Travel Journal

We made our way this morning around Huaraz to check out information on day hiking in the area. It wasn´t as easy as it seemed. The maps of the area are all sold out and won´t arrive until the end of the week. The Tourist Information office was very helpful, but left a few big gaps in our plans. The way people day hike around here is to hire a taxi to take them to the trailhead. But what happens when you get back from your hike - how do you get back to town (especially a concern when we don´t have proper trekking gear!)?

After a few confusing moments, we made our way to Cafe Andino, the place we´d been to the night before looking for advice. Boy did they have advice!! They hooked us up for 2 day hikes - Laguna Churup and Laguna 69 the next day. They hooked us up with taxis to wait ALL DAY at the trail head while we hiked and then take us back at night. I must say this gives a sense of urgency when you are hiking, knowing that some guy is waiting for you and probably wants to go home to dinner!! Carlos, our driver, whisked us away from Cafe Andino up the mountain to the trailhead. We were smart enough to ask him to stop for water, but forgot about food!! So about 20 minutes up the trail, we realized we had water, but only 3 tiny packages of Chips Ahoy left over in our backpacks from Machu Picchu. My mother would be totally ashamed of how we brazenly went into the Andes wilderness without proper nutrition.

The hike was glorious towards these peaks that looked like someone drew them in with computer effects - so unreal and high and in your face. The trail was straight up (no switchbacks) and not very well maintained. This particular hike is outside the Huascaran National Park, so the trail budget is nada, I guess. We were still very winded by the altitude, even though we had acclimated quite well in Cuzco.

Near the end of the hike, there was one final ¨wall¨we had to climb to get to the lake. It was an almost sheer wall with a stream coming off the lake. These climbers from California (Dude, is that a topo? Cool...) helped us scrap our way up the wall. At one point, I was almost crying and we both agreed that this was insane! I think it was God´s gracious hand that brought us to the top - the cirque around the lake was amazing, glacier filled, and 5,800 meter peaks above it. Wow!!

After our lunch of a package of cookies (so sad!) we met this Australian group that had a guide with them. They came up along the river and confirmed that we had totally been bushwhacking and couldn´t believe our story! They were very nice, and one of the couples had just become engaged in the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina where we were three years ago.

Back down the mountain, we took the guides advice to go down near the river... it was still a total ¨butt it¨ experience and I have a few new holes in the seat of my hiking pants to prove it. After we managed to make it down the wall, it was down, down, down, to Carlos and our waiting taxi. We both could feel the effects of the poor nutrition as we descended - we had shakey leg breaks every few hundred yards! At the taxi, the Australians had missed their bus and one of them had injured their knee on the descent, so we invited them to share our taxi back to Huaraz. What a great bunch of people to share a taxi for an hour!! We had great discussions on travel, the state of the world, why Americans don´t get out much, and where we were all planning to travel next!! Kindred spirits!! Unfortunately, we didn´t get their names, but the man of the engaged couple was named Matt, so we decided to call them Matt and Anna since they remind us of Andrea´s brother and wife so much!

Can you believe that we had a whole list of errands to run when we got back to Huaraz? 1. Find hotel 2. Find bank 3. Find water 4. Find dinner 5. Find internet cafe to update family 6. Find food for the next day´s hike so as not to repeat the huge food fiasco of Laguna Churup! Errands successfully completed, we once again, collapsed into bed!