My weekend to HUARAZ

This past weekend, I went to Huaraz (Peru) with my English friend, Katie.  We took the 8 hour bus ride with Cruz del Sur.  I´m sure that CdS is much better if you can get the VIP seats on the first floor.  We were on the 2nd floor, and neither one of us slept very well on the way out.  The bus left just before 10pm on Friday, and we arrived just before 6am on Saturday.  We stayed at Hostal Caroline.  They were very helpful and friendly.  They had our room all ready for us when we arrived, along with breakfast.  They also arranged a tour for us to go to the glacier.  

On Saturday, we went on the glacier tour.

On Sunday, we went for a hike to Laguna 69.  

On Monday, when we were supposed to be home, we were in a tiny town, trapped, due to a protest of the local people against the mining companies.  The people blocked off the road and were throwing huge rocks from the mountain side.  It was pretty special.  We ended up getting back home around 8pm Monday evening... only about 14 hours late.  Not bad, not bad.

Pastoruri Glacier

As soon as we got to our hostel, we booked our same day tour to go to the glacier.  I was super excited because I had never seen a real glacier before!  I have seen lots of pictures from peeps that have gone to Alaska, and they looked pretty cool - and this glacier is in the Andes!  It had to be pretty sweet, right?  Well, on the way to the glacier, our tour guide talked NON STOP about not the glacier.  He was talking a lot about how if there isn't any water in 50 years, we will all have to eat fast food which will make us lose all of our hair, including eye brows and eyelashes.  I think he got on the topic of that because the glacier has receded about 22% in the past 30 years.  

We made several special stops on the way to the glacier.  First, we stopped in a tiny town to get a tea.  Why, you ask?  Who knows.  All the Peruvians went in to have tea, and all the foreigns sat outside, slightly confused as to why exactly we were there.  Then we stopped to look at some plants called Puya Raimondi that are really rare and only bloom once every 100 years or something like that.  They looked kind of like pineapples.  After taking a picture, I was going down the hill when MUD FOOT occurred.  Yep, I sure did step in a huge puddle of mud.  Well, it served for a good laugh if nothing else, jaja. 

We also stopped to look at a tiny lake that bubbled... and then it was glacier time.  Katie and I rented horses (5 soles... about $2) to take us up most of the way.  Once we got to where the horses stopped, we had to walk... and it was HIGH up... about 15,000 feet above sea level.  It was really quite barren.  Once we got to the glacier, I was super excited.  It was smaller than I thought it would be, but it had the little ice shelf that was a bluish color and everything!  The Peruvians were super excited too, because most of them have never even seen real snow up close!  After taking a bunch of pics, we had to head down because a storm was coming, and! IT STARTED TO SNOW!  Oh, Huaraz, trying to prep me for my trip to Wisconsin in 2 weeks, hey?  

The Katies at Glacier Pastoruri - 5000m above sea level

Laguna 69

We decided instead of going on a tour to the Llanganuca Lakes, we decided to hike to Laguna 69 and see those two lakes on the way there.  It was a good plan, seeing that our tour to the glacier was a bunch of wasted time.  Neither of us wanted to go on another tour of wasting time while people drank tea, so we took our hostel's advice and went on the hike to Laguna 69.  Even though I was sick on Saturday night, I didn't want to miss out.  If that meant that I would just go see the Llanganuco Lakes, so be it!  That's all I would've seen on the tour anyhow!  

We got to the lakes, passed them, and parked at the end of the road.  Lucky for us, there was a documentary being filmed!  Woo!  So we had a little chat with the bloke making the documentary before we heading down the path to start our hike from 3900m to 4600m above sea level.  We were a group of 5 plus the guide - Teo.  There were 2 Brits, 1 Aussie, and 2 Americans.  The other American girl turned back about an hour into the hike - we didn't know why.  We think she was fighting with her boyfriend (the Aussie).  Anyhow, I was the slowest - I think because I was so weak from being sick the previous night.  Alex, Katie, and I were going at a pretty mild pace so that I wouldn't get sick again.  I had to stop a lot too.  However, that gave me plenty of opportunities to take pictures of the fantastic waterfalls which were EVERYWHERE!!!

Me and a waterfall... on the hike to Laguna 69...somewhere between 3900 - 4200m above sea level

We finally got to the small lake (after what I figured to be the WORST part of the hike when it was all said and done, btw) and I didn't think I could go on. Katie and Alex kept going and I sat with the guide for a while.  He was going back to the car, and had told Katie he was going to take me with him!  However, I decided I did NOT walk that far and struggle that much for nothing. They would have to wait for me, and I knew I would be really disappointed in myself if I didn't at least try.  So, I headed down the trail to find Katie and Alex.  At one point, I got really scared because the trail wasn't marked very clearly and it was foggy.  I couldn't see very far ahead and I was alone.  The good thing was that by this point there were no cliffs or anything - it was all flat.  I went as fast as I could, periodically yelling Katie's name out.  Finally, I found them!  Katie came running towards me and I went running towards her... it was like a movie reunion!  Jaja.  

We stopped to eat a snack and Alex and the Aussie kept going.  While we were eating our snack, the cows came.  We had some laughs with the moo-moos before heading off for the last leg of the hike.  It took us awhile to find the path, but we eventually did.  We walked up, taking frequent breaks.  When we were ALMOST there, everyone else was on their way down.  They were probably thinking we were ridiculous, but you know what?  We made it!  When we finally got up to the top... Katie yelled - "KATIE!  WE'RE HERE!  I SEE THE LAKE!"  We were both sooooo overcome with emotion.  I had a few tears of joy, lol.  (Seriously, I did!)  We were so proud of ourselves.  We took some pictures and looked at the gorgeous turquoise blue lake and it´s tiny waterfall.  All the struggling was worth it!  Due to the fact that it had taken us so long and also because it was FREEZING, we started back after about 10 minutes.  Good bye gorgeous lake!

The Katies at Laguna 69 - 4600m above sea level.

The walk down was easier than going up (obviously), but Katie got sick, so it was still a struggle.  We finally made it back to the car around 5:30pm.  We then stopped for a picture at the Llanganuco Lakes and headed back to Huaraz.  When we got back, there was time for a quick shower, change of clothes, and packing before heading off to the bus station to catch our 10pm bus back to Lima.