Anna and Scott's travels!: 2 July- Huaraz

On Saturday night we left Huanchaco and arrived in the early morning the next day to Huaraz, a small town located in the middle of the Cordillera Blanca. Right when we got off the bus we could feel the 3100 m of altitude at which the town is located. It felt much colder than on the coast and it was much harder to go up the stairs :-) In the high altitude, the air contains less oxygen. Huaraz is always very busy. It is the starting point of many treks in the region. From here it is possible to go and see one of the most beautiful mountains in the World. At 6000 m, it is much higher than Mont Blanc in the alps.

We took 2days to acclimate ourselves to the altitude and find the best treks we could do while being here. We also explored the city and tried some typical food. One day for lunch Scott had an alpaca burger and I got a 1/4 of a Guinea pig!!!

The first bite of the cuy...I think that was my first and last try. Poor animals!

Eating alpaca

The Alpaca turned out to be very good. However, the Guinea pig was not. Maybe because it was so cute, or maybe because it was hard to find any meat.

The indians on the street in Huaraz

One of the goods we could find at the local market...

On the third day we ended up going for a one day trek to see the famous Laguna 69. It supposedly is a great trek to do before going on a longer trek in order to get used to the altitude. It was beautiful. Although it took us about 3hours to get to the trailhead and another 3 hours to get to the top. It was beautiful but hard. We had a perfectly sunny day so we could admire the beautiful landscapes as much as we could. The way up was not easy at all...and we were very tired once we got to the turquoise and absolutely beautiful laguna located at 4750m. We were very proud of ourselves to have done it. Our next plan was to go on a 4 day trek called Sant Cruz, where it is possible to see the mountain that Paramount films chose as its starting logo before playing its movies. Unfortunately Scott hurt his knee and as for me hiking is nothing very exciting we decided to leave Huaraz and keep going south.