Huaraz Off The Beaten Path

St Sebastian Church is a modern church near the construction of the new cathedral in the Main plaza. Plaza de Armas.

the Chorus has a fun beat to old church songs and it makes it very fun an festive to hear the mass.
the Bells in front of the church reminded me of the Liberty bells in Philadelphia

Though the city is nice enough, it is the Cordillera Blanca that draws most travelers. The National Park is a Mecca for backpackers and full of amazing plant life as well as the spectacular moutains that leave most with mouth agape.

Though much of Huaraz was destroyed during the many earthquakes that ravaged the city, there are some interesting old parts of town to wander around. The mountains are always looming in the background too. :)

One of my last things I did near Huaraz was taking a tour to the Archeological ruins of Chavin de Huantar. On the way there, we stopped at the beautiful lake of Querococha, which lies at an altitude of 4000 meters. A few hours later we passed through the Cauisin tunnel at 4550 meters above sea level. The ruins of Chavin de Huantar are amazing. According to the guide, the society of Chavin de Huantar was obsessed with the number 7. The main plaza measures 49 meters by 49 meters (perfect square of 7). Apparently, they got to measure the size of the Earth and from there calculated a measuring unit identical to the meter. I noticed that the plaza and the main temple are perfectly aligned to the north and south on each side. There are several interesting galleries and labyrinths on site as well. Check out my Chavin de Huantar page for more tips and pics.

This is a lovely 8-15 day trek near Huaraz. I'm sure other kind folks at VT will soon have a good page describing this trek. I heard it's supposed to be one of the best in the world. Since I was low on time, only had 2 months in Peru , I left it for my next trip to Peru. When? I don't know :).

On the way to the base camp of Pisco, I had a chance to take this lovely shot of Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain. The area around this peak is protected under the Parque Nacional Huascarán. In 2001, the price of admission for treking was $20 USD for a week. You can sneak in at times and avoid this by paying as a day pass holder. However, there is at least one check points on route in the Santa Cruz Trek.

Our next challenge took us to the non-technical snowy Peak known as Pisco. We went to a climbing shop and got all of the equipment needed. I am telling you, anyone looks like Chris O’Donnell in Vertical Limit with his or her equipment on. As I found out, most of that movie was faked... it looked so easy on the movie, but in real life walking on high altitude takes time, energy, and mental health/concentration. Just breathing in requires you to do so from the mouth (and the nose) at a mentally practiced rate. By the last treks on high altitudes in this trek I had it almost perfected. Oh, forget talking unless you need to, if you do then you will lose track and tire easily. Anyway, Pisco is located a bit before Vaquerias, the start of the Santa Cruz trek so we took the same transport and told them to drop us near Cebollapampa, the start of the walk to base camp. We walked about 3 hours to base camp at 4600 meters above sea level. That afternoon, snow fell in our camp. It wasn’t enough to cover the valley, but it was enough for us to freeze. Consequently, I hardly slept that night. We woke up around 2:30 AM and headed out around 3:30 AM. We climbed the first ridged to about 5000 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, I came up with a minor case of diarrhea. To make things worse, we took the wrong path for a while and ended up lost in the ridge. Eventually we find the right path, but it was too late to attempt a full climb that day. Despite on the setbacks, we got to wear the equipment for a while and we saw a beautiful sunrise. Although we didn't reach the peak, I am happy I made this little adventure. It showed me that ice climbing is not an easy thing and even those who don't make it to the top are rewarded with beautiful views or the thrill of being so high. Who knows, perhaps I will try it again someday with better equipment and a guide :).

We took the advice of two Aussies and decided to camp near the climber's basecamp at Quebrada Arhuaycocha. The climb down the valley was easy, but the climb up to the campsite was as demanding as the overpass we had made that same day. Once on top, the view from the small valley of several snowy peaks in front and behind turned out to be wonderful. Well worth the detour! We camped at a base camp for climbers at 4100 meters above sea level. We of course had no equipment to approach the peaks, but we did take a day trip up a few hundred meters to see the huge glacier. I had never seen a glacier so up close in my life and I can tell you it looked huge! We managed to make a fire tonight, but the lack of oxygen in the air at this height proved to be a real challenge maker for us. It rained that night on us so our stuff was wet in the morning; some ice was even stuck on the tent :).