We took a hike up to a spot called Torre Torre, above the city of Huancayo, Peru. They say it's easy to find, and we even had a map, but it is not easy at all. We were mostly lost, but it was obvious where Torre Torre was and where the city was, so it wasn't a bad sort of lost. It's a protected area, but they don't keep people out of them here, at least not on a local level. So we saw sheep and cows being herded, and fields being cultivated. We passed farms where people were hoeing their fields by hand. We passed pigs and donkeys and chickens and roosters and many people. We said hello to everyone we passed, and were answered by some with steely glares, by others with a warm hello. Twice little kids yelled out to us, "ola, gringos!" We laughed and replied, "Ola!" On our way back into town, we got lost again, and a young man of about 10 years old helped us find our way, he walked us to our street. We also passed the local zoo, which was undergoing renovations and had what looked to be mostly rodents and birds (they had a sign out front with photos of all their residents). We didn't go in.
The big dog Kiko is friendly, except to dogs that pass by, which are greeted with 8 jumps on the door and many barks. 
We took a hike up to a spot called Torre Torre, above the city of Huancayo, Peru. They say it's easy to find, and we even had a map, but it is not easy at all. We were mostly lost, but it was obvious where Torre Torre was and where the city was, so it wasn't a bad sort of lost. It's a protected area, but they don't keep people out of them here, at least not on a local level. So we saw sheep and cows being herded, and fields being cultivated. We passed farms where people were hoeing their fields by hand. We passed pigs and donkeys and chickens and roosters and many people. We said hello to everyone we passed, and were answered by some with steely glares, by others with a warm hello. Twice little kids yelled out to us, "ola, gringos!" We laughed and replied, "Ola!" On our way back into town, we got lost again, and a young man of about 10 years old helped us find our way, he walked us to our street. We also passed the local zoo, which was undergoing renovations and had what looked to be mostly rodents and birds (they had a sign out front with photos of all their residents). We didn't go in.
Some shots of the first place we stayed, Miraflores, which is a suburb of Lima. It's upscale and you can tell from the buildings. You can see a hang glider in the firt pic, there were a ton of them. I found the fact that trees grow from the side of the street and no one hits them fascinating, along with the bumper sticker from Ketchum, Idaho. Not so cool was how much junk we brought with us. The first week we've been judging our packs against the other backpackers we've come across, and so far, we packed the lightest. That may sound good, but it actually means we smell the worst! 
We've spent almost 7 hours in this bus station, only 4 more to go. We just want to get out of Lima. On to Huancayo. 
