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| Ready to check out the catacombs |
Buckle up folks, it was a crazy week so this post is a doozy. Classes have been going well, but they are such a minor part of this crazy experience that I won't go into detail. On Tuesday after class we got to go to Miraflores to ride on a double-decker bus that took us all around central Lima. We got to see the beautiful parks, Congress Plaza, the National Library, and we got to go inside the Saint Francis Cathedral and Catacombs. The church was absolutely gorgeous but we weren't allowed to take pictures unfortunately. When we went down into the catacombs beneath the church I felt like I was in a scary movie. There were bones that had been organized by type spread throughout the maze of tunnels. Our guide said that there were 25,000 people buried here of all social and economic classes. Bodies were laid on top of one another and left to disintegrate. The anatomy-loving side of me really enjoyed trying to determine what kinds of bones I was looking at, but a part of me was kind of freaked out, especially when looking at all of the skulls. It was an amazing experience and definitely something that I will never forget. After the bus tour I went out to eat with a few girls before taking a taxi back home through rush hour.
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| Typical traffic in Lima. There is no such thing as lanes. |
Seven of us girls had decided to go to Huaraz to hike in the Andes mountains for the weekend. So Wednesday night at 10:30 we got on a bus that drove us about 9 hours North of Lima to Huaraz. I got a few hours of sleep off and on but we were all really tired and acting crazy by the time we got to our hostel. Our hostel dad, Amilio, was awesome and took such good care of us. He gave us kisses every time we saw him and told us the best places to go. We got a 3-day hiking package that cost each of us 100 soles (or $30 - so basically it was free) and spent the rest of Thursday naping and walking around the town. It is important to mention that we had very little idea as to where we would be going each day or what the weather would be like on each hike. All we knew was what time the bus picked us up and we went with it.
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| Freezing at the glacier |
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| Baby llama loved me |
Friday was our first hike and we went to Huascarán National Park. We got on a bus at 8:30 and rode for about 3 hours while making a few stops, one of which included holding a baby llama 😊 We finally reached the starting point for our hike and realized how cold it was. Some vendors offered to rent us coats for 5 soles and it was honestly the best purchase I have made while in Peru. We decided to ride horses partway up the mountain and then we got off and walked the rest of the way. It was sooo cold at the top. There was sleet pelting our ankles and faces, but we made it and got to look at beautiful glaciers. It was a fun and horrible hike at the same time, but I'm glad I went. I'm also still very thankful for that ugly coat I rented because it saved my life.
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| We can't believe that we made it to Laguna 69 |
The next morning we woke up at 4:45 and got picked up by our bus at 5:30 for another day of hiking. We went to Laguna 69 in the Andes, which was another 3 hour drive away. We knew that the hike would be challenging, but little did we know that it would be the most difficult hike of our lives. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous. We were surrounded by waterfalls, streams, green grass, and white-capped mountains. I have travelled quite a bit, but that has to be one of the most breathtaking places I have ever gone. We started of by hiking up a mountain for 2 hours and then we reached a flat part between mountains so we thought we were getting pretty close to the Lagoon. Our guide then told us that we had a whole other mountain to climb (and this one was much more difficult than the first). We told ourselves it would be worth it and kept going, slowing down with every step. I felt like I was running repeat 400s for track practice. I could hardly breathe because of the altitude, my backpack was dragging me down, and by the time we reached the lagoon my balance was so bad that I was certain I would stumble off the side of the mountain (which I actually almost did). It was the best feeling in the world when I finally spotted the lagoon, and the clear blue water was gorgeous. Those who had made it before we did congratulated us and offered us a warm tea drink to help with altitude sickness. We ate a little bit for lunch there and then spent the next 2.5 hours retracing our steps back to the bus. I felt like I was sleepwalking and my eyes couldn't focus on anything like they were supposed to. It was one of the strangest physical experiences I've ever gone through. Overall it was a 10-12 mile hike so I think I'll be ready to run a half marathon when (if) I come home. My legs have never been so shaky and numb in my life, but I enjoyed ever minute of it and I would hike it again sometime later in life.
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| Laguna 69 was worth the hike |
On the bus ride home I felt tired yet so alive and excited as I looked up at the mountains. There is nothing so humbling as looking up at the top of a mountain and taking a moment to remember how beautiful the world is. I thank God for the opportunity to be experiencing such incredible things every day and to see so many beautiful places and meet people from all over the world.
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| The ruins built B.C. |
Sunday was another amazing day even though we had no idea where we were going and blindly hopped on our bus at 8:30 a.m. We ended up going to some ruins that were built in the B.C. era (not sure exactly when because the tour was of course in Spanish). It was a tour instead of a hike, which my legs greatly appreciated. We got to go down in the labrynth below the ruins and it was fun to look at even though I didn't understand much of the tour. We then ate dinner and drove the 3 hours back to our hostel. When we got back we packed up our bags, gave our host dad kisses, and caught our bus back to Lima. I got home at 6 a.m. and dove into bed to sleep for a few hours before going to class in the afternoon.
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