Getting to Huamachuco

We traveled roughly 120 miles to a beautiful town on a mountain top. It sounds idyllic, right? Had we flown it would have been! 120 miles is no big deal, right? I mean, that's like driving from Bigfork, to Missoula. It normally only takes about 90 minutes for me to drive that! But that's on nice, paved, barely hilly roads in the U.S.. Our 120 mile trip was first of all- a 13000 foot elevation climb(sounds cool right? AND yes, we did take our altitude sickness pills). It also was on a road that EVEN in Montana would have been qualified as a forest service road. It was ROUGH to say the least! It ended up being an over 5 hour drive each way… we also had to stop 3 times for our car sick friend to, well, be sick. The only tiny silver lining on the drive was the pavement we hit about 45 minutes before town.
Now, don't let that be a big downer on the highlights of the trip. Granted, it was a tough go, and we probably won't be heading back up for a very long time, but we ended up seeing some amazing things!
Once the mountains turned green, we saw herds of alpaca and lots of sheep. Terraced farms and people dressed in traditional attire. The 1st impression of the town was that it almost looked like pictures of Italy- steep cobblestone streets and tiled roofs-but the bright rainbow colors of the different houses were a dead give away that we were in  south America.
We drove straight through  town and headed up to the top of another mountain, to the Marcahuamachuco, ancient ruins.  Because it is such rough traveling to get here, this town rarely sees tourists, and Marcahuamachuco is barely on the radar. ( More about it here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcahuamachuco )
We were excited to get up there and start hiking around. Alas, the altitude was too much for us. Only part way through we had to head back. we were both panting for air, and I was seeing dark spots and thought I was going to throw up! It was so sad! We kept trying to truck on, but I really didn't want to be sick on some sacred ground. It was a bummer.  The security guards whom live up there even said that the thin air effects them! So we headed back into town and checked into our Hostel/hotel, and went to eat at the only open restaurant in the town.
The next morning we headed to the Central Mercado to check out the local "scene".  We FINALLY saw live Guinea pigs being sold as food. She even had 3 different sacks-Small, Medium and large. A little kid walked up to me with hand out, and in perfect English said-"Give me money".  We finally found white wheat! It was hard to find any here in Trujillo, so we were excited. Now I can get my Ezekiel  bread on! The Market was neat-they also sold the traditional cloths-which you mostly only notice the woman wearing- Layers and layers of skirts, a bright colored cardigan and a wide brimmed hat. I wanted one of the sweaters so bad, but because I am about a foot taller than any woman there, they would have hit me at my rib cage. I loved looking at all of them though!
We had a rough ride home, being stopped at 2 different construction sites for about an hour each. People here know an opportunity when they see one, so plenty of snack vendors were walking up and down the stops with all sorts of  treats. We bought a little bag of popcorn, and it was DELISH!

By the time we were home, we both had major whiplash, and I had some kind of food poisoning/bacteria thing from the food. I was down and out for about 2 weeks.
Huamachuco was awesome. It was a rough path to get up there but it was well worth it to see it all once. I'm sure we will go back again to see Marcahuamachuco, but not anytime soon. If anyone ever asked us, we would tell them to get there buns up there and see it. It really is beautiful. Now that we are prepared for the trip, the next time will be much better. (like, I will pack a cooler of food from home because I don't want to risk being that sick again!)  Work smarter, not harder, you know?
We loved seeing the Mountains for the first time, and getting another look at Peru. We look forward to traveling  a lot more rough roads to see more amazing things.

Marcahuamachuco

Huamachuco town plaza

The Famous bell tower

Our "Hotel"