And after 20 glorious days living right next to the Andes, I am back in Cusco. I had a glorious time exploring another part of Peru and I am already dying to get back there. Huaraz is quite the spot and the mountains of the Cordillera Blanca have gotten me even more obsessed with South America in general.
I got to Lima almost 3 weeks ago. I’d traveled with my friend Beth so we stayed together in a hostel in Lima for one night. We purchased our bus tickets (she was headed to another spot north of Huaraz) and awoke the next morning to prepare for our trips. My ride to Huaraz was about 8 hours long so it wasn’t too bad of a trip. I rode on a pretty luxurious bus as well, so that was definitely a huge benefit. I arrived in Huaraz at around 9 that night and met up with Mayumi, one of the contacts for my project. I crashed at her parents house that night and the next morning moved on over to the place I lived for during my time in Huaraz. It turned out to be a great set-up—I lived in the Morales Guest House, which was the hotel of the trekking agency of the Morales family. I had my own room, hot water and a kitchen to cook in (although I mainly subsisted off of ramen, ham sandwiches and cereal). It was the perfect set-up.
The first full day in Huaraz included a tour from one of the younger ones of the Morales clan. Basically, the history behind this family begins with 5 brothers who started one of the first trekking agencies in Huaraz. I worked with two of the brothers—Eudes and Pablo. Pablo’s son, Hisao, has his own agency now separate from his father and Mayumi, Pablo’s daughter, works with Hisao as well. A bit complicated, but I managed to figure it all out. Huaraz is a great city, although it’s not absolutely spectacular (the mountains surrounding it sure are). It’s located in the Callejón de Huaylas and there are 5 other provinces along this valley. Huaraz is the biggest city among them all and is by far the tourist hot-spot for trekking and climbing. Another really interesting aspect to this area is the fact that earthquakes are always present. The most famous one occurred in 1970, when an earthquake struck and then this enormous chunk of ice from Huascarán, the tallest mountain in Peru, came sliding off and destroyed the city of Yungay, killing 25,000 people. Insane! This same earthquake had a major impact on Huaraz as well. There’s only one remaining street (seen below) that survived this massive disaster. Pretty intense.
I spent a good chunk of my time in Huaraz attempting to explore and usually ending up in internet cafes. It’s the off season in Huaraz right now, so there really weren’t too many tourists roaming around. I found a few great places to hang out with comfy chairs and libraries so that’s where I did most of my work. Along with this, I had many an interview to complete. The interviews I conducted during my research were absolutely amazing, I had some of the coolest conversations ever. Most of the people I talked to were trekking guides between the ages of 40-70. We talked about everything regarding wilderness tourism in Huaraz—from its development after the 1970 earthquake, the serious problems with the Parque Nacional de Huascarán to the lack of unity among the tourism community in Huaraz. My project’s got a bit of a different direction right now, but hey, that’s what happens when you go out into the field!
The highlights of my time in Huaraz were definitely my ventures with Jorge, a high mountain guide. He was good friends with Eudes, who demanded that I check out some of the beautiful spots in the Parque Nacional. One day, Jorge picked me up at 6 AM and we drove to Llanganuco, which contains some of the most beautiful high altitude lakes I’ve ever seen. It was quite the drive over there, but we got some fantastic views of Huascarán and got to pass through Yungay as well. After checking out the lakes, we went a bit further up into the park and went for a brief hike, which clearly refreshed and rejuvenated me immensely. This day trip was absolutely amazing and allowed me to see some of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in my life. It was also an 8 hour trip in total and for some reason I was able to communicate with Jorge in Spanish for almost all of that time. Who knew I could actually speak Spanish well? (Below are one too many beautiful pictures of Parque Nacional de Huascarán, including the glorious Mt. Huascarán and the lakes of Llanganuco)
Towards the end of the week, I ventured out again with Jorge. This time we went south down the Cordillera Blanca. It was higher than where we’d been before, so the landscape was completely different. Yet again, Peru blows my mind—there are so many geographic differences within this one country (and even within this one mountain range!) We drove back into the park and this time saw the Puya Raimondis, some of the coolest plants ever. These plants are only found in this part of the Cordillera Blanca and they bloom once in their 100-year lifetime. They grow to be 40 feet tall, which is unreal. It was quite the sight to see these plants and to learn more about all the unbelievable things this part of the Andes has to offer.
Another REALLY cool part of this adventure was meeting some trekking guides (Jorge and Rodolfo) who helped with the filming of “Touching the Void,” an incredible mountaineering story about two guys in the Cordillera Huayhuash. It was another great insight into the locals understanding of the tourists in the area and it was pretty badass to see their names in the credits of the movie. All of the people I interacted with taught me so much and I can’t believe how much I’ve learned from this experience. I had a bit of trouble being so independent and alone, but it was a great learning experience and I know much more about what I want in the future.
I had another long bus ride back to Lima and a few days in Lima as well. I’m now back in Cusco dreading the 30-40 pages in Spanish I will sometime have to write in the next 10 days or so. I’m living in a hostel here with 3 of my best friends so life is pretty great, even with this major looming process of work.
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