In the last few weeks...

Alright, so I haven´t been keeping up with this blog thing. Sorry. But I´ll try and summarize what´s happened ¨in the last few weeks...¨
I returned to Lima to spend Passover with some Jews. I contacted the synagogue there after an Israeli girl named Niva told me that they were having a seder for travelers. At the hostel I chose to stay at there were a group of Israelis that were also going to that seder and that I was able to walk with to and from the synagogue. The seder was nice. It was about 70 people or so. Most were Israeli. Actually, all except for me and one other Australian fellow. So the whole thing was done in Hebrew and it was loud and rambunctious, as things tend to be around a bunch of Israelis. But it was really nice to be surrounded by so many people that were all away from their families, but still mantaining the spirit of the holiday. I definitely started to feel homesick at this point because Passover is usually a time for me to be with my family and we have certain traditions that I didn´t realize I would miss so much. And Soph wasn´t around to provide the cheer and to distract me from thinking about my family too much. so that was hard, but still really cool.
After Lima I went to the town of Huaraz which is located in a section of the Andes called the Cordillera Blanca. There are loads of opportunities to be in the outdoors and I thought that I would spend some time there before I left for the beaches of Ecuador and Columbia. What I didn´t anticipate was getting altitude sickness the second I got there and feeling sick the entire time I was there. I would have waited more time until I became acclimated, but I´m sort on time as it is and I was anxious to leave Peru. So I left without really doing anything that I had wanted to besides for take a tour of the surrounding towns and lagoons. It´s a beautiful region and I definitely want to return to really explore the area. So, that´ll be my next trip.
So I bounced from Huaraz to the town of Trujillo on the northern coast of Peru. I actually stayed in a small village about 20 minutes outside of Trujillo called Huanchaco, which was right on the beach. It was a really nice place to relax and recuperate. I ate fish, layed in hammocks and slept. I also met a few people to that were planning to travel to Ecuador and I decided to go with them. But before that we visited the ruins of Chan Chan just outside of Trujillo. Chan Chan predates the Incan civilization by about 300 years or so and the ruins are a huge complex, over 10,000 buildings and they´re still excavating more. The buildings were made from sand and adobe and so they were a nice contrast from the typical stone Inca structures. They were absolutely beautiful and so well preserved. The area is pretty dry, but I´m still blown away by how well preserved the facades of the buildings are. Anyway, that was a little bit of culture for that excursion.
The four of us left Huanchaco. Ruth and Luke are a couple from London and Yael is Israeli. Together we make a nice group. Along the way we´ve picked up some other travelers and we arrived in a pack to the beachtown of Montanita in Ecuador. We had a HORRENDOUS time crossing the ¨worst border in South America¨ but that´s a story for another time. Basically we were conned, robbed and abandoned in a dangerous area of the border. But, being that we were in a group it turned out alright. I think I should probably clarify, the conning and robbing were done at once by the people taking us across the border and there was no physical assaulting or violence, but it was still scary and we all felt pretty stupid and angry afterwards. The important thing is that we were together and it all turned out okay.
But anyway. We made it to Ecuador and so far I really like it here. We stopped for one night in the city of Guayaquil which was like any other city. And now we´ve finally made it to Montañita. It´s a small town, basically ready-made for tourists who come to take advantage of the great surf. I´m planning to take some lessons sometime, but for right now I´m just trying to settle in. Again it´s overcast, but it´s very warm. And the beach is really nice. Alright. That´s about it.
Hope everythings going well for you guys!
Love,
Gabi