So yea, about that bus ride....

Well 10 days into my adventure and my first post attempt.  Internet is scarce and we have been on the move a lot. Arrived in Tarapoto, Peru this morning after an intense and terrifying 15 hour bus ride through a sleepless night. Paved roads come and go as the driver passes blindly through winding roads kind of like a cheap and very long theme park ride.  I heard about these crazy bus rides but really had no idea what I was in for. So now we are in the foothills of the Amazon. It is blazing hot but cars are few and drivers seem to obey traffic laws somewhat in comparison to the cities thus far.  Honking and yelling are not compulsory to being behind the wheel and being a pedestrian is a less extreme sport.

Currently, the travel crew is my good friend Dylan from the states and Andy, a Danish guy that joined us a few cities back.  We will all be heading in different directions soon as Andy will take a boat north into the jungle and Dylan and I will bus back to Lima where he will catch his flight home in a week.

I am still struggling to comprehend exactly what I have gotten myself into.  I casually shrugged off comments that I was crazy for doing this, but now realizing maybe they weren´t so crazy for saying this.  I have so much travel ahead of me so for now I will just take it one day at a time.

I started in Lima for a day before departing for Huaraz, an amazing city where we joined in on celebrating Peru´s independance with the locals.  Dylan got a treasured picture with alpacas and I tried ceviche and realized how poor my spanish really is.  A few days later we are off to the beach of Huanchaco, but not before a painfully memorable bus ride.  The route should take around 8-10 hours but we finally arrive 18 hours later after spending hours parked in the desert with all the other busses and travelers, un-airconditioned and barely ventilated, with no water or food as patience ran thin and smiles were scarce.  After finally arriving, we were able to decompress with some food and watching the sunset on the beach with some locals and plenty of rum.

One recovery day and we are back on the road to Chiclayo with an addition to the crew, Ricky who is one of our local rum drinking friends.  It is a lot less stressful having a Peruvian to guide us along and I must say I am enjoying having traveling partners.  We arrive in Chiclayo and race to the Mercado Modelo, by far the largest market I have ever seen.  You can get everything you may possibly want here and spend an entire day finding your way around.  We are also able to meet up with Molly, who has lived and worked in Chiclayo for three years and is originally from the states that we met in Huaraz.  It is always so nice to get the local feel of a place versus the lost tourist experience.  On the bus again, unaware of the mental instability of our driver and insane ride ahead!

All in all, amazing thus far.  I am in the groove of packing and unpacking regularly, showering much less frequently and attempting to find vegetarian food in a meat loving country. Hope to have some pictures to share soon, but until then please settle for this post as I sweat a few kilos off in an internet cafe to bring this to you!