First taste of hiking at altitude
Trip Start
Oct 17, 2006
1
9
40
Trip End
Mar 04, 2007
We had a very long drive to Huaraz, stopping on the way for lunch at Paramonga Fort. We headed inland and there were amazing views of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range including snow capped mountains and a huge frozen lake. Huaraz itself wasn't very nice but it was surrounded by beautiful scenery. One day me, Ness, Mary & Christine went for a hike up to Wilkawain Temple (actually a tomb) and we walked through a couple of villages and saw people in traditional costume. It was a very warm day, especially as we had been walking uphill at altitude for 2.5 hours, so it was lovely to get inside the temple as it was very cool. There wasn't all that much to see inside but it had some clever design features including a ventilation shaft to keep the builidng cool and low doors to protect the temple in case of earthquakes (which are common in the Huaraz area as it is on a fault line). The next day I did a trip which went to Yungay, a town that was almost entirely destroyed by an avalanche caused by an earthquake in 1970. The only things to survive were 4 palm trees and the cemetary, although the bottom 2 levels (of 5) were buried. It was quite eerie walking around knowing that thousands of people were buried just underneath my feet. We also went to Lake Llanguaco which was really beautiful - crystal clear blue water surrounded by snow capped mountains, very much a Kodak moment!!
