Into thin air
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
4
82
Trip End
May 06, 2005
Huaraz,
Peru
Saturday, September 18, 2004
A combination of overnight bus travel and altitude (just over 3000m) conspired against me on my first day, which I spent mostly lazily: eating pancakes and drinking maté in the welcoming Café California; wandering the streets catching my breath after every slight incline or flight of steps; sleeping lots - no wild nightlife for me.
On the second day Kerry and I took a local bus along unpaved and deeply potholed roads to Llupa a few miles away, the start of a day hike to Lago Churup. We'd obviously hit morning rush hour as the van quickly filled up and a couple of guys with a sheep had to sit on the roof
1 Café California
. At Llupa we asked directions to the trail head, at first with no luck as the locals obviously have more to worry about than expending unnecessary energy walking to beauty spots. We passed lots of people wielding dangerous looking farming implements, ploughing the steep slopes or herding their sheep and cows. In this area, the women all wore the traditional dress: layers of brightly coloured skirts, hats with ribbon pinned into a semi-corcular pattern on the side and the rolled cloths worn over one shoulder and under the other arm to carry babies and whatever else.The sun was blazing giving fabulous views of the surrounding peaks, but as the day wore on and the altitude got to me more as we climbed I quickly went from Tshirt to fleece and coat. I gave up on reaching the lake at about 4,400m. The last bit was a steep ascent and I needed to stop for breath after every one or two steps. How great can a bit of water be anyway? Passed a bit of time with some Germans who'd been camping up there the night before when it had hailed, the weight of the ice on their tent caused the outside to touch the inside so it leaked, and one of them was still suffering terribly with the altitude. Although it's not nice to say so, that made me feel a bit better about wimping out at the end!
So far everything had been running pretty much to time, but I had my first encounter with Peruvian time the next day on a trip to Laguna Llanganuco and other attractions
2 Modern Plaza Mayor, Huaraz
. The bus departed an hour late after various protests from the passengers but with no obvious reason for the delay. At every stop along the way people straggled back about 15 minutes late. I started to fear for my night bus to Trujillo, but at the last stop when it was dark and had started to rain we all staged a mutiny and refused to get off at Tarica to look at the locally crafted pots. Phew.The Laguna Llanganuco was the highlight, an incredible blue surrounded by snowcapped peaks including Huascaran, at 6,768m the highest in Peru, and safe to say I won't be scaling that. I envied Kerry, who was going to spend 5 days hiking a circuit which started there, until darkness fell and it started to rain, and my next stop on the coast in the sunshine seemed so much more alluring.
I almost forgot to mention my first tasted of cuy, which wasn't actually so impressive. A lot of chewy skin and bones but not much meat and what there was was fiddly to get at. Two Peruvian guys we met, who were from Cuzco, told us how much better it was there, so maybe I'll give it another try. (Cuy, for those not in the know, is guinea pig. I had half a one, served up with its little teeth bared.) They also told us about their coach ride from Trujillo to Huaraz, which I shall remember if I'm cramped and miserable on a bus in future: as there were no seats they'd had to ride in the luggage compartment, and to add insult to injury they'd had to pay the full fare
3 Street market, Huaraz
!We also stopped at the old site of the town of Yungay. In 1970 an earthquake caused an avalanche which moved at 320km/h and covered the whole town 4m deep in 3 seconds, killing about 20,000 people. It stopped part way up a raised cemetery with a statue of Christ at the top, from where a Japanese tourist videoed the whole thing, and presumably converted to Christianity.
Huaraz was great and it seemed a shame to be moving on so quickly, especially having just acclimatised, but Spanish lessons in Quito are pushing me northwards, and I have other mountains to look forward to later in the trip. Not sure if the coffee and breakfast will be so good though (Café Andino also highly recommended).
