Last Thursday, our group from the Institute of Investigation of Nutrition (IIN) traveled out of Lima the city of 8 million and into the mountains to a beautiful, but noisy much smaller city called Huaraz.
This was the view from the roof of our hotel in Huaraz. This southern girl was SO excited to see snowcapped mountains! Surprisingly Huaraz was almost as noisy as Lima. Peru is just full of barking dogs, honking horns, and car alarms that go off nearly every 5 minutes.
The bus ride from Lima to Huaraz was a little under 8 hours but it was an awesome trip. We traveled along the coast for a while.
Then the road went a little further inland and the dunes and farmland began to appear.
Then the dunes turned to rock.
Then the rocks turned to green mountains.
We stayed in Huaraz for 2 nights, went further up the mountain to a village for 2 nights, then returned to Huaraz for 1 more night. Here are a few of the highlights from Huaraz:
Our 1st night in Huaraz we ventured into a little Italian restaurant and were treated like queens. Even in the bathroom.
Another night in Huaraz we went to a restaurant that had this sticker on the door!
We visited the market where we saw so many potatoes and some other beautiful Andean fruits and vegetables.
We also saw these fellas. He even smiled for the camera!
You know traffic is bad when the crosswalk lights show the little man running! This picture was taken in Huaraz, but these can also be found in Lima where the traffic (and driving) is TERRIBLE and life threatening.
We traveled up the mountain to a town called Yungay. In the 70's an earthquake struck that destroyed this town and others nearby killing an estimated 100,000 and injuring 200,000. A beautiful cemetery was constructed at the site.
The view from the top of the cemetery.
We found this guy near the cemetery! I finally got a picture with an Alpaca!
From Yungay we travelled even further up the mountain around crazy windy roads with breath taking views (literally...we reached almost 4,000 meters above sea level). This is what we found at the end of the road...
A glacial lake!
As we hiked around this incredibly beautiful lake in my mind I kept singing the Vacation Bible School song, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there's nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are His, the valleys are his, the stars in the sky are his too." I imagine the water in the rivers and lakes in Heaven will be even more magnificently blue than this.
And of course, I had to climb this really cool tree.
We visited a pottery shop in a nearby village and got to watch this guy make a vase. He spun the pottery wheel with his foot while he molded the vase. It was fascinating!
I really enjoyed the few days in Huaraz. It was nice to have a little bit of tourist time and also get to relax. As I mentioned earlier, from Huaraz we travelled further up the mountain to a tiny village. My experience in this village was so incredible that I have decided to make a separate blog post for those 2 days. Look for it to come soon!
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