A Few Lagunas, Where Did the Cars Go, and My Thighs Hurt!

I just returned to Lima this morning around 5am from Huaraz...quite a different adventure but worth the story.

Huaraz is north of Lima - 419km (about 260miles) and nestled between the mountain ranges of the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca which are carved out by the Río Santa and making up the valley of El Callejón de Huaylas. It sits at around 3,000 meters (10, 141 feet) so it takes a few days to completely get used to the altitude. The Cordillera Negra are quite pretty but are almost forgotten when you turn to the east and look at the Cordilleras Blanca which tower above the village - absolutely stunning. For a little background - the Cordillera Blanca is about 20km wide (12 1/2 miles roughly) and extends for 180km (~112 miles) in length. Within that area, there are over 50 peaks of 5,700 meters (18, 700 feet) and the largest being Huascarán standing at 6,768 meters (22, 205 feet). In 1970, a large chunk of this mountain broke off in an earthquake (7.7 on the richter scale) and created a land and mud slide that completely demolished the neighboring village of Yungay, covering it completely. The area where the village once stood is considered a national grave site and a monument stands in honor of the 18,000 citizens who were buried alive in mid-afternoon on May 31, 1970. In the entire valley, over 70,000 people were killed and only 10% of Huaraz was still standing. For this reason, Huaraz is still under construction including a complete rebuild of most of the city.

Huaraz is known as the starting point for many hikes up this mountain range (Cordillera Blanca) and the tourists that make their way here are generally of the "outdoorsy" persuasion. I arrived with a friend last Sunday morning from Lima and spent the afternoon trying to get used to the altitude. Crazily or stupidly (not sure yet), we took off on Monday for an all day hike. The hike was called Pitec and took us up rock-stair traverses for about 5 miles to Laguna Churup. The hardest part of this journey was the fact that we were ascending almost 5,000 feet in altitude during those 5 miles. My legs HATED me! Kim, my friend from the Institute runs marathons and was on the heels of our guide with little to no trouble at all. There's a good way to kill your pride for the day...sheesh. Haha. Poco a poco, fui a la laguna. Little by little I eventually got to the laguna. I refuse(d) to give up...I think that trait is inherited too... Coming down was quite fast and I must say, is my favorite part of the hike itself - downhill! Our friends have told us that due to the altitude, we should take a day off after every hike while we're getting used to the altitude. We didn't quite have a choice.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a national strike (Paro Nacional) led by the Agriculture Industry and the Mining Industry in Perú against Peru´s involvement with NAFTA and the effects it has on the local businesses. This became a public transportation strike and in the smaller cities, people couldn´t get anywhere. So, we got our day-2 days off to recover. On Thursday, we took off on a horse trek through the Cordillera Negra to look out on the entire Cordillera Blanca. The woman who took us told me that the ride would take about 4 hours - 2 1/2 hours up and about 1 1/2 hours down. 3 hours later, we were finally getting near the top to eat lunch (gorgeous view!) and were ready to be out of the saddle. For those people who ride horses on a regular basis - bless you. I will not be one of them. My thighs hurt and a certain portion of my backside was not giving out "happy" vibes. Then, began the descent. The problems that existed here: The horses did not listen to either of us, only her; we were on a mountainside and the horses began slipping their way down the mountain at parts (literally); and our guide (a tiny little indigenous woman in a skirt and hose) kept hitting my horse to make him go faster. The problem with this last part was that my horse was following Kim's horse...so, my horse would rear back, start running, and because it couldn't run (given that it refused to leave the backside of Kim's horse), would bite the tail of Kim's horse...who would then rear back. The route was a circle overall which meant we went back a different way. The trek down took about 4 1/2 hours so the overall time of Kat's backside being in an uncomfortable saddle = 7 1/2. The word "ow" comes to mind. We then crammed into a public van (mícro) and took the hour ride back home. Perk: Our guide, who was dressed in traditional "campesino" clothing, let me take her picture on the top of the range.

My plan the next day was to head to these beautiful ruins called Chavín from the Pre-Incan stage from 1000BC - 300BC. Unfortunately, my hind-quarters hurt badly enough from the day before that every time I sat down, I hurt. I decided that a 3 hour bus ride to the ruins and a 3 hour trip back were not exactly what my body thought it needed that day and quickly nixed the idea. Instead, I found myself translating for my friend who was trying to find a place to study Spanish but none of the teachers seemed to speak any English to communicate with her and continued to speak rapid Spanish on the phone assuming that eventually she would understand. I wasn't sure my Spanish would ever be good enough to translate for someone else but it seems that I have begun to reach that stage. (Yip.)

Saturday was my favorite hike of the trip. We ended up going with a group and a guide to Laguna 69. The Laguna is named because it was the 69th Laguna to be counted and dammed to keep the waterfalls from creating more landslides in the 1970s. Unfortunately it never got a cool name like the rest of the Lagunas did and is now stuck with the current name. However, it was worth the trek. The group that went consisted of Kim (my friend from the Nutrition Institute), a bald-shaven guy from California who had recently worked in Buenas Aires teaching English for about 4 months and was interested in the restaurant industry, and a Filipino born Canadian with long dreadlocks who taught 8th and 9th grade Science and was a bigger photography bum than I was, our 21 year old guide from Ohio who had been living in Peru for about a year and traveling around the world for about 3, and then of course, me. Interesting combo but I must say, was an absolute blast. Unfortunately, my friend started feeling the altitude and had to turn around with our guide to go back down. With altitude sickness, you never push forward. You turn around and get to a lower altitude while your body recovers. She insisted that the rest of us go on and so Matt (the bald guy), Alfred (the Filipino Canadian), and I took off to Laguna 69. It was quite a hike but I must say, I would hike with those guys any day. Alfred was carrying his tripod along with his (very) expensive digital camera in tow. We were a good team because we generally stopped at the same times to, as my dad would say, "snap our brains out". The view was worth the hike and we came upon a glacial lake with cerulean blues and turquoises that I have generally only seen in crayons backed by sheer cliffs covered in ice and snow.

Verdict: Good trip.

Picture 1: Laguna Churup
Picture 2: Kat on a horse in front of the Cordillera Blanca (yes I'm slouching...I hurt..haha)
Picture 3: Our guide when we went horseback riding
Picture 4: Some of the Cordillera Blanca
Picture 5: Laguna Llaganuco (on the way to our hike in the National Park)
Picture 6: Laguna 69 and Me!

PS - this is Putukusi...

this is the mountain that we climbed as posted below. This is the view from Machu Picchu so you can imagine what kind of view we had of Machu Picchu when standing on the top of this one!

Muchas fotos y "hey I know you!"

Lima, with its never-ending cover of winter-gray reminds me at times of the depressed creature of the classic Pooh stories. A cloud followed poor little Eeyore around daily and managed to block out the sun despite the pretty day elsewhere. You always wanted to comfort the guy although at times you had to admit you thought he should just buck up and smile every once in a while. Life in Lima often resembles that view. There's a cloud that follows you around daily and basically is a constant fixture above your head here in the winter. Almost everywhere else in the country, there are rays of sunshine that at least shine out through the clouds. I must say, I like my sun... which leads me to the adventure for the week. I will lay a disclaimer and apologize now for the length of the blog post. You see, adventures are never told in short paragraphs.

I believe this month there have been no less than 15 people from North Carolina (Chapel Hill or Raleigh area) passing through or staying in Peru. How this happened, I may never know. It turns out that two of my college friends were living in Cusco for the month of June and another one of my friends, who is living in Bogota, Colombia now, was coming to visit Peru with his brother, sister, and girlfriend...and we all ended up being able to coordinate and meet up in Cusco. How we "coordinated" anything with this bunch, I have no idea.

Frank, who was the one who knew everyone in the group when the adventure began, went to UNC Chapel Hill as an undergrad and was part of Presbyterian Campus Ministry there (that´s how we met freshman year). He moved to Nicaragua for awhile after college and then decided to join his brother teaching English in Bogota. His girlfriend is Colombian and speaks no English. Our other friends from Raleigh generally speak no Spanish. (Jack Sprat could eat no fat...) Conversations for the week were quite involved with games of pictionary and "guess that cognate" (funny game, I might add). Frank and I ended up translating most of the conversations back and forth until we hit the religious conversations of "does God exist" and the political discussions of Colombia, FARC, and Hugo Chavez. At this, I called it a night. My vocabulary does not extend that far. Have fun Frank.

We all arrived in Cusco at different times. I got there on Sunday, just in time to be a part of the Inti Raymi celebration - the festival of the sun. It was practiced every year around the same time since the Incan times (remember their calendar is different) to sacrifice and praise to the Sun God until the Spanish conquistadors took over. In the 1950's the celebration was brought back to honor tradition and has been a staple of many tourists' travels every since. The whole central square was closed off with local people depicting the different parts of the Incan society. This festival brings in around 30,000 tourists leaving the town bursting at its gills with gringos. This year, I happened to be one of them. I hate this label...

After the festival, our whole group finally came together and decided to go to Machu Picchu. This is where the real fun began as every member represented a different theology of travel. I was the "I'd really rather plan this trip - book the train two days (at least!) in advance, call the hostels, and figure out our general schedule" type (honestly gotten from two parents whom I will not name other than to say their names start with "G" and "K" and end in "-ary" and "-aren"). My Raleigh friends were the "I'd rather figure it out when we get there but would rather stay somewhere with a bathroom and hot water that does not resemble a dump" types. Frank was the "let's do this as cheaply as possible" type and his brother was the "I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants, do things as rustically as possible, and do whatever I can to not spend any unnecessary money" type (aka another member of the McDougal clan).

The cheapest way to get there was to take a bus to Ollantantambo and then the train to Aguas Calientes, the jumping off place for Machu Picchu. The plan was to take the bus to Ollantantambo, immediately get on a train to Aguas Calientes, stay the night there, go to Machu Picchu the next day, and return by train/bus that same day...making it a two day trip. When we got to Ollantantambo the train tickets were double what it would have cost to take a round trip on the train from Cusco...so, we stayed in Ollantantambo for the night (night 1). The next morning we got up and caught the cheaper train that left at 6:10am to arrive in Aguas Calientes. The problem is, the tourist groups get to Machu Picchu around 9-10am and the place is swarming with gringos following flags that are leading the tour groups. So, we decided to wait until the next day when we could see the sunrise there and appreciate the wonder without tons of tourist bees. Our hostel owner told us of a reasonably "easy" hike that when you reached the summit, you could look out over Machu Picchu...and it was free to do. That being said, our group was on board. Everyone had told us it took about 1 1/2 hours to get up Putukusi and that the hike was definitely worth it. It ended up involving about 15 different rung ladders, steep inclines, rock staircases, and traverses that never ended. If someone would have really explained this trail to me before doing it, I would not have gone...however, given the situation and the view from there, I'm so glad I did it. 3 1/2 hours later four of us reached the summit and got to view Machu Picchu for the first time...absolutely amazing. You could see the entire expanse of the Andes there with Machu Picchu nestled in. You felt like you were back in time staring at the ruins for the first time. We met a Peruvian guide up top and told him that our only fear was getting back down all those ladders that we ascended to get up there. To my chagrin, he said, "Oh yeah, you should definitely be careful going down. It's pretty dangerous." Thanks so much! I knew that but didn't want to hear it out loud! Overall, the hike took up the entire morning and first part of the afternoon which was quite fabulous given that Aguas Calientes is a town set up as a base camp for Machu Picchu and has got to be one of the uglier cities I have seen in Peru thus far - "the armpit of the Andes" - even surpassing Lima! (night 2)

We spent the night there and 3 of us caught the bus up to Machu Picchu. Our other friends decided to hike up the traverses that ascended the mountain to get to Machu Picchu because it was free. They set out at 4:15am and arrived a little before 6am when the doors opened. I was quite content with the $14 bus that kept my legs from turning into jello for the second day in a row after not exercising that much here...at altitude. I probably should have done it... The views of Machu Picchu are amazing and no picture can quite do it justice. (At least in the morning before 2,500 people attack the ruins) We spent 8 hours there in total. This of course, in good McDougal fashion, means that I was running around the entire ruins snapping my brains out with pictures. (thanks dad). I think I could have taken more...honestly. Richard swears that Machu Picchu was actually referring to "Muchas pictures" because of how many pictures people take when they're there...haha. We finally descended back to Aguas Calientes around 2pm and spent our time wandering and window shopping in the insanely priced markets set up for tourist groups. Some restaurants even had the audacity to charge us tax. (this doesn't happen in Latin or South America. Tax is always included in the price they give you...period) So, of course, we argued a lot about taxes given that the meals were already WAY over priced anyway. (night 3)

We left Aguas Calientes the next morning on the train at 5:30am, caught a bus from Ollantantambo back to Cusco and basically crashed. 3 days of getting up before 5am and lasting until after 11pm take a toll when you are out of your element and traveling. Frank's brother decided then and there he had paid too much for everything and spent the rest of the week eating bread and peanut butter. The group decided that they were going to head down to another city, Puno on Lake Titicaca which coincided with the day that I returned to Lima on a plane and descended back down into a wall of clouds...haha.