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Published: October 19th 2011
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Coca leaves!
How we combatted altitude sickness! Greetings! I know it has been awhile since my last post, but life has been hectic in the Southern Hemisphere! I finished up midterms last week, and it took a lot out of me to study for them, but I'm hoping everything went ok. For a little post-exam stress a couple of us took a little trip to the beautiful mountain town of Huaraz. I wasn't going to go at first, because I knew I had tons of reading to do for the week after my finals, but one of the girls talked me into it and I couldn't be happier with my decision to go! It has been my favorite trip out of Lima so far!
We arrived to Huaraz early Friday morning and against all recommendations to use the first day to adjust to the altitude, we decided to go on a short trek to see a glacier. The weather was crisp, but warmed up as the day went on and the air smelt so fresh. No pollution! We unpacked our stuff and the owner of the hostel we stayed at, Teo, drove us to the place where we would start off. I was decked out in my new
Glacier
Who's that Peruvian you ask? It's actually just me! Peruvian sweater as well, so now I basically blend in and people are surprised when I tell them I'm not Peruvian! (kidding...).
On our drive there we made a couple of stops to take pictures, and one of the girls and I bought a remedy from a local Peruvian that would help with altitude sickness-coca leaves! (Different than actually doing the drug) You chew on the leaves, let them sit in your front lip, and suck the juice out of them. As we started off the hike I was feeling pretty light-headed and easilty tired so I'm not sure if the coca leaves even helped or not, but I didn't get sick so I'm going to say yes! The hike to the glacier took about an hour and a half, but it was a super easy and not steep path that we probably could have done in half an hour, but we had to walk slowly because we got winded if we exerted ourselves too much (basically walking any faster than a slow walk). Such a strange feeling to be walking on basically flat ground and running out of breath.
When we got to the glacier it was cool
Llama
Making new friends in Huaraz to see, but also sad because a lot of it has been melting in the past years and you could see the water dripping off of it. Climate change, not good. We got our share of pictures then headed back down to eat dinner in town. We also were really tired and went to bed early, with plans to rest on Saturday and explore the town.
Saturday morning, at breakfast, we were deciding what to do because there were markets in the townsquare that we wanted to shop at, but also we had heard about some natural hot springs that sounded relaxing! So we set out to find them, and walked along a road lined with houses that had their own plots of land to grow food and raise their cows and chickens. It was cool to see their agriculture on the sides of hills, and how they work the land by hand. We then relaxed in the hot springs for awhile while looking up at snow-capped mountains, BEAUTIFUL!
I was really excited for Sunday to come around because that was our big hike to "Lago 69" which is this beautiful glacier-made lake at about 12,000 ft. I
was nervous for the hike since the first day was so rough, but after acclimating the days before it turned out to not be too bad. There were definitely parts where i was struggling, especially near the end when it was all uphill and we were huffing and puffing. And Teo kept telling us we were almost there and always had words of encouragement like "Muy bien, Gringitas!" That kept us continuing on. When we made it to the top it was one of the most breathtaking lakes I have ever seen-pristine, crystal-clear water surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We relaxed, ate snacks, and talked for awhile by the lake, which we also filled up our water bottles in and were able to drink!
The hike in total was about 10 miles, but it didn't feel that long at all since the landscape was so beautiful. I was not happy to have to return back down the mountain because that meant our trip was over and we had to return back to the real life, but what can you do. And in case you were wondering, I accidentally only brought one pair of socks for the whole weekend, so let's
Lake
One of the lakes we stopped at on our way up the mountain. So peaceful just say that they were a little bit smelly when I got back, but I kind of liked the smell... Too much information?
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