Lima, august 18th 2016
The plane has landed in Lima, Peru a bit more than a year ago. Since then, the daily routine involves a short commute in Santiago de Surco, on the east side of this gigantic city, near the first hills of the Andes. More than a year, and finally there is just a few words about Peru in this blog. Some time was probably necessary to travel a bit, to live different experiences before being able to share them. Yes, adventures and trips in Peru have already happened… But for now, let’s talk about weekends, often spent in or around Lima.
In Peru or anywhere else, it is often easier to enjoy a weekend at home to rest, to simply enjoy a comfortable couch or even to walk around the neighborhood. But Lima is a big city and finally just a small part of Peru… and still another big city. It is sometime necessary to push ourselves, to extract us from this lazy routine in order to discover that there is something else, right there, just a little bit further. Something rich, beautiful and of course exotic.
It could start pretty close, in La Molina, where the first hills are rising, sheltering some interesting cliffs and offering an unobstructed view on Lima’s contrasts.
It could continue with Chosica, last town in the bottom of the valley, on the Carretera Central, right before this trans Andean road starts to steep up. Here, hills look like mountains, already pretty high. It is dry, desert, and life is possible thanks to the river that runs at the bottom of this real canyon.
Finally, further up the valley, near Matucana and San Mateo, the mountains are really standing on both sides of the polluted rio Rimac.
San Mateo (10,500 feet high) is a small Andean town, not particularly pretty, but the center is quite charming. Hanging in the streets is relaxing, kids are pointing at us, houses are painted and colorful and the sky is blue!
But the contrasts with Lima are pretty stunning: trashes are scattered everywhere along the contaminated river (mining companies are using and dumping in the ground tons of chemical…), stray dogs are feeding on whatever they find… It is night around 6 pm and with altitude and fatigue it is not unusual to fall asleep around 7 pm…
San Mateo, only 55 miles from Lima, could be easily accessible by the Carretera Central. However, the traffic on this mountain road is horrible (and could be dangerous) and 3 to 4 hours are generally required to reach it. From there, altitude lakes (14,500 feet high) like Laguna Neveria or Rapagna are pretty close. Summits too, often higher than 16,000 feet. Getting out of this valley by one or the other dirt road allows the courageous one to enjoy a wider landscape: high summits, more incredible lakes, sometime a glacier, large peaceful valleys…
It is often easier to escape the city through those dirt roads and tracks because there is almost no traffic. Some of those tracks are accessible only with a 4×4 and some others, easier, could be impressive, literally hanging on the mountain’s side. It is pretty exciting to wonder on those tracks, to meet someone, coming from nowhere waving, who wants to reach the next small town. The first vehicle, and often the only one, is the only way to achieve the journey.
In Peru it is always possible to spend a night in a Hospidaje (small hotel), even in the smallest village, and when everything is a bit too far, the tent could be quickly set up.
It is pretty strange to realize that you are at 60-70 miles from Lima, in a landscape that wide and open that it is hard to get its boundaries. Even after a first year in this country, it still feels odd to admit that this small village, the shepherd with his lamas or alpacas, the incredible landscape, the change of scenery, in one word the Andes is something you could touch every week end…
