but that could be a problem as there is at least one other "Chavín,"
Chavín de Pariarca, in the area.
The bus trip out here is simply amazing! It really reminds me of
driving through the Alaska range, and at times, it really resembled
parts of Colorado--one particular spot reminded me of that hairpin turn
on the far side of Loveland Pass. The difference is that there aren't
any sheepherder's huts going over Loveland Pass. I got some pretty good
pictures--I'll put them up when I have a better internet connection,
though that will probably be a while.
Just a couple of interesting notes...
The first thing is that I managed to miss my stop on the bus, and ended
up going over a bit. This was not a major problem--I was able to take a
combi (shared van) back to Chavín--but it added a little bit of
adventure to the day.
The combi was particularly easy to catch, because the road was blocked
in between Chavín and San Marcos, the next town, due to a paving
project. I asked the combi driver about that.
"Yeah. The road's blocked for two days. It was closed yesterday, too.
It will be open tomorrow."
Seriously? There are other ways to get to the towns on the other side
of that road, but not via paved roads, and the alternative is probably a
10 or 12 hour ride, rather than two or three. So those people,
basically, are cut off from the rest of the country for a couple of days.
This is probably not as big a deal as I make it out to be--there are
landslides that block these roads all the time--but it never ceases to
amaze me the myriad ways in which things operate differently down here.
Of course, at least they get the government to pave the road for them.
A number of the places I visited in Carhuaz received no such
services--if there was a road, the locals had built it (and maintain it)
themselves, by hand. Paving is out of the question--they simply don't
have the capital.
Once I got to town, I found a room, and dropped my stuff. The good
thing about the room is that I have a balcony on the Plaza de Armas,
with a beautiful view. The bad thing is that they are now performing
one of the Carnaval traditions out in the Plaza, which involves rather
loud music, and the ubiquitous bottle rockets. The other bad thing is
the absence of a good cell connection--ironically, thirty steps away, I
get a great cellular connection, but there appears to be a small rise
blocking my view of the tower.
On the up-side, the town itself is really pretty--even this far out in
the sticks, they really know how to put together a Plaza. And it doesn't
hurt that there are huge, pre-Incan ruins right outside of town. From
the Chavín culture, incidentally, hence the name.
We'll see how friendly people are at the muni. tomorrow, but so far, so
good.
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