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Published: September 15th 2007
View from the Lounge
One of the white giants, surrounded on all sides!Got the overnight bus to Huaraz, which was 8 hours of driving up and up and up.... to 3091 metres!!! Arrived at 6am thursday, just as the sun was rising! It is such a beautiful place and the scenery is just unbelievable. Managed to negotiate a taxi to the hostal with a little help from a spanish couple I met on the bus. Felt a little breathless but nothing too exciting!
Had a quick sleep and then had my first cup of peruvian coca tea in the lounge upstairs. Had a wander round huaraz, such a lovely place and is a lot nicer than Lima. Went round a few tour companies checking tours to go on the Santa Cruz 4 day trek. Weather is so beatiful, although it is really really bright up here!
Had a chill in the lounge with lots of coca tea (really helps) and admired the beautiful view! Met a guy called Joey from the USA so grabbed a bite to eat in town. Had a beer and felt drunk, recommended not to drink at altitude, all good fun!
German and Jaia (the spanish couple) had been told of a few places to go,
Huascaran 6500m+
The view from the lounge as the sun goes down so they organised a car for us all to go out for the day on Friday.
More Coca tea and then off we went. Lots of fun honking at all the other drivers and pretty much anything that moved. Negotiating crazy roads and donkeys,cows, chickens etc. And about 100 dogs. Dogs everywhere! Drove north along the valley through amazing scenery to an amazing canyon. Went through loads of little villages and had a wander round the huge markets, tried out some local fruits and got stared at by pretty much everyone. Very useful having a spanish couple, no idea how it would work otherwise! The canyon was massive and the road cut through the side of the mountain, literally! Drove through 35 tunnels to get to the other side where there was a little oasis village for the power station workers. So dry and so hot, like being in a dessert, really was the middle of no-where, didn't see anyone else on the way there!
Picked up a local lady on the way back, who was sitting on the side of the road, quite surreal! Gave her a lift to the next market town.
Also drove up
Local Family Transport
On the way to the canyon, 3 kids giggling kids in the front basket. And one giggling lady on the bike! to a town called Chacas (although we didn't make it all the way there) and went through some really remote villages, really interesting to see the way all the locals live. Although the car did get attacked by a few very angry (possibly rabid) dogs along the way. Went up to past 4000 metres so we were all chewing coca leaves to avoid the inevitable headaches. Lovely views on the way back down!
The four of us have organised the 4 day santa cruz trek for Sunday, so we have had some time to acclimatise, although pretty much back to normal now. Should be amazing, will be good to get out walking!
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