In retrospect, we had no idea what we were getting into when Keagan, a recent newcomer and fellow gringo at the Guadalupe Spanish School, and I made plans to journey to the Andean town of Cajamarca for "Carnival". Given its nation-wide reputation for intense merrymaking and debauchery during Carnival, all formal bus-lines offering services out of Guadalupe were booked far in advance. We had to take matters into our own hands.
Now, there´s tourism...and then there´s standing on the side of the Pan-American highway pondering between the enormous, flatbed semi loaded down with the metal rods, bundles of seemingly man-made brooms, and a pretty tough looking band of young men in the midst of an operation to create make-shift sidewalls for the vehicle out of logs and plywood...or the slightly more apealing, seemingly more roadworthy, over-sized truck with a steady steam of people, goods and animals piling in the back.
For Option Number One see http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s248/nikkiewest/DSCF0292.jpg
For Option Number Two (exterior) see
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s248/nikkiewest/th_DSCF0306.jpg
Now, there´s tourism...and then there´s standing on the side of the Pan-American highway pondering between the enormous, flatbed semi loaded down with the metal rods, bundles of seemingly man-made brooms, and a pretty tough looking band of young men in the midst of an operation to create make-shift sidewalls for the vehicle out of logs and plywood...or the slightly more apealing, seemingly more roadworthy, over-sized truck with a steady steam of people, goods and animals piling in the back.
For Option Number One see http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s248/nikkiewest/DSCF0292.jpg
For Option Number Two (exterior) see
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s248/nikkiewest/th_DSCF0306.jpg
and Loading Up (interior) see
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s248/nikkiewest/DSCF0293.jpg
After choosing the later and elbowing in with the rest of ´em, a quick head count yielded a total of about 55 persons, several gargantuan bags of fruit, firewood, a couple bags of live chickens and...oh wait, what´s that sound? yup, there´s a pig in here somewhere. Making best use of every inch, countless bulk packages of toilet paper were tied precariously on top of the cab with twine...one of which we lost midway up the mountain pass, causing quite a stir, and a brief stop-over so someone could fetch it from the middle of the road.
Within an hour, nearly everyone had collapsed into a messy, half-sleeping entanglement on the hay covered bed of the truck. With the nearest shoulder a possible pillow, the degree of intimacy between utter strangers, set against a backdrop of drastic Andean skyscapes, was truly striking. As for Keagan and I, we were content to try our luck at riding the top rails to take in the views of the surrounding landscape and truck-bed beneath us...until we were stopped at a police checkpoint and forced to climb down. Henceforth, I rode the remainder of the 6 hour journey perched atop of a bundle of firewood that a man in a Hooters hat graciously offered, with two bags of swinging chickens directly in my face.
As we neared Cajamarca, we began to get a feel for what was in store...every vehicle passing from the opposite direction was absolutely covered with splatters of bright paint and children of all ages lined the streets of every village armed with water balloons and buckets. I learned quickly that either gringas make the best targets, or I´m graced with a magnetism for water balloons. Defying logic, I was blessed by literally 90% of the water that was hurled over the walls of our truck. By the time we reach Cajamarca I was grinning madly, dripping water all over the nice man in the Hooters hat.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s248/nikkiewest/DSCF0293.jpg
After choosing the later and elbowing in with the rest of ´em, a quick head count yielded a total of about 55 persons, several gargantuan bags of fruit, firewood, a couple bags of live chickens and...oh wait, what´s that sound? yup, there´s a pig in here somewhere. Making best use of every inch, countless bulk packages of toilet paper were tied precariously on top of the cab with twine...one of which we lost midway up the mountain pass, causing quite a stir, and a brief stop-over so someone could fetch it from the middle of the road.
Within an hour, nearly everyone had collapsed into a messy, half-sleeping entanglement on the hay covered bed of the truck. With the nearest shoulder a possible pillow, the degree of intimacy between utter strangers, set against a backdrop of drastic Andean skyscapes, was truly striking. As for Keagan and I, we were content to try our luck at riding the top rails to take in the views of the surrounding landscape and truck-bed beneath us...until we were stopped at a police checkpoint and forced to climb down. Henceforth, I rode the remainder of the 6 hour journey perched atop of a bundle of firewood that a man in a Hooters hat graciously offered, with two bags of swinging chickens directly in my face.
As we neared Cajamarca, we began to get a feel for what was in store...every vehicle passing from the opposite direction was absolutely covered with splatters of bright paint and children of all ages lined the streets of every village armed with water balloons and buckets. I learned quickly that either gringas make the best targets, or I´m graced with a magnetism for water balloons. Defying logic, I was blessed by literally 90% of the water that was hurled over the walls of our truck. By the time we reach Cajamarca I was grinning madly, dripping water all over the nice man in the Hooters hat.
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