jan 14

our plans changed. no big surprise there really. we left san mateo after one night and took a packed collectivo taxi for an hour or so up, up, up to a tiny town in the misty mountains called casapalca where we transfered into another, even more packed taxi that took us up, up, up to la oroya. we had decided to just go ahead and make haste for a place called jauja which is the first of several small towns way up in the andes in the mantaro river valley. from la oroya we got a super cheap bus that went straight to and then past jauja before we had a chance to finish the snacks we had bought and relize where we were. the thing about busses like this is that gringos very rarely travel on them so when we do we´re obviously the only ones that aren´t familiar with the surroundings. people are hopping on and off all the time and the driver´s main intention is to get to the final destination as soon as possible so he can turn around and go back again and again. there was no clear sign for jauja so we ride on through the farming villages tucked between green corn field, herds of sheep and llamas until we reached the city huancayo. all theses busses and taxis over the last few days hace totalled up to about 8 bucks a piece. pretty cheap. we found a really cheap (my new favorite word) hotel room right off the bat and have been here for two nights enjoying the town, chatting with people in the plaza and brainstorming about how to move forward. we found a really cool seeming orphanage in the town of ayacucho which is probably about a two day journey from here and emailed them about coming to volunteer. we are both really interested in the place based on it´s website and are going to head toward it in the morning since it´s on the way to cuzco anyway. our first step will be to take a train from here to huancavelica. about five hours of amazing train ride for two dollars. cheap. so much for the mega hike i suppose, at least for now. the passive observer/tourist feeling is setting in and we both want to be doing something beneficial with our time very soon.