Arrival in Huaraz!

I left Lima at 10 o´clock last night on a bus (it was called Z Buss, hahaha) to Huaraz. I lucked out, the only empty seat on the bus was next to mine, so the cello had plenty of room. The ride was pretty cold, but I slept almost the whole way...other than when the baby in the seat behind me cried incessantly for a good hour. When I was still at the bus station, I met an Australian guy who was also heading to Huaraz. He happened to have the seat across the aisle from me. When we arrived in Huaraz, we sat in the bus terminal until the sun came out and then a guy came up to us offering us a hotel room for a good price with hot water, so we followed him. The hotel was close to the plaza and clean, and we were plenty tired so we decided to stay. At the bus terminal we made plans to take a 6 day backpacking trip in the mountains around here. There is a hiking circuit in the Huascaran National Park. I am pretty excited. From the city itself you can see the snow'capped peaks in all directions!

After I slept for a few hours, I started walking towards the market to find some breakfast. I ended up drinking an emoliente. Emoliente is a hot drink that involves a couple things. First they cook down linhasa seeds for a long time until it makes a slimy substance and then they filter out the seeds. Then they boil a huge thing of water with pieces of pineapple, red and green apples. Then they mix those two together with whatever combination of extracts that you ask for...alfalfa, cat´s claw, mint, lime, sangre de grado...I usually get a good shot of alfalfa so mine ends up really green. I´ve had a cough the past two days so I asked them to make me one for my symptoms. The woman pulled out a couple of little bottles and put some mysterious liquids in it. The only thing I could identify was eucalyptus, but the overall drink seemed to help a lot. That costs all of 30 cents. Then I walked towards the market and there was a woman selling tortilla sandwiches. Tortillas in Peru are kind of like thin omelettes with just one egg and lots of veggies. The sandwich costs 15 cents.

With that, I continued my mission to find coca leaves. I found coca leaves, but the people didn´t have the little ball of gypsum that you need to get the real effect. In Cuzco, they sell you a little ball that looks like hash and you break off a little piece with your nail and stick it in the middle of the leaves. I asked the people in the store and they told me where to find it. When I went where they told me, all I found was a store that looked like it sold cement. I asked if they had gypsum anyways and the woman pulled out a bag of white powder called cal. I think it is lime. She said that you take a toothpick, stick it into the wad of coca leaves that you have in your mouth, to get it wet, then stick it into the bag of cal to get a little bit, and then wipe it on your tongue. For some reason, I think that this whole cal process might leave holes in your mouth. When I asked her if it was bad for you, she told me that the gypsum is way worse. Finally, she told me that people also put cal around their plants to keep the bugs away. Something tells me that this can´t be a good idea!!! I am going to continue to ask around with the natives. I will write again after my trip in the mountains!