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Published: December 8th 2009
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We're back in Ecuador now after spending a few days at the beach and a really nice week in the highlands of Peru.
After a grueling 30 hours of bus travel (cramped, sweaty, yelling Peruvians, and a broken bridge), we arrived in Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca ('White Mountain Range', Andes) at around 3am.
From Huaraz, we did a day hike 'almost' to Laguna Churup ... the altitude (around 14,000 feet) really got to us (me, Emily) and we ended up just walking around the mountainside, which had some spectacular and satisfying views anyway.
Next we went to Caraz, a smaller and more pleasant town about 2 hours north of Huaraz. We checked into a nice hostal (Hostal Chavin) where we were pleasantly surprised with an extremely friendly and helpful dueño (owner). He helped us with just about everything we needed and even got up at 4am to help us get to the exact street corner where we needed to take a combi (van) to a town on the mountainside where one of our hikes started. And he cooked some mean scrambled eggs.
Our first hike from Caraz was to Laguna Parón, a turquois lake nestled in
amongst the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca at just under 14,000 feet. This was the early one, we took a van up to the starting point and arrived there at 5am, when it was still dark. A four-hour hike through a narrow moutainpass brought us to the beautiful lake. It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen, even though the clouds rolled in a few minutes after arriving.
Coming back to town that night, we found a $2 dinner of a huge piece of chicken, tons of fries, and a salad. Yum yum. We went back the next night for more.
On our second excursion from Caraz we took a combi up to another very very small mountainpass and got out. Now, first of all, excluding a box of chickens, several bags of produce and rice, children, and babies, we were crammed in a 15-passenger van with at least 22 other adults winding up a steep mountain road (see photo). That was an experience in itself. Anyway, when we got out of the van we embarked on a leisurely walk down the moutainside (again, glimpsing snow-capped mountains through the clouds) to the Lagunas
Llanganuco. Again, another successful day trip in the Cordillera Blanca.
We spent the next two full days on buses and arrived back in Ecuador two days ago. We hurtled through the Cañon del Pato (Duck Canyon, apparently you can see ducks swimming up Class V rapids), in a bus along with tons of Peruvians going to market with all their goods. Directly on our right was a deep canyon and a river and around us were steep, dry mountainsides. We wound through at least 40 tunnels. It was definitely one of the most exhilerating things I´ve ever experienced!
We're in Vilcabamba, a small town nestled in a valley that is known for the extremely long life expectancy of its people. Yesterday we walked around a semi-impressive nature reserve and this morning we rode horses around the mountainside for 4 hours! We've heard it's one of the best ways to see this area and it was really amazing. We went with Marco and his horse Senor. Our horses were named Andaluche and Mocachino.
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Dad
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Saludos a nuestro dúo preguntando
Saludos a nuestro dúo preguntando. Yo estaba preocupado por su desaparición, pero supuse que no estaban cerca de cualquier equipo con acceso a Internet. Ahora estamos aliviados de que Yu sobrevivido a la cultura y los sistemas de transporte unreliabe de Perú. Estoy feliz de que ambos han aprovechado al máximo su oportunidad de viajar y explorar un país tan diverso. Por favor tenga cuidado en los próximos días en que usted trae su viaje a su fin y llevar de manera segura en casa. ¿Cuándo llegará? ¿Cómo se eily llegar a casa? Love DAD