A Wonderful Trip to the Cordillera Blanca

Last week the Little Lady's school was closed for a week of vacation. When school is closed it's tough for Jana and I to make as much progress on research and writing. We traded off childcare duties for the first part of the week, but knowing that work time would be reduced with school closed, we made plans to get away from Lima for a long weekend starting on Thursday. We wanted to go someplace we've never been before, and were hoping for something quiet and close to nature. We ended up choosing the Ancash region, which contains some of the highest mountain peaks in the western hemisphere. Huaraz is the capital of the region, and we made our base there. It was a great weekend, and I highly recommend a visit to the area if you're ever in Peru. Here are some of the highlights:

Huaraz is a bustling town of 150,000 located about 300 km north of Lima. I would not describe the town itself as particularly notable, except for its location. And what a location it is, with breathtaking views of mountains in every direction. The Rio Santa runs through town, with the river separating the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra. The difference between the "white range" to the east of Huaraz and the "black range" to the west is, not surprisingly, that one contains snow-covered peaks and the other doesn't. Because of its proximity to so many wonderful mountains, Huaraz has become a major adventure destination. There are opportunities for multi-day treks over Andean peaks topping 20,000 ft, mountain biking, and rock climbing. We simply wanted to be in a beautiful natural environment, and it didn't take us long to realize that goal.

Our trip began late on Wednesday night, with a taxi to the Cruz del Sur bus station where we caught an overnight bus, the trip to Huaraz scheduled for about 8.5 hours. We checked our luggage, boarded the bus and the departure was on time. Bus travel is still very common in Peru. There are a few flights a week from Lima to Huaraz during the off-peak season in which we were traveling. But the flights don't allow much luggage and are notoriously unreliable. The bus is the better option. While it's never fun to spend over 8 hours trying to sleep in a bus, the Evolution service provided by Cruz del Sur is pretty posh. The seats recline nearly flat. The seats are as comfortable as any I've sat in. There is food and beverage service along with a personal screen where a selection of movies, music, and games are available. The Little Lady was excited for the trip, and we actually slept reasonably well on the overnight journey. We arrived tired but not exhausted a bit before 7 Thursday morning.

The taxi driver, who was arranged by the innkeeper at the Lazy Dog Inn, was ready and waiting for us when we arrived. He whisked us past the typical small crowd of drivers offering their services just outside the station. The Little Lady draws a lot of attention in situations like this. Plenty of Peruvians have simply never seen someone with hair like hers. In seeming awe, they called her a China doll as we headed to the taxi. Huaraz is at about 10,000 feet of altitude, and we headed up nearly 2000 feet more to the Lazy Dog Inn.

The trip to the inn is something like 7 km. But it takes about 30 minutes. That should give you some idea of what roads in this part of Peru can be like. But if it does not clarify things, that bumpy ride suggests a few points of advice. First, be prepared for delays and for things to take longer than expected. For example, it had rained that morning and Jana had to exit the car for a bit (to be clear, I was holding the Little Lady) in order for us to make it through a particularly rough patch. Second, if you are ever planning to drive around the Ancash region at all, be sure your dental work is in order before you arrive. A loose filling would not likely survive many days driving around this area. Alternatively, assuming your dentist charges separately for removing and replacing a filling, I suppose you might save yourself some money by driving around Huaraz and letting nature take care of the first procedure for free. Finally, if there are any mechanics offering lifetime alignment services in this area, I recommend against taking this offer. You might pay for lifetime alignment, but you won't receive the service for anything like a lifetime because any mechanic offering such a deal will be out of business within the month. I think you could have an alignment done twice a day and still have a car that won't drive straight.

We arrived to Lazy Dog Inn to find a wonderful place. It's up in the mountains away from the hustle and bustle of town. The innkeepers are wonderful and interesting people. Diana offered to cook some breakfast for us after our long journey and we sat down to a table with a handful of fellow travelers. I love places like the Lazy Dog Inn for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is the conversations with innkeepers and fellow travelers. The Little Lady was struggling a bit with the altitude, so Diana expedited the cleaning of our room so we could go rest a bit before starting the day in earnest. After laying down for just a while and having a bit of coca leaf tea, the Little Lady was doing much better. At nearly 12,000 feet it's pretty much impossible to not suffer from some shortness of breath and fatigue. Some people get very sick. Fortunately, all of us had mild symptoms and acclimated fairly quickly to the high altitude.

Late Thursday morning after a bit of a rest, we walked down the hill from our cabin to the community center where the owners of the Lazy Dog Inn do community development work, including a pre-school for local children. The kids were about the same age as the Little Lady, so she participated with them in making a Mother's Day craft of a heart stuffed with foam and painted with glitter-glue. She enjoyed the time and we had a lunch of arroz con pollo prepared by a couple of the kids' moms. After walking back up the hill we were pretty winded and ready for a nap. We enjoyed hearing a bit of rain and sleeping in front of a roaring fire. That night we enjoyed a home-cooked meal (using come ingredients from the inn's garden) that is included as part of the stay at the inn and headed to bed, still a bit tired from the trip and ready to enjoy a warm fire and heavy blankets on a cold night.

The next morning we were greeted with a great view of the mountains, another wonderful breakfast, and plans for hiking a bit around the neighborhood of the inn. With a four year old you cannot go too far, but given the location of the Lazy Dog we did not have to go very far for some nice views and a great place to eat a picnic lunch prepared by the inn. We ended up walking about 5 miles around the area of the inn, and the Little Lady was a trooper.

Our ability to hike a bit around the inn gave us reason to believe we could push a bit more the next day. So we got up early Saturday and headed out on a private tour with a driver named Teo (again arranged by the inn). Our main goal was to see one of the Llanganuco lakes (Chinancocha). This is a glacier fed lake about three hours by car from the inn. The road was bumpy, and even Teo was complaining about the need for repair of the road up the mountain to the lake. But once we got there, we were rewarded. Chinancocha is a beautiful lake with a unique turquoise color. The only similar lakes we've seen are in the Canadian Rockies. After enjoying the views for a few minutes we took a rowboat ride to get onto the lake and experience some different views of the cliffs all around. We then ate a lovely picnic lunch on the banks of the river and hiked down the Maria Josefa trail.

It's supposed to take an hour. We took about 2.5. It was tricky in places due to lots of rain and streams overflowing their banks. It turned out to be about a 3.5 to 4 mile trail. I'm not sure we would have done it if we had known how far it really was, but I'm glad we did it. The Little Lady was amazing, dancing her way along the trail at points, taking off shoes and socks to walk on rocks through very cold streams, and generally staying in great spirits through the whole thing. We saw wonderful waterfalls, lots of birds, amazing plants, and pretty wild-flowers. Teo was waiting for us at the bottom and we were tired. On the way back to Huaraz we stopped in Carhuaz for an ice cream treat and it was delicious. The Little Lady had chocolate, Jana had coconut and lucuma (a local flavor that you must try when in Peru), and I had beer ice cream. Yes, you read that right. I had to try it since it was an option and it was better than I thought it might be.

It was time to head back to Lima on Sunday. Our bus was not leaving until a little after noon, so we had time to enjoy just a few more things around the Lazy Dog Inn. Wayne, one of the owners of the inn, is well-known for his ability to help kids ride horses, so we decided to let the Little Lady give riding a try. The horses at the inn are beautiful and well taken care of, and Wayne lived up to his reputation for helping people learn to ride. Within 30 minutes the Little Lady had made friends with the horse, had learned the basics of controlling the horse, and was riding around an enclosed area in nearly complete command of the horse. She loved it and wants to do it again.

The trip back was on Oltursa, another bus company. We were not on its highest class of service so it was not as comfortable as the Cruz del Sur bus we were on for the trip up. I generally think the quality of Oltursa buses is less than Cruz del Sur for comparable levels of service, and Oltursa seems to be expensive for what they provide. But the ride was safe and the views were pretty amazing from the front of the bus on the second level.

We arrived home around 9 and were in bed as quickly as possible. It was a great trip, and we are hoping to do a couple more side trips like this while we are living in Lima.