The overnight bus from Trujillo to Huaraz did not yield much sleep, although I probably had more than if I’d really been trying. I’m finding it much better to assume that I will be awake all night as it takes the pressure off, and any sleep I do get is a welcome bonus!
We arrived in Huaraz at about 7.30am, and along with our new friends Jo and Nathan, we took up the offer of a free taxi to a place called Caroline Lodging – offering travellers a free ride after an all-nighter on the bus makes such good business sense, I’m surprised its not more popular.
So with their free lift and presence in most guide-books, it’s no surprise that Caroline Lodging is a popular place. 35 Soles ($12 USD) buys you a matrimonial room including breakfast – which they kindly gave us upon arrival with no extra charge – and you can get a dorm bed for about $5USD. The place has a great kitchen and dining area, a cinema room, arranges tours and does your laundry. The only slight drawback is that all these extras have to be paid for. Laundry is not going to be free but if you want to cook you have to pay an amount depending on how many people you’re cooking for. The same goes for the cinema room, making it the first place that has charged to watch their DVD’s.
Huaraz is a hub of a place for outdoor activities. Surrounded by gorgeous snow-capped mountains (which looked even better at sunset) reminded me a little of being in the Alps. But the place isn’t about skiing. Its about hiking and trekking and adventurous things like ice-climbing. – the latter offered to us by way of a knock on the door at 7.30am. For a minute I thought I must have agreed to something the night before, but then I realised the cheeky guide was knocking on all doors speculatively to see if anyone was interested. Climbing a wall of ice is really something you agree to do the night before. It’s never going to seem appealing when you haven’t even had your first a cup of tea.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Peru without some ruins to see. And that’s what we did on our first full day. We had spoken to some people who had taken on something a little bigger on their first day and had been beaten by the altitude. Given that the night before we had climbed 3200m from Trujillo by bus, immediately hiking up too much further didn’t seem like a good idea. No, far better to acclimatise a bit first by doing a 2 hour walk to the ruins of the Huari Empire (700-1000AD) at Willkawain. The ruins themselves are well kept stone buildings that were once lived in and then later used as burial chambers for the important folk of the day. We hired a guide, who happened to be nine years old, and he rattled off the information with great confidence, for a small sum of course. He was the perfect size for some of the tunnels we crawled into, the rest of us struggled a little.
However, for me, more impressive was being out in the countryside. Once we had seen the ruins, we spied a big cross on the top of a hill and decided to walk up to it. It was good to test out the body after a week of lazing on the beach, however at this time of year the afternoon usually spells rain. By the time we reached the cross the heavens opened and we ran back down for cover. Just a couple of hours earlier we had been suffering the heat from the strong sun and now we were soaked and doing our best to keep warm. Luckily the hostel had good hot showers so we headed back. By this time the streets of Huaraz were more like rivers.
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