Ode to My Dirt Road

So. I´m a fan of the 8 mile dirt road that one needs to take from Carhuaz to my pueblo of Shilla. You need to go to the place where combis and colectivos wait until they are jam packed full of people (usually 23 people in a small van thing or 7 or 8 in a small 5 seater car). The fact that I am tall does not help me in my combi rides, but I am getting better. In fact, just today I sat in a combi that had 25 people in it and I sat on a little stool in the small aisel way! :)

It takes about 35 minutes to make the small journey once the car has the motor running. Bascially you go into the valley, switchbacking your way up into the mountains. The views are amazing. You have these rolling golden and green hills with chacras and eucalyptis trees dotting them and in the background massive white capped mountains. The little pueblos you pass down below seem cute and quaint and at some points even the water follows the road with a couple of little waterfalls. Granted the water is sucio (dirty) but it´s still water! Every time I take this road I notice something new, another crevace, another little casa, another melocoton chacra full of trees. In short it makes me happy. Sometimes, being a person who can sleep anywhere, I do fall asleep on the short trek... but so do the other Peruvians with me! So that must mean I´m acclimating ¿ right? Also, besides the usual Huayno music on the radio, people are speaking purely Quechua. I only have an inkling what they´re talking about when they say... "blah blah blah blah gringa... blah blah blah grina" and laugh. I just smile. poco a poco I´m learning this language!

Luckily I get to take this road quite often. If I want to go down to more civilization, it´s a must! I´m planning on walking it sometime soon... and I can´t wait for visitors (for all of you who are coming sometime in the next two years) to see it!

Abrazos desde Huaraz,
Em