Huaraz

The first destination of my trip was to Huaraz, a city located in the Huaraz Province in central-northern Peru. Its situated at a high altitude, the highest mountain being at 6768 meters. For someone who grew up maybe ten feet above sea level, it was a bit of an adjustment, but I was luckily enough to only suffer a few minor headaches and shortness of breath. The weather was cool, warmer in certain areas but the nights get pretty cold.

The city itself is beautiful, everywhere you look there are these incredible mountain landscapes, white-capped mountains and hills checkered with agriculture. Downtown has hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, etc. The city for the most part is run on agriculture and tourism, the latter unfortunately is suffering somewhat. There's a lot of poverty, and I can't tell you how many soles we gave away to begging women and children. Its sort of tucked away, and the society has maintained so much of its traditional methods of functioning. Babies sleep comfortably in backpacks and there are llamas alongside the mountains and rainbow colored clothing. It was one of my favorite places we visited, and I would definitely go back if only to see the Nevado Pastorouri, a glacier, which was closed when we were there. Unfortunately, in 30 years there will be no more snow on the mountains.

We went on a tour to Carhuaz, Yungay, Laguna Llanganco, Parque Nacional Huascarn, and one to Queno cocha Laguna, Tunel Ishtka (4800m above sea level), and Chavin de Huantar. All of this was arranged through our hotel, the Imperial, which has some of the nicest owners, and is clean and cheap. As far as bars go, there are a lot around, but the Mococho has great music and drinks. Overall, Huaraz is an amazing city, the people are friendly and seem to be happy. I'll add more later as I think about it. Hope you enjoy the photos.
Taryn








More to come later for Huaraz.