Peru - Part 1, Touching The Void...kind of

So we took the 9 hour bus journey from Loja in Ecuador, through more stunning mountain scenery across the Peruvian border into the city of Piura, where we were meeting up with Leanne again the following day. Piura itself has little to hold the attention of most visitors, so we just stopped a couple of nights before getting on another 9 hour bus journey down the Pan American to the Peruvian city of Trujillo.

Looking out the bus window on the long journey through a small portion of the northern section of Peru, largely following the coastline, first impressions were of large expanses of vast emptiness, combined with intermittent sections of very tall, very badly built brick walls…

We decided to base ourselves just outside of Trujillo in a little surf/fishing village called Huanchaco - a unique surf/fishing village as a result of the handmade reed boats the local fishermen use - called ‘Caballitos de totora’ which they kneel on, paddle out, catch the fish & surf the waves back in to shore again.

We were expecting Peru to be significantly more expensive than many of the countries we have visited so far as it is a much more established tourist destination due to the like of Machu Picchu etc - but we were surprised to find it to be one of the cheapest places we had been so far (at least in Huanchaco). We had a really nice hostel that was £3 each a night, we could eat a really good 2 course meal including drink for £1.20 each, & a 2 hour surf lesson including all the gear hire was only £7.

We spent about 4 days here, a few days of which spent surfing, Leanne had a few more surf lessons & made some really good progress, managing to stand up on the board several times. We met some really nice locals here that took us to the local reggae party at a cool beach club, & we made friends with Leanne’s surf instructor, who was really keen to come to England to work so he could earn some good money & further his surf business in Peru. He had some spurious looking job application supposedly from a hotel in London, claiming that they would pay his air fair, arrange his UK immigration visa & pay him the princely sum of around £1500 a year for a job in the hotel under a minimum contract of 3 years. The UK visa email contact details that were given were against a yahoo.co.uk address - which was clearly fake. Unfortunately it looked like he was being lined up to be the victim of immigrant worker exploitation via some illegal organisation in the UK - something that was pretty much confirmed when my sister made some enquiries about it in the UK. A real shame, as he was a really genuine bloke that just wanted to be able to afford a better standard of living.

After a really good few days here we jumped on yet another 10 hour night bus - heading for the Cordillera Blanca mountain range & the main base town of Huaraz. How things have changed in a relatively short space of time when it comes to bus journeys - from the chicken buses of Central America, we are now treated with some of the best buses we have ever been on. We bought the first class tickets (£12 for a 10 hour journey) & it was like being on a private jet - huge leather sofa seats that pretty much fully recline to be like a bed, a meal & drink served to you before take off/departure - suspension that actually works & drivers that don’t appear to be completely suicidal - all in all a very pleasant journey!

The Cordillera Blanca area is the part of the Andes where the mountains are consistently at their highest - although the highest single mountain in the Andes is on the Argentinean/Chilean border, with 33 mountains above 5000 metres, 16 of which are above 6000 metres - the Cordillera Blanca is the second highest mountain range in the world, second only to the Himalayas. The region (or more precisely the Cordillera Huayhash, just down the valley) was brought to wider public attention by Joe Simpson’s tale of his near fatal climbing expedition in the documentary film & book ‘Touching The Void.’

After a day of getting used to the altitude the 3 of us set out on a hike into the mountains, up to the Laguna Churup at 4,450m. This was due to be our ’acclimatisation’ hike in preparation for one of the multi day hike options on offer here. The hike turned out to be a pretty tough 8 hour route, the 4-5 hours of which to the Laguna were all solidly up hill, & the final 30 mins or so was a scramble up the side of a waterfall - which pushed Leanne’s fear of heights to the limit, & whilst she safely made it up & down the route, it was enough to convince her that this sort of activity wasn’t really for her & made plans to leave the mountains for Lima a couple of days later.

However not before Claire & Leanne took a trip the following day out to the archaeological site of Chavin, built between 1200 and 800 BC. The site contains a maze of underground tunnels, ducts and chambers and is considered a huge feat of engineering, particularly as its some 3000 years old. The bus trip to the site was equally as impressive as was the location for the site. The new museum, built only last year, has some great examples of pottery, huge stone deity heads and carvings. Most of the site is still undergoing excavation as in 1970 a landslide following an earthquake, covered the entire site in mud.

I on the other hand spent the day mountain biking with a local guide, famed with pioneering mountain biking in Peru. It turned out to be just he & I, & proceeded to have a pretty amazing day biking. Julio grew up in the area & has basically spent his whole life finding new routes & working out how to link them together. These trails are not your average tourist routes that many of the companies in the area offer - they are largely unknown to anyone other than Julio - so much so that even the other guide that he employs doesn’t actually know them yet. We drove up another 1000 metres or so from Huaraz to about 4100m where we began to ride. Because of the height you start at, the possibilities for long flowing down hills were great, & we rode some really nice trails for an hour pretty much solidly downhill without having to barely pedal at all. We carried on for another few hours after this, climbing & descending, riding through small local mountain communities - getting some weird looks from the locals who clearly couldn’t quite fathom out what the hell we were doing, riding bikes down the trails they use for navigating themselves around the mountain side. It was such a good day that I was determined to spend at least 1 more day riding with Julio before we left the Cordillera Blanca.

The following day we said Adios to Leanne again temporarily as she headed to Lima to hook up with the Irish girls she spent time with in Ecuador, & take up some Spanish lessons & hopefully some more surf lessons, having well & truly caught the surf bug.

Claire & I spent the day planning & arranging our 4 day trek through the Santa Cruz valley. We were picked up at 6am the following morning by our guide & the rest of our group (a couple from Brazil and a guy from Finland), & headed off to the Huascaran National Park (Huascaran being the name of the highest mountain in the area & the whole of Peru at 6,768m) for the start of the trek. We arrived in the town of Yungay for an early breakfast. The original site of the town of Yungay was completely buried in 1970, when an earthquake dislodged a huge part of the glacier on the surrounding mountains, creating an avalanche & landslide that buried 18,000 people alive. The Peruvian government subsequently prohibited any excavation of the site & declared it a national cemetery. The new town of Yungay has been reconstructed right next to the old site.

The scenery around here is absolutely stunning - the unique thing about this part of the Andes is that you are still right in the middle of the Tropics, so the snow line doesn’t even begin until around the 5000 metre mark (weird when you consider that Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe is 4,800m & the peak is snow covered year round…) & there are all manner of tropical plants, lush vegetation & Cactus up to around 4000m.

The hike itself took us through some beautiful glacial valleys, past jade green glacial lakes, over a high pass called the Punta Union at 4760m, all with beautiful views of the snow capped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca around us. The first 2 days were quite demanding with a 5 hour climb on day one to the first campsite and then a steep 4 hour climb to the pass on day 2. The latter 2 days however involve a more gentle descent to the town of Cashapampa, where the trail ends.

Each day we only carried a day pack with food, water, layers, camera etc in and all the camping equipment and food was sent ahead on donkeys - something that provided a bit of drama, as after the first night camping the donkeys went AWOL, & the guys spent the next few hours scouring the area for our donkeys - they obviously didn‘t fancy the prospect of lugging all our gear up the mountain that day - can‘t say I blame them really… They eventually found the donkeys after employing the Andean version of Ethel from Eastenders, & reading the Coca tea leaves to find out where they were. Fortunately it worked somehow & we were back on track.

This is definitely a better way to camp, after a long day walking (average 7-8 hours) we arrived each night at the camp site to have the tent put up, coffee on to boil and dinner being prepared. Our donkey man, Eugenio and his son, Jean Pierre (only 7), pretty much ran past us each day to get ahead to ensure it was all set up for when we arrived…. They can pretty much do the entire 50km+ route in about 10 hours so what they must think of us tourist taking 4 days I am not sure!

Back in Huaraz, we meet for some beers with the others in the group and opt for a day off the next day. Not wanting to seem idol, Paul then books up another day mountain biking in the Cordillera Negra, which is the mountain range on the opposite side of the valley to the Cordillera Blanca - the main difference being the Cordillera Blanca are snow capped mountains, whereas the Cordillera Negra are not - though still exceed 5000m. After 40 km of downhill trails he comes back a little battered and bruised after a couple of minor mishaps….. thinking this is more than enough exercise for a few days, we jump on a bus & head to Lima to catch up with Leanne again.

Ecuador - Part 2, Riobamba, The Beach & Vilcabamba

From Banos we headed a little further south along the ‘Avenue of Volcanoes’ as the Pan-American highway through this part of Ecuador is known - to the city of Riobamba. Riobamba is the nearest major city to Ecuador’s highest volcano - named Chimborazo, weighing in at 6350 meters above sea level. Our plan was to mountain bike down it from the refuge at 5000m. We were also in town to embark upon the famous ‘Nariz Del Diablo’ (or Devil’s Nose) train journey from Riobamba, south to the towns of Alausi & Sibambe.

The train is something of a challenge to actually even get on these days, as it only runs a couple of days a week, is frequently cancelled at the last minute due to landslides, you can only buy tickets in person from the station in Riobamba the day before departure from 9.30am - & the tickets sell out fast, as not only is it one of Ecuador’s main attractions, but the locomotive train with several carriages that was previously used is currently under going repairs - so the trusty

old American school buses have been put into yet another after life use, & this time a bus has been converted to run on train tracks & act as the ‘temporary’ replacement train… & as a result there are only about 40-50 seats available for any one trip.

We had to travel to Riobamba on a Wednesday to stand any chance of getting on the Friday train - this constraint, coupled with some poor planning & communication on my behalf meant that unfortunately we were unable to meet up with the family of our Ecuadorian Spanish teacher from back home, Jenny - who’s family live just North of Riobamba in a city called Ambato - who had kindly offered to put us up for a couple of nights - lo siento un otra vez Jenny!

We hooked up with a guy we had been emailing about the mountain biking trip, a fella called Galo Briti, who’s father used to be Mayor of Riobamba. Galo himself holds the claim to fame of being the first person with a mountain bike in Riobamba & subsequently set up the first company to provide organised mountain bike tours of the surrounding areas. After a very thorough briefing & bike testing session on the Wednesday evening, we set out on Thursday morning for Volcano Chimborazo - after also having managed to negotiate with the owner of our hotel & a girl who worked at the train station to enable them to get tickets on our behalf for the train journey on Friday.

Galo turned out to be a great guide for the day, & the trip became much more than just a mountain bike trip, as he plied us with information about the local indigenous communities on the approach to the Volcano, the affects of the current & historical political policies on the ownership of the land & the effects on the communities - which interestingly has largely resulted in more power being given to the indigenous communities, so much so that the indigenous voting population now represents something like 27% of the overall vote, & as such means that the indigenous communities are able to pretty much determine the outcome of any election result as they all tend to vote together. As a result the politicians recognise the need to keep these communities on side, & often turn a blind eye to some of the agricultural practices they carry out, which tend to be less than environmentally friendly. A world away from the relative power the indigenous communities of Central America have, who are basically still in constant battle just to maintain any rights to the land they live on, & have been regularly slaughtered by the Government/military in large numbers over these basic rights.

We pulled up at the first refuge on Chimborazo at 4800m, & proceeded to hike (very slowly) up to the second refuge at 5000m - a breath taking experience - & not all because of the lack of oxygen at this altitude. The clouds broke & we were rewarded with stunning views across the high Andes & the surrounding Paramo’s (high altitude flat grass lands), which create a desert like setting.

Over the next few hours we descended on the bikes down to about 2500m, with a few vehicle assisted climbs to take us to some of the best descents along the way. En route we passed through old Inca ruin sites, through local communities, passed by llama, alpaca & vicuna (that produce the worlds most expensive wool - in fact the Chimborazo Volcano is a protected National Park, solely for the purpose of protecting the natural habitat of the Vicuna), past a natural water spring that actually flows with perfectly clear carbonated mineral water & tastes just like Perrier. We filled up a few bottles & have shipped them back to London to be sold in high class restaurants for £50 a time… gotta find some way of funding all these excursions! Yet again - another amazing, very rewarding day.

At 6.30am the following morning we boarded our train/bus for ‘La Nariz Del Diablo’. About 15 minutes out of Riobamba the train line passes through a cement plant, which presented us with the first challenge of the journey, as a lorry waiting to pick up his load of cement had parked right on the tracks, & although the driver was in the cab & the train/bus was chugging towards him, the lorry refused to move for a good 20 minutes until the Police were called to handle the situation…bizarre. Eventually we chugged on through the Andes, the rails regularly running inches from the edge of the cliff with drops of around several hundred metres to our left or right.

We encountered another couple of minor hold ups when we happened upon some landslide debris on the tracks, the conductor had to jump out & shovel the rocks etc off the tracks so we could carry on. Somehow I don’t think you would get away with the classic British excuse of ‘leaves on the track’ for train cancellations in Ecuador…

The section of the journey that actually gives the trip it’s name is between the towns of Alausi & Sibambe, where as a result of the seemingly in-passable landscape, the train has to zig zag it’s way down the sheer mountain side by a series of switchbacks, whereby the train over shots the corner, the points on the track are changed & the train reverses down the section, repeating the same process a few times until it has lost sufficient altitude to arrive at Sibambe. A very unique train journey - it certainly puts the Leamington to Marylebone route to shame to say the least.

From here we worked our way across to Ecuador’s second city, & main economic centre of Guayaquil. Although we were only there for 1 day & night, you can certainly feel that there is a little more money around the place than many of the other Ecuadorian cities we had visited so far. In the year 2000 a brand new promenade was developed & opened up, called ‘The Malecon 2000’ - which we spent the evening walking along, eating at one of the many restaurants that line the waterfront & checking out a few of the bars. As we sat there eating, it felt like we could’ve been sitting at a restaurant somewhere along the south bank of the Thames in London. The Malecon now also has a huge I-Max cinema complex, kids play areas, is palm tree lined & on the whole feel is very nice. It feels like a step towards a more prosperous future for Ecuador, also reinforced by the rows of luxury mansions that line the streets in the suburbs of Guayaquil that we passed on the bus on our way out to a little surf spot on the Pacific coast called Montanita.

Everything about this side of the country really feels different & just goes to reinforce how diverse Ecuador is a country - out here it’s all sand dunes, coast line, laid back fishing villages & surf spots. It seems strange to think it was all in the same country that we were recently in the Amazon basin, or surrounded by the highest volcanoes in the Andes. It is a little off the beaten track in Montanita, as most tourists follow the ‘Gringo Trail’ - which pretty much follows the route of the Pan-American highway through the Avenue of Volcanoes, so it feels like a little bit of a well kept secret - however it is popular enough to have developed into a pretty lively surf & party scene, & if you end up staying at one of the hostels right in the middle of the main centre then you better not plan on getting any sleep, as the bars & clubs are pumping out music until dawn pretty much every night. Fortunately we found ourselves a nice little place 2 minutes walk out of the centre that was totally quiet at night - so we had some peace to retreat to when we had enough partying.

It was here in Montanita that Leanne & I decided to have our first surf lesson. I have attempted surfing quite a few times in the past, though with little success - the lesson proved to be a worthwhile investment (all $15 of it for a 2 hour lesson inc. gear hire), as I managed to actually stand up & catch a few waves. Leanne had never attempted surfing at all before, though made some good initial progress, to be followed upon at a later date.

After about 4 days in Montanita Claire & I decided to move on, heading for the mountains again to a place called Vilcabamba. Leanne opted to stay another few days chilling out at the beach with a group of Irish people we had met up with.

Catching a few buses, we wound our way down the country 9 hours or so to Ecuador’s 3rd city and UNESCO site, Cuenca, another lovely colonial city. After a couple of city days we head on another 9 hours south to the mountain town of Vilcabamba, also known as the ‘valley of longevity’ due to the fact the locals are renowned for their extremely long lives - for more hiking and horse riding. We had seen posters all over Ecuador for a hostel that claimed to be a resort but without the price tag, set 2km out of town perched on a hilltop overlooking the valley, so that’s where we headed and we were not disappointed. Izhcayluma hostel was fantastic… sweeping views over the valley from the outdoor dining room, swimming pool, bar, cabanas, homemade bread and granola, buffet breakfast and German run so some great German food to escape from the fried chicken and rice you become accustomed to living on day in day out….!

There are numerous hikes around the area so we decided on an ’easy to moderate’ 5 hour one called the ‘Izhcayluma loop’ that took us up on the ridgeline above the hostel. Whilst it was a beautiful hike, there were parts of the ridgeline, that due to some pretty sever erosion were a little precarious to say the least! We see an advert for horse riding while we are there with a guy from New Zealand and opt for a 4 hour trip into the Podocarpus National Park. Without much discussion (nil) about previous horse riding experience, our guide canters off out of town with our 2 horses following quickly in pursuit. At this point it became apparent that Paul was not a professional rider. Having only been on a horse 3 times in his life, two of which on this trip and only ever managed a slow trot, he eased up a little! We wound our way up the mountain and into the National Park…. again, beautiful views but this time without the effort of walking! By the end of the 4 hours we were galloping back into town, Paul now completely at ease on the horse. We thought we were being clever in wearing cycling shorts to avoid too much ‘butt’ pain the following day as we had another long 8 hour bus journey over the border into Peru and whilst the cycling shorts helped, we did not bank on the leg and back pain. We didn’t realise that horse riding used so many muscles and could barely move the following day… We spent 5 days in total here having a really nice relaxed time, and it would have been very easy to stay for more!

Ecuador - Part 1 - Quito, The Amazon & Quilotoa

We arrived in the Ecuadorian capital city Quito, on a Friday night and set off to stay in the Mariscal district where I (Claire) had stayed previously…. It was very different from the area of the city I first visited 9 years earlier… every street now has a dozen or more hostels, bars, clubs and restaurants and not at all dissimilar to Koh San Road in Thailand for those that know it! Total tourist-ville, as oppose to the relatively un-touristy area I remembered - a little disappointing to see it go this way! We decided to have a few beers and try and make the most of the situation but alas that was not to be. We managed to time our arrival perfectly with the national elections. Over the 3 days period whilst these were going on (Fri, Sat and Sun), the whole of the country was alcohol free…. There was a ban on the consumption and buying of any alcohol anywhere by anyone to avoid any trouble and surprisingly, there was not one place that would relent!

We also knew that whilst in Quito, we would need to spend a few days acclimatizing, due to the fact it is situated at 2800m above sea level, so would need to relax and chill for a couple of days before attempting anything much. Fortunately on the saturday the famous indigenous market at Otavalo (about 2 hrs out of Quito) was on, so we jumped on a bus for the day up there. Whilst the market is largely targetted at tourists, alot of the handicrafts, paintings & such were of a really nice quality-hence we managed to spend a few dollars on some souveniers (yet more stuff to carry in our already oversized bags!).

Quito also has some beautiful colonial buildings of the ‘Old town’, an UNESCO heritage site since 1978, so we spent some time taking in the city & sampling a few of the local bars & restaurants during the course of it.

We took the newly built Teleferiquo (or cable car to the rest of us) up the flanks of Pichincha Volcano to Cruz Loma at 4,200m, from where you can continue to hike to the top of the volcano, or take a horse ride around part of the volcano as Paul & Leanne decided to do. Fortunately the cloud cleared enough for us to get some great views over Quito & the surrounding mountains.

One of the highlights of the Quito city visit was a visit to the house and now museum of ‘Oswaldo Guayasamin’, an indigenous painter from Quito whose world renowned paintings hang in many galleries and public buildings worldwide. His last work of art was a giant monument/museum called ‘The Capilla del Hombre’, a tribute to the suffering of the Latin American indigenous poor and the undying hope of a better world. He has some really impressive paintings - predominantly various depictions of the human condition, we bought a couple of replicas of his works at the Otavalo market earlier in the week.

After a few days in Quito we decided to embark upon a 5 day trip to the jungle of the Amazon basin, travelleing light for our 'side trip' & leaving the majority of our luggage at the hostel in Quito (bliss travelling with only one small bag!). We shopped around a bit & eventually opted for the campany that seemed to be the most ecologically & environmentally responsible tour operator, and decided on a jungle lodge close to both the Peruvian and Colombian border, in a place called the 'Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve'.

We travelled for 8 hours overnight by bus to a place called Lago Agrio, an edgy frontier town that is now largely home to oil workers (being one of the main oil extraction locations from the Ecuadorian Amazon basin), ex-guerrillas and drug smugglers - but also the main entrance to the Cuyabeno jungle reserve. We travelled for a further 3 hours in a minibus and then a further 3 hours by motorised canoe to our lodge. The lodge was basic… a bed, mozzy net, cold river water for a shower, no electricity, hammock, poncho, wellies and 3 meals a day… however once we got over the fear of the insects (both size and quantity) and realised that the mozzy nets really did keep all insects out at night, we managed to relax and enjoy the whole experience.

We were very lucky the first day as there was only the 3 of us and the guide and after a 2 hour walk through the jungle and lunch, we took a dugout canoe along the smaller river channels - floating along about an inch from the water that has an abundance of Caiman alligators & Pirahna fish in -where we saw monkeys, an anteater, kingfishers, toucans, cuckoos, parrots and many more birds.

We were joined the following evening by another 5 people and we spent the days on the river watching pink river dolphins, fishing for piranhas, night time Caiman alligator spotting, visiting a local Amazonian community downstream, as well as hiking in the jungle with our guide and native guide who explained the medicinal use of a lot of the flora and fauna to be found. The guide also did night tours to see the many insects and animals that are nocturnal… Leanne and I decided against the trip for obvious reasons, though Paul went along - fully covered from head to toe to prevent any unwelcome insects or spiders hitching a ride!

We then made the long journey back to Quito, spent a couple of nights there again before heading off to Latacunga, a main town on the panamericana highway and starting point for the 'Quilotoa loop'. The Quilotoa loop involves a series of mountain dirt roads linking some remote Andean villages where transport is limited but has great hiking opportunities. We took a bus to the village of Quilotoa to see the Laguna Quilotoa, a stunning turquoise blue volcanic crater lake before heading back down the road to the town of Zumbahua as we had heard a fiesta was going on…. The running of the bulls… although not quite Pamplona style! A makeshift bull ring had been constructed and all the villagers were eagerly watching the entertainment… young boys teasing the bull before legging it the minute the bull all but looked in their direction! All the women were strolling or staggering around with boxes of peach schnapps and the men bottles of moonshine, rum or beer… after a few hours, everyone was very drunk and dancing outside the bull ring. There were also frequent attempts (much to our amusement) of drunk men trying to get on, stay on and ride their horses home! We were only 3 of no more than about 7 or 8 toursists at the event, & were made to feel very welcome by all the locals - a really entertaining day.

Once we had had enough, we managed to find a truck driver (relatively sober!) that would take us to the next village along the loop called Chugchilan, from where in the morning we wanted to embark in a hike to the village of Isinlivi, and so began the 2 hour journey, standing in the back of the truck along narrow, high, windy Andean roads…We were making friends with the locals also in the truck by sharing around our bottle of Lemon Rum we had bought to get into the swing of the festivities. At every stop off the driver was asking for a shot of rum - to which we made him wait until he had safely dropped us off at our destination!

There are only 2 hostels in Chugchilan, both next to each other so no trouble to find accommodation. After a good nights sleep we wake bright and early ready for the hike. We were given some basic instructions which we managed to completely misinterpret and got lost, not just once but 3 times which resulted in the 4-6 hours hike actually being 8 hours!

Had it not been a glorious sunny day, absolutely stunning scenery and having nothing to get to Isinlivi (the next town on the loop) early for, we might have been a little worried - but many locals gave us friendly smiles and waves (and directions) en route, and we did eventually make it to Isinlivi. We actually arrived to an empty, locked up hostel (the only one in town), where a friendly local had to go and find the owner. Once settled, she whipped us up a 3 course meal, lit a log fire and we settled down to a quiet night… well until 6 am when the brass band we had heard rehearsing the previous evening started up again walking up & down the streets of the town, to kick start the festivities off in that village!

The only way out of Isinlivi is by truck, in this case, the milk truck. At 9.30 we climbed in the back of the milk truck on its rounds around the area where local farmers hand over their un-pasteurised milk in exchange for money or pasteurised milk. We continued around the loop for another 2 hours, clinging on in some parts as we ascended over some high mountain passes, rewarded however with some stunning views over the Cotopaxi Volcano region. All in all a fantastic few days - one of the highlights of our Ecuadorian trip.

We head back to Latacunga to pick up the big heavy bags again and take a bus to Banos. This was quite a disappointment for me from the memories I had from my previous visit here, as the town is situated in such a beautiful cloud forest valley but is now marred by the neon lights everywhere, bars and clubs, hundreds of hostels and tour companies offering bungy jumping, quad bikes, off road buggies - you name it. A bit of shame. We did however manage to find a great hostel however, more like a 4* hotel for $7.50 a night which was the bargain of the trip so far. It was probably just as well it was such a nice hostel, as Paul was ill for the entire time we were in Banos & was barely able to leave the room...