar to mix with the heated milk they heat over an old stove), and after that we took a crazy cheap local bus that took us to a close-by village a bit higher up the mountains.

The bus ride was bumpy and dusty. We shared it with the loveliest old ladies and local men, all carrying their plants, vegetables, and bundles of goods.

We got off at the last stop and spread a huge amount of sunscreen on ourselves before starting to walk towards the proper mountains.


As we moved forward,we passed by locals and their animals, little adobe houses, and at one point a whole village working on a water canal... elderly people and children included, everyone had a shovel or a hoe.

Heavy traffic.

Wide fields and adobe houses.

Local man and his mate.

The whole village, hard at work (dog supervises).

A view of the mountains.

 Soon enough, it was just us and the road. We actually didn't pass any other people, except for a couple on a motorcycle (who swooshed by us like the road-runner swooshes by Willie E. Coyote).

And we walked. And we walked, And we walked.

Chey on the rocks.

Me on the rocks.

Pretty landscape.

 Some two hours later, a chill guy sitting by the road took our names on a paper slip and charged us for the entrance to the National Park (5 dollars each). The paper slip was in case we died up there, I guess.

After that there was still a fair amount of walking, but the scenery kept getting more and more beautiful and soon we started seeing the glacier we were headed towards.

Stunning, ridiculous view.

"I'm the king of the world"

One day, I'll make a compilation of all the walking away
photos we took of each other on this trip.

Chey jumps over a bush.

We walked up and around many bends on the road, but up there it seemed kind of timeless, so I couldn't say for how long.

Then, on our right,  appeared this beautiful valley with a river running through it and a big family of cows just chilling in the sun.

Cows and scenery.

There was no path gong down to the valley and the road we were following continued in the opposite direction, so we (of course) decided to make our own random path into the valley.

We went down a steep grassy slope and walked into the most gorgeous meadow, fully covered in flowers, green grass and butterflies.

 The little birds were chirping, the water was singing... I started to think that, once more, we had accidentally walked into a Disney movie.

We had to pinch ourselves to make sure it wasn't a dream.

I also sang songs to the wild horses to make sure
 I had not turned into a Disney princess.

The horses ignored me completely, so nope. Still my regular, boring self.

We started to notice the ridiculousness of the animals
being there, away from any farm or populated place.

And we realized that most likely they are colonies of untamed
animals, probably escaped from farmers many generations ago.

Once being there, it started seeming kind of pointless to keep trying to advance towards the glacier. We could see it perfectly from where we were, and it was so beautiful. And the valley couldn't be any more perfect.

We walked a bit more through the valley, and finally decided to stay there, take loads of pictures, and just enjoy the fact that we had all that huge expanse of nature all for ourselves, with no-one around but the wild cows and horses.

Selfie: us and the glacier in the background.

The brown horse was a bit scarily obsessed with Chey.

Like, going out of its way to stare at him.

Walking around the valley.

It was probably one of the most awesome afternoons in the whole trip.

While looking at the river, we sat down and had our apple pastries that we had bought from the local bakery. Maybe it was because of all the walking, but they felt like the best apple pastries I've ever tried.

And when the sun started to slowly set behind the mountains the chinchillas began to appear!

First it was just one, quickly running over a rock. But in a few minutes the whole valley became a big chinchilla fest.

Camouflaged chinchilla on the rocks.

A bit closer. It was pretty shady by then, so we couldn't get clearer photos.

 Reluctant to leave but knowing we had quite a long walk back to the village, we started our way back.

TRA, in the already shadowy valley, before heading back.

It was, indeed, a long walk, and when we made it to the base we realized it had been 9 hours of (mostly) walking!

This is only a small part of the road we walked.

We stopped by the road, now pretty close to the village where we were supposed to take the bus, and wolfed down some crackers to recover our energy.

Regardless of the name, they were pretty nice.

Suddenly we heard a vehicle, coming towards us, and soon a police car showed up. They rolled their windows down and asked us if we were hitchhiking and where were we going.

We said we were just recovering our energy before heading to the village and taking the bus to Huaraz... and then offered us a lift all the way!

As every Peruvian we had met before, they were extremely interested in us, our cultural background and our impressions of their country.

They stopped over a lookout so we could see Huaraz from above (it is way bigger than I had hought), and dropped us just one block away from our accomodation. And before letting us go, the officer sitting with us in the back asked us to take selfies with him.

We look weird, but this photo is priceless.

Our new friends waving goodbye.

As we walked into our room and, sweaty and dusty,  headed straight for the shower, I thought about the fact that our perfect day had happened just one day before Chey's birthday. What were we going to do the following day that could possibly be as cool?

Our San Pedro experience

If you're ready to read a lot and a few less photos than usual, then welcome!

The way back from Aguas Calientes we did the same walk of the train tracks.

 Only now we were extremely well rested because of two extra days in town (Chey was feeling slightly ill so we decided to stay), and no crazy ride before the walk.

Before going away, though, I had to get my photo
with this cool Inca guy.

Leaving Aguas Calientes (where, funnily enough, we didn't
get much luck regarding hot showers) *AC means "hot waters"

The train arriving to town.

Chey frolicking in the sun.

"It is forbidden for pedestrians to go through the tunnel"

"You're not the boss of me, sign!"

Last bit of train tracks.

We had to endure an even crazier driver (than the one on the way there) after Hidroeléctrica; so I tell anyone thinking about doing MP on the cheap/ alternative way: do NOT book a van with "viva tours". 

And just in case: a guide for this is absolutely superfluous and takes away your freedom to move and stop and use your time as you want to (though if you really love the idea of a guide I won't say don't do it).

We arrived in Cuzco at night (again) and went straight to the place where we had stayed before (hot showers, comfortable room, cheap). As it turned out, they didn't have any room available other than a horrible, horrible, windowless closet upstairs where we suffered from the cold and the hideous super-loud music of the pub next door.

Obviously the following morning we left and looked for greener pastures. After seeing around 15 different places, we found a place that looked perfect. 

We arrived at the same time as other couple. They checked in first in the room next to ours, and as we were finishing with our check in, we heard the yelling of the girl in the shower: "EEEEEEEEK!" "WHY ME!!" and other expressions of despair as the showers were apparently not the most reliable.

We looked at each other probably thinking the same: what's done is done.

Then we dropped the bags and went for lunch. Being back to Cuzco (and Papachos) felt almost like getting back home.

...

This time we stayed a little longer in town (around one week), but there's not too much to say about it because we were basically taking care of Visa-related boring stuff.

There was one thing, though, that was extremely interesting and broke with the monotony of paperwork.

After A LOT of reading and investigating and considering, we decided to go to a San Pedro ceremony.

In Perú and the neighboring countries it's nothing like in Argentina: there's a deep respect and connection with the indigenous cultures and inside this, many traditions that are adopted as a part of the cultural identity. 

San Pedro is just one of the many plant medicines that the tribes of America used (and still use) with healing purposes. Only the healing is not necessarily seen just in the physical sense, but on a deeper level of the mind and the emotions.

In Peru, plant medicines like San Pedro and Ayahuasca are not only legal, but also offered widely to a range of foreigners who approach them from different perspectives, and even travel from overseas with the express purpose of taking them.

Of course there must be people wanting to try them just for the "high". Who am I to judge. 

Others are looking for a higher something, a sort of spiritual connection or revelation.

Being as I am, extremely skeptic and non-religious, some of the  things I read or heard about San Pedro didn't convince me. But in the end we went to this lovely "chaman" lady, who spoke to us in such a way that made us extremely comfortable and ready to go through the ceremony without feeling like we were being sucked into some kind of religious cult.

So the previous day of our ceremony there was no Pisco sour, and we had a very light and early dinner and went straight to bed, only to wake up super early and have no breakfast.

We got together with the other people who were doing the ceremony with us (a couple older than us, a young guy and a young girl) and were taken to the chaman's house: a gorgeous place with two lush gardens and a little hut in the middle of one garden where the ceremony took place.

This is the only photo we took there, before the ceremony started.

 I'll try to be as short as possible but this was a very intense experience, so if you want to know about it bear with me. If you're not in the mood for reading much, maybe you might consider coming back later. Also, I'll speak mostly about my own experience because it's already hard to explain my own mind to even try to explain someone else's.

The ceremony was simple and not too ostentatious. We were sitting on a circle until the (pretty tough to swallow) cactus juice started working. By then the chaman and three of her helpers were with us, and also a man from a tribe that live high up the Andes, at over 6000 masl, who said a short speech in his language (which we didn't understand but found very beautiful regardless).

Once the medicine was starting to act, we walked outside to the garden with mats and fluffy blankets, and each person found their spot.

It took a long while for me to actually feel anything but drowsiness; but at some point, very slowly and naturally, all things started feeling more and more perfect and natural.

I went through various states, but only within a spectrum of happiness, calm and a sort of deep connection.

As I said before I am deeply unreligious, so it wasn't that sort of connection I felt. Instead, it was a marvelous feeling of perfectly perceiving that part of the mind I rarely get in touch with, distracted by more shallow things.

I basically spent the afternoon lying in the sunny garden, touching every blade of grass, marveling at the shape of the clouds, and realizing things that I basically always knew, but usually get covered by the mishmash of everyday life things.

What things? Well, I don't think it's important. They were not "revelations" from some outside, but a realization of things buried deep inside me. All good and perfect and happy things.

At some point in the afternoon, the helper girl brought us fruit salad to break the fast. I can honestly say I never had such a fruit salad in my life. The little fork she had brought along seemed almost sinful, so I put it aside and eat with my hands like a happy monkey, to the girl's amusement.

At the end of the afternoon we took a walk around the ruins of the Moon Temple, which is right in front of the house. We were all wrapped in blankets because it was already cold, and just enjoyed the rest of our time there. It was a beautiful sunset and I almost regret not taking pictures of it, though then and there it was the last thing in my mind.

In the ruins there's a cave with some deep meaning for the indigenous people where (it's thought) they used to make ritual sacrifices.

Some of the people of our group fell into what seemed like a religious experience, kneeling on the ground and (I thought) blowing into a fire that was lit inside a crack on the floor.

One of the helpers took us inside the cave and started talking about the meaning of the symbols and carvings, and suddenly the young guy told Chey "what happened to the fire?".

 I looked into the crack on the floor and there was nothing. The helper said "there was no fire".

But both Chey and I and the young guy saw the others blow into a fire. Collective hallucination? Trick of the light?

It was pretty intense.

Then I started feeling claustrophobic and uncomfortable. The idea of the ritual sacrifices is pretty disturbing for me even while fully sober, so I left and waited outside while the rest of the group left a coca leaves offering at the altar. Chey came with me and wrapped both of us in his fluffy blanket.

Still the walk of the ruins ended beautifully, up at a condor-shaped rock, with the helper saying some beautiful words I can't, for the life of me, remember.  I do remember feeling comforted and happy just to be there.


When the light was almost gone, we left in a taxi to go back to Cuzco. All of the others stayed in the house up the hills, but we needed to get back to our hospedaje because we were worried the staff were going to move our things out if we didn't return for the night (a boring side story: our hospedaje was actually sort of dreadful).

Only then we found out that we were still up for four or five hours of SanPedrish feeling, which felt very awkward during the taxi ride with a (luckily) very sober taxi driver.

The taxi took us back to the meeting place in town, a hostel, where we were told to stay for as long as we wanted or until the effect was gone. There we found the helper girl and a friend of hers, who stayed chatting with us and made us feel really good and welcome and grounded us a lot.

After a while we felt two things: two kind-of clearer heads, and two very empty bellies. So on the recommendation of the girls, we went to a very popular vegan restaurant to have something light but filling.

This might be the least flattering photo of myself
I've ever posted, but I want you guys to see what
people around me were seeing.

We couldn't stop randomly bursting into laughter.

And to make things worse thay served us this strange
soup. Who makes yin-yang soup?

Still nice. It had flowers in it.

Chey, posing very naturally.

Chey's huge pupils and an accidental
sneaky pic of the lovey couple behind him.

He was also amused by the soup.

We were still giggly and light headed for a long while, which felt strange now we were back in the city and surrounded by other (very normal, it seemed) people. That made us even gigglier (is that even a word?).

 We remained in that state even after dinner and in our hospedaje, until we went to sleep (and fell asleep like babies, instantly and deeply).

The last photo of the day: happy faces.

The days after and up till today, I still feel the San Pedro ceremony helped me uncover things that were buried way too deep in my brain and did me a lot of good.

If I had the chance I'd definitely do it again, and I strongly recommend you that if you ever go to Peru ,you find a good place and do it.

 It's not "getting high" or "doing drugs" (though it does have mescaline, don't get me wrong)... it's what I'd call a shortcut to a deeper level of consciousness and a respected medicine among older, wiser cultures.


A few disclaimers:

*Not everyone has a flowery, lovely, mylittlepony-ish experience with SP as I did. It probably has a lot to do with your state of mind and your intentions.
We read about people taking the wrong amount, or mixing it with other mind-altering substances, and having very bad experiences.

*In many parts of the world, SP is considered just a drug. As much as I loved the experience and what I took out of it, I would never recommend anyone taking it without someone who knows about it, or in a place where it's illegal.

*Also, I strongly believe that we should respect things that belong to another culture's ancestral traditions. Meaning: to them this is a sacred medicine, not something you take for a high.

*If you were going to Perú or Cuzco and wanted more information, or just have curiosity about something, I'd be happy to talk about it via private message (you can message me on facebook or leave your email on a comment).