Faulty Towers

  Huaraz, Peru
Monday, July 30, 2007

Huaraz
Arrived in Huaraz at 6:00am and as usual got pestered by people trying to get you stay in their hostel/hotel/house/hut. A married couple at the bus station said "were in lonely planet", I checked their old warn out business card against my list of hostels in my latest edition Lonely Planet guide book and replied "No your Not". I asked them if they had hot water and if they had other travelers staying there, to which they replied yes to both. Being knackered and the offer of a free lift, I decided to go and have a look.





 The hostel was very basic but seemed ok, looking forward to a nice hot shower I turned on the tap to discover no water at all and flushed the chain to see nothing happen. I then switched on the light only to here a violent buzzing noise. When queried, it turned out they have to turn the water on and off when its not in use and the buzzing will stop in 5 minutes, after half an hour I switched off the light.

After doing my washing I decided to go and have a look around the town only to find every door in the building locked and nobody around. I tried each door again as surely I had made a mistake, this cant really be happening. I couldn't believe it, some how I had ended up staying at the Peruvian Faulty Towers. I was beginning to get quite frustrated and looking for an escape route, I made it into the small back yard only to find high walls and another locked gate. No windows on the first floor in any of the rooms i could get into so I went back to my room upstairs and sat for 15 minutes waiting for someone to come back. Not prepared to tie the bed sheets together and abseil out the window quite just yet, I went back down to have another look only to hear the front steel door rattling and Sybil arriving back all apologetic. Not being fluent in Spanish I let my face do the talking and did a little bit of English mumbling under my breath.









I arrived back late at night wondering how strange it was that I hadn't bumped into the other travelers at the hostel and went to bed to the sound of the family arguing and some deranged cat squealing in the hall way. Did I mis hear them, did they say they were in Looney Planet?

 










 











 










Bus to Trujillo










Its quite interesting viewing for about 2 hours.











 










Its common all over Bolivia and Peru to cover your house, walls or any large rock faces on the side of the road with political views.