I’m sitting in a loud busy bus station restaurant in Lima eating a pile of papas fritas the size of my head, maybe bigger. I’m waiting for Carl. It’s seems he’s lucked out. After a week plus of issues with immigration he might be here in Peru legally this afternoon. Carl- lover of rules and regulations, some how (thanks Obama) left Peru in 2016 after the Asian-Pacific Conference without getting an exit stamp recorded while working for the Federal Government. Without his Official Passport Peru seemed less than helpful at the border (as did the US embassy in Lima). Thankfully some connections with the Secret Service were able to get the information needed through the appropriate channels. It’s delayed us a bit for sure but overall I think we are both thankful I don’t have to smuggle Carl to Bolivia. He’s a bit big for my backpack. 

We’ve traveled through northern Peru and are about to head into the south.

Northern Peru gave us a few unplanned and welcomed surprises. I have wanted to swim with Whale Sharks since I’ve learned it was a thing. They are these massive animals- up to 40 feet long! They are the largest non mammal in the world. They are also somehow kind of cute and definitely dumb. 

For an unknown reason there are whale sharks off the coast of northern Peru pretty consistently and a non profit in the area studies them. We heard about them from another set of travelers. The nice thing is this the isn’t part of some well known tourist route, it’s literally research and conservation. It was a tiny fishing boat and there were 8 of us total- 3 folks from a local scuba school affiliated with the nonprofit, 2 boat crew, a researcher and us. There was no one else even close to us in the water. We were also told we had the best conditions of the year so far and saw an unreal about of them for a single day- nearly 10 in total. 

The first time we spotted one and jumped in the water I didn’t realize there were 2! Some how I had ended up directly on top of one. Looking down I was probably 3 feet above it’s head and could see it’s big tail fin coming my way! I was more afraid of hurting it then it hurting me but it sure did get my adrenaline pumping! I ungracefully got out of it way and later kicked myself for not having turned the GoPro on. 

The last whale shark we swam with was magic. It was somewhere between 25 and 30 feet, which is on the larger size for the area we were in. It must have been resting because it was moving at the perfect pace for a comfortable speed of swimming for me. For about 15 minutes we just followed it. I was anywhere from 2-4 feet from it the whole time. You could swim up and see it’s eye and look in its 4 feet wide mouth. (They, like many whales eat only plankton.) You felt really tiny next to it and when it turned into you there was always this little rush and a quick impulse to get out of the way. 

There are many things you do once and your glad you did them but don’t really feel the need to do them again (bungee jumping for example) but not this. I hope to swim with the gentle giants again. 

From the beach town of Mancora we headed south to Tranquila to check out some ruins- Chan Chan being the main one. They were interesting and the nearby beach town had some yummy food but we decided to limit our time and only spent a day there. 

Out next destination took us back to the mountains, from sea level to 10,000 feet and then to 15,000 feet. We went to Huaraz to see a small slice for the Cordillera Blanca mountains, which is the tallest range in Peru. It was beautiful. There were glacier fed lakes scatted throughout and perfectly snow capped mountain peaks. 

I think we did amazingly well hiking given the altitude. Hiking with Carl is always a bit of a challenge though. I at this point am in good shape but Carl walks about twice the speed I a comfortable with. Being at an altitude over 15,000 ft makes hiking extra challenging. 

Of all the places we’ve been I wish we had more time around Huaraz and in the Cordillera.  There was enough hiking and exploration in the area that we could have spent over a month in still left plenty of undone. I certainly hope that we will be back someday.