So Huaraz is really cool. I've heard it called an ugly, dirty city, and I guess I can see where that point of view could stem from. However, I think whoever described the city in that way must have been immune to the beauty of the enormous mountains all around us. The view from the balcony of our hostel is pretty plain, like any other city in Latin America, until you look up, and then it's an automatic high from seeing the beautiful peaks. I got here at about 6:30 am yesterday, and the first sight from the bus as I opened my eyes was Huascarán, the highest peak in Perú, which reaches 22,205 ft (6,768 meters). I took a taxi through the sleepy town to my hostel, called Alpes Huaraz, and hung out for a bit until breakfast. It's not high tourist season here anymore, so I was put into a 3-bed dorm that I've had all to myself for the past 2 days. Pretty sweet. Alpes has a nice courtyard at its entrance with plants and cats, one of which is a sweet small orange and white guy that I've dubbed Santiago. Can't say why, but the name seems to fit him.
After breakfast yesterday, I talked to the hostel owner, Juan, about my options for the day, and he suggested that I go on one of three guided tours in the surrounding area. I opted for a full-day trip to Chavín, some pre-Incan ruins in the valley north of this one. The tour was supposed to leave at 9, and by the time Juan finished explaining it to me, the clock read 8:50. Time to go! I hurried upstairs, packed my stuff for the day, and ran down to meet the van. We tooled around town picking up various people from their respective hotels, and then we were off, headed south. Our guide, Nilda, was great. She spoke slowly so that everyone could understand what she was saying (our group consisted mostly of Peruvians, but there were also a French couple and me), and she knew a lot about the surrounding area and everything we saw. As we drove the 109 km (68 miles) to Chavín, she explained the process of cleaning and cooking wheat grains, which we saw drying by the side of the road, and well as the history of the various towns we passed through, and the story behind the myths that llamas spit (apparently, they only spit when threatened, and when they were first brought to the Andes, their owners didn't understand their dietary needs and drove the animals hard, carrying heavy loads, without proper nutrition. One day, when one of the llamas had had enough, it spit at its owner as the man tried to haul the poor animal to its feet. Since then, Nilda says, the people realized that they had to respect the animal and properly care for it, and they've thus avoided further spitting problems). We were on a nicely paved highway for the first 35 km (22 miles) or so, but then we turned off on a semi-paved, curvy mountain road, and while the vistas were incredible, my stomach wasn't so happy. I felt generally fine until we stopped at Lake Querococha, after which point I had to keep my eyes closed for the rest of the drive to Chavín. A shame, really, because the scenery was incredible.
Once we got to the ruins, we spent the next 2 or so hours wandering through them under the hot sun as Nilda explained the significance of this or that thing as we passed it. This site was discovered quite a few years ago, but it was only last year that the archaeologists were able to leave things unexcavated...up until that point, for lack of funding, they'd spend a certain short amount of time digging up a part of the site, recording what they found, and then reburying it. The Chavín culture was around way before the Incas, and even before Christ, but they had some pretty sophisticated technologies and knowledge at their fingertips. The central plaza of the site, in front of the temples, was aligned so that it would be perfectly divided in half, sun and shadow, on the summer solstice, and it was also apparently filled with water on special occasions so the shamans could use it as a huge looking glass to observe the stars. Structurally, the Chavín buildings were made of large granite blocks brought from who knows where (but very far away, because the nearest granite quarry now is 20 km, or 12 and a half miles, away) that fit together well with thin layers of mortar in between them. The Chavín rock carvings were always very intricate and detailed, and there are still some original pieces at the site. Nilda explained that one of the greatest shows of their engineering knowledge was their use of round pillars and rooms, indicating their sophistication and good grasp on physics. She was full of many more facts that I'm sure would be interesting, but I was a little too distracted by stomach pain to focus very well.
One of the highlights and most famous parts of the ruins at Chavín are the cabezas clavas, large carved stone heads that purportedly jutted out from the temple walls at exact measured intervals. There's only one left on the wall now, but you can see the places where the others would have broken off. In total, there are 16 of them in the Chavín museum, housed there along with other pottery and carvings from the ruins.
After the touring the ruins, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. I was feeling mildly better by then, and ordered some soup so I could at least get something light in my stomach. Turned out that the only soup they had was beef and vegetable, so I stuck with the broth and nothing else. From the restaurant, we headed to the museum to give the artifacts there a quick look before embarking on the 3 hour drive back to Huaraz. I slept for a good portion of it, and awoke just as we were heading through the tunnel that connects the Chavín valley with the one where Huaraz lies. Shortly after passing through the tunnel, punctured at random intervals by hanging ice stalactites, we began our descent down from the mountains, and were graced with a beautiful pink and orange sunset. I got back to my hostel a little after 8 pm, and found my friends Travis and Forrest, who had gotten here earlier in the evening. I met these two at my hostel in Lima, where we sat and talked for a while before I hopped on the bus to come to Huaraz. Turned out that they were planning on heading this way as well, so we decided to go on a 4-day hike together, on the Santa Cruz trail.
We spent the day today getting ready for the hike, buying food from the market and working out the logistics of getting to the trailhead. We bought a bunch of bread, cheese, avocado, apples, bananas, nuts, quinoa, onions, peppers, carrots, and oatmeal for our excursion, and since food in Perú is pretty cheap, we didn't break the bank doing it. We're all really excited by the prospect of getting out of the city and into the mountains, especially now that we're set to feast like kings and a queen. Both of the guys work in Alaska during the summer, and between them, have a good deal of outdoor and guiding experience. They have all the essential camping equipment, so we don't have to pay for a commercial tour. We've got a map and a sense of adventure, and that's about all we need.
We're getting on a bus at 7 tomorrow morning, where a 5ish hour ride will take us to Vaquería, the town that is our starting point for the Santa Cruz trail. From there, we'll hike for 3 or 4 days (whichever suits our mood and the weather) at altitudes somewhere between 3,000 and 4,800 meters (9,800 and 15,600 feet), among the highest mountain range outside of the Himalaya, finally ending in Cashapampa and taking a bus or collectivo (shared taxi) back to Huaraz. So excited that I just can't hide it!
Going on this trek means, naturally, that I'll be out of the loop for a few days, but I did manage to get a few pictures up for you before I checked out for a while. More will be coming once I'm back, especially of this trek, since I fully expect to come back with a million and one more photos. Until I come back to civilization, then, hasta luego! Sending love from the Andes.
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