huaraz is the city from which most adventures into the mountains begin, so not surprisingly there are numerous mountaineering and trekking outfits. as in any town that attracts people with a passion, many of them stay. because of this there are also several good restaurants and even a micro-brewery!
i know one person in all of peru (her dad is one of the docs i work with) and she lives just 15 min outside of huaraz (she is a peace corps volunteer....a girl after my own heart). unfortunately due to timing she was going to be gone on vacation when we finally made it to huaraz. but on the first morning we arrived in town i was at a cafe getting a cup of coffee and who walks in the door but stephanie! if that isn't serendipity i don't know what is! turns out she was on a trek in the mountains as part of her vacation and was only in huaraz for the day. she was with a friend from home as well, and so we all had lunch together. who would've thought that six people from hood river, oregon would be sitting down for a meal together in the middle of peru! super fun!
todd celebrated his 45th birthday while we were in huaraz. i think all in all he had a great day. we had breakfast at the 'california cafe' where one can order an american style breakfast that includes home fries. then we went for a little hike. our goal was to end up at these hot springs. we took a taxi up the valley and did a couple hour hike back down to the hot springs (you can actually take a taxi directly to the hot springs but where is the fun in that?). it was nice to slowly wind our way through the villages.
the hot springs themselves were a bit strange in that there was no communal pool but rather a series of private baths that they would fill for you. more interesting perhaps were the natural saunas that were built into a series of caves. we were the only tourists there and there were very long lines for all the baths and saunas. todd stayed for a cave sauna but the kids aren't fans of saunas (too hot!) so we skipped it.
one of the restaurants in town is a place called 'chili heaven'. anyone who knows todd knows he loves him some spicy food, so that is exactly where we had his birthday dinner. and it was plenty spicy....we were all sweating by the end of the meal!
we, like everyone who comes to huaraz, wanted to get up into those mountains. the problem being that many of the treks were pretty strenuous over multiple days, which we weren't so sure would fly with the kids. we stumbled upon a happy compromise and found a lodge up in the mountains. these mountain lodges are called 'refugios' (which i believe is an italian word) and so by walkie-talkie we booked a night there. todd and i carried the packs and off we headed into the mountains. i gotta say our kids were amazing. it was 5 hrs of steady uphill at 14,500+ft elevation and neither one of them complained once!!
the ishinca refugio was tucked into the mountains. most use it as a base camp for climbing. it's quite a deal. for $30 per person you get a nights sleep, dinner and breakfast. there are four of these refugios in peru, but they are not connected, in that you can't trek from one to another. they were built by the italians and there are apparently more in italy.....sure enough the one we stayed at was hosted by an italian couple. we were blissfully happy to be sleeping in the mountains.......so amazing!!
in the morning we hiked an hour up to this lovely laguna...
then we hiked out and headed back to huaraz. all in all a perfect little mountain adventure!
oh and let's not forget the requisite hat photo...........the hats here are quite excellent!!!
we are now in huanchaco which is a little surf-town on the northern peruvian coast. after two months of elevation and mountains we are all ready for a little beach time. we plan to spend the next several days playing in the sand and wriggling our toes in the pacific ocean....the kids might even try learning to surf!
hasta luego!
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