Dave and Liz's Excellent Adventures: Máncora --> Trujillo --> Huaraz

Colonial Trujillo

Our bus ride from Máncora to Trujillo was interesting...as we weren´t exactly aware that we booked such a crappy bus. There´s always a bit of adjusting to do when arriving in a new country. Luckily, we were travelling during the day and didn´t have to sleep on this one. Still shocked at the bleak landscape for hours upon end, it was so surprising when we would happen upon a little town of 4 of 5 huts and a few people living there. I don´t know how they survive, have water, or really...live. As our bus swayed around corners and flew up and down hills and mountains, I also couldn´t help but constantly think of how our friends Dylan and Cheri biked this section. 9 or 10 ish hours later we arrived in Trujillo at night which seemed to be a fairly nice colonial city. Dave and I enjoyed a good dinner and caught a local music and dance performance in the Plaza de Armas. Thoroughly impressed. We were to leave for Huaráz the next day because we weren´t able to make the connection for an overnight bus. I´m fairly positive that the next day all we did was eat, drink, and walk around. The guards blew their whistle at us for laying down on the grass in the central plaza. C´mon man... (pictures--staring at ourselves in the mirror waiting for our night bus, colonial building...Trujillo, Perú)

Trujillo -->Huaraz

We arrived in Huaraz early morning on an overnight bus. Dave was feeling a bit ill and we were super tired because all the sleeper busses sold out way in advance so we were on a standard economic bus overnight. Not having slept very well at all, we got to our hostel at about 6:00 am and slept the rest of the morning. Huaraz is an interesting place and a bit harsh because it has been devistated in the past by huge floods and earthquakes. We were greeted by the tall mountain peaks all around the hastily thrown together brick and mud brick buildings that abound in the skyline. After the earthquake in the 70s, Huaraz had to completely rebuild.

We met some fun people from Truckee, CA named Kristin and Warren who were on their honeymoon trip to Perú. We ended up hanging out with them for the evening at the hotsprings and then at the microbrew. YES...A MICROBREWERY! Serving up a golden ale, red, porter, and pale ale...we highly enjoyed Sierra Andina brewing company! We decided to go for a day hike up to Laguna Churup the next day and Warren and Kristen joined us. We had all kinds of weather along the steep slope, we arrived at a gorgeous turquoise lake for lunch. Dave and I had intended to do some extended trekking in Huaráz but were finding it difficult to track down reliable information...and Dave was really sick. We still don´t know if it was a cold or allergies...but after the day hike he was in a miserable state. Huaraz was a beautiful place and we could have easily spend weeks upon end trekking and exploring the small indigenous villages around the area. We felt an urgency to move on only because time was ticking and we still had a HUGE chunk of Perú to conquer!

Trailhead of our day hike. Laguna Churup, Huaraz