(A short excerpt from my first lengthy update email home)
.......As the night progressed we decided to go on a day ‘trek’ the next day and sought advice from our new friends. We ended up making plans to meet up at eight am, the next day, with ‘Marcos’ who would be our ‘guía’ (guide) for our trek. The day turned out to be overcast with a great threat of rain, so the ‘trek’ idea was abandoned and Marcos suggested a shorter walk to a neighboring city of Monterrey. He asked if we wanted to walk or take a colectivo (more details later….) and of course we said walk – the whole point was to go on a walk! There was definitely a language barrier between the three of us, and his idea of a ‘camino’ was not what Erin and I were expecting. We soon realized he intended to walk the whole way along the auto pisto (the ugly nasty highway). We ended up convincing him this was a horrible way to get there and there must be a path we could take. Thus we cut up into the hills and wandered for awhile…. eventually finding our way and encountering many vacas, perros, cerdos, and surprised Peruvians along the way……
When we arrived in Monterrey we quickly realized the reason we had come was to visit the hot springs (basically the only thing in the town). Somehow that fact had escaped us when Marcos was describing the city, we both swear he never said that and it wasn’t our Spanish that was lacking! The problem of not having bathing suits and towels was soon solved by a roadside rental vendor. Yes, you can rent bathing suits in Peru for about $.66 for the day. Erin and I opted to go the boy short route and picked out two lovely pairs! I’ve been to a large variety of hot springs around the world to sort of know what to expect. However, nothing I’ve seen so far really compares to the hot springs in Monterrey.
Tres soles (about a dollar), gets you into what is sort of set up like a resort, or a Peruvian’s idea of one. We soon saw the ‘mineral pools’ and instantly broke out laughing; two fairly large pools, filled with murky brown water, and creepy Peruvian men. The ‘changing rooms’ provided further entertainment, as they were an area right next to the pools separated by a brick wall of about 4 ½ feet tall – the ‘men’ and ‘women’ areas were right next to each other – so one could easy peer over the other side. We opted to change in the baños instead.
We spent the next hour or so ‘relaxing’ in the lukewarm murky waters, and trying to ignore the large clumps of brown substance that would occasionally float by. Our time soon came to an end when we started shivering and what I can only describe as adult swimming lessons begin; about 20 Peruvian men jumping in and out of the pool – attempting to ‘swim’ across – and practicing their kicking skills while holding on the side of the pool – Our goal of not getting our hair wet or accidentally swallowing the water got difficult quick, as we were constantly being splashed in the face! In light of our adventure in arriving in Monterrey, we decided to take the colectivo back to Huaraz. It was over lunch, back in the city, we discover our ‘guía’ was really from Lima and really had not clue about Huaraz and good hiking opportunities – what we were counting on him for! No wonder we more or less ended up walking along the highway for miles to ugly ‘hot’ springs – so much for seeking local advice! It was actually quite hilarious, the poor boy almost feel asleep over lunch! We had exhausted him, I think we made he walk farther than he had his whole life – oh people from Lima!
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