Cuzco-Lima-Cajamarca

Cajamarca is a little (actually not that little) city in the north of Peru, almost in the border with Colombia, but inland, in the mountains, with very difficult access. It is the center for gold mining in the region, and apparently one of the largest deposits of Gold in South America. This place is not very touristy AT ALL. There were some interesting things to see, but it's just so hard to get there, that most people don't really bother.

Cajamarca marked "the first" for many things for me: first time CouchSurfing, first time eating Ceviche (which entails raw seafood! yuck!), first time in a bus accident (although that wasn't really in Cajamarca, it was on the way there...)

The bus accident wasn't really bad, we just had to wait a couple of hours for the replacement... oh well... at least no one was hurt!

After many hours in the two buses (one from Cuzco to Lima, the next from Lima to Cajamarca), our CS host, Giancarlo came to pick us up at the bus station and take us home. Him and his cousin Sergio treated us like kings, took us out for drinks, for lunch, introduced us to their friends, showed us around some ruins, and generally showed us a great time! I could not have asked for a better first experience CouchSurfing... It was pretty amazing!!!


Our hosts and friends

We were only there for like 36hrs though, it was a necessary pit-stop for the keeping of a promise.

Next stop==> Colombia!!!

Cuzco--round II

Next day we get up somewhat early, to take the train back to Ollantaytambo, take the bus back to Cuzco, and hopefully take a bus from Cuzco that same night heading towards Lima and eventually to Cajamarca.

BUT! One of my friends from Buenos Aires, Johan, was supposed to be arriving in Cuzco that day, and we were going to try and meet, even if for just a couple of hours...

So we got to Cuzco, took a taxi from the bus station towards the hotel (where we had left our stuff before). I'm sitting in the front, all of a sudden I hear "Isn't that Johan??" I look back and start to tell the taxi driver to stop! Stop! STOP!! tell Mene to pay, open the car door and RUN!

Couldn't see Johan anymore, where is he, oh there he is, he crossed the street... cars... cars... there, cross, run, jump on Johan in the middle of the street! He had a friend with him, who looked at me as if I were some insane person recently escaped from the nut house. Johan himself started laughing, it was just too great a coincidence that we met on the street like that. :)



So we walked around the city for a little bit, talked for a while, and then unfortunately I had to head back to the hotel, to grab the backpack and go to the bus station for the next leg of the journey...