here, there, everywhere

On Pachapapa, you're supposed to walk four times around the mountain and either make one or four wishes (sources were unclear, and we missed the guide's speech because I'd gone slowly up the mountain buying keychain ghosts); only we screwed it up and walked around clockwise one time and counter clockwise three more, because everyone else seemed to be doing it that way, and apparently we're lemmings, or sheep, or cuy, or whatever animals live on Amantani. So hopefully our wishes (either both of them or eight of them) come true. 


After the hike up Pachapapa, we headed over to Pachamama, which was not only curiously free of bracelet sellers, but which had the most amazing panoramic sunset views I think I've ever seen in my entire life. It was awesome. Also freezing, but totally worth it.


We hiked back in the dark, accompanied by Leslie and Nilda, and were eventually collected by Javier and taken home to a pretty satisfying candelit dinner consisting of a lot of potatoes. Afterwards, there was the option to put on some traditional clothes and go to a dance party, but we deferred - something about the pitch black of the (mostly) electricity-less island made us both tired enough to fall asleep by eight o'clock.


I have about a thousand more photos of the sunset and the island in all it's bleak glory, but thought I'd spare you for now.  So that was Amantani! It doesn't look like we did much, in retrospect, but it was probably the high point of the tour for me. 

... because Tam Dao at sunset is seriously gorgeous.

Iain stands way too near the edge of a cliff. 

The view from where Iain was standing in the above photo.

Even the construction work looks nice! 

The morning after we arrived, we went on a short hike in the national park, where we learned that there is no road so crappy, muddy and steep that a motorbike has not attempted to drive on it (an observation we should have kept in mind when asking people later on about the quality of roads): 

Kanuki at sunset is a good idea in theory, though maybe not on days where the wind chill pushes the temperature below freezing. The photo above was one of the last times I could take off my mittens. 

The rainy season so far has been less about rain than it has about humidity, which envelopes our apartment in a heavy fug but which makes makes the weather outside actually really nice, at least when the weekend rolls around and you don't have to worry about keeping your work clothes looking nice. I posted photos of Kanuki mountain back in April, but it's even more beautiful when it's covered in rainy-season mist. It's still just as deserted, too, which makes hiking there pretty amazing.

On Saturday, some of Iain's students invited us to join them on a 12 kilometer nature walk in a nearby town, so we pulled ourselves out of bed uncharacteristically early to meet up with them. The walk itself was being sponsored by the JR Line - our train to the starting point was packed with people in walking gear, there were JR employees handing out maps, and the entire route had been sign-posted. We all got little badges, too - a lot of the hikers we passed (or who passed us) wore backpacks covered in tiny badges from similar such walks.  Iain's students are all beginner English speakers who hadn't explained it very much, so I didn't know what to expect - at first, it seemed like we were just being herded through lots of farmland.