The 2018 Blog / June 16, 2018
Lake Paron
At 13,700ft in elevation, this lake is located in the Andes Mountains roughly 3 hours north of Huaraz, Peru
Now that we have had some time to fully settle into Peru, i guess it’s time to discuss our few days so far in Huaraz, Peru. Well to continue off of the last blog, we had our eight hour overnight bus from Trujillo to Huaraz which I thought was just absolutely fantastic. I knocked out for the entire ride, but it was definitely a different story for Sarah.
Day 1
But eight hours later, at 5:30am we had arrived in Huaraz, Peru! Once we took it easy after our long bus journey. We ended up falling asleep for a few hours and then went out to get some authentic Chinese food.
Day 2
For the second day in Huaraz, we decided to go mountain biking 10 miles down the dirt tracks, rocks and grass of the mountains. We got picked up around 10am by our mountain biking guide and proceeded to drive up the mountain for the next hour. The driver was a bit aggressive, putting us in a near death experience a couple times trying to pass some trucks while other cars were coming straight our way. Once at the top, we got all our gear on and proceeded down the unmarked trail. Within minutes i knew this was going to be a great time for Sarah as the trails included many steep downhills over tons of rocks, which as we know Sarah loves. With a GoPro conveniently duct taped (yes the guide insisted on duct taping it to my helmet) i was able to capture some nice shots of our journey.
Sarah Lynch
I was also able to capture this gem of Sarah gracefully riding down the mountain
Day 3
On the third day we decided to go to Lake Paron which called for an 8am wake up call. Running a bit behind schedule that next morning, we completely forgot to pick up lunch or any snacks to bring with us. Luckily, an hour in the driver stopped at a local town for the group of about 15 of us to pick up food and use the bathroom. Sarah and I decided to walk around and even decided to get some sweet purple corn popsicles. Yes, our one chance to pick up food for the day, we instead bought two sweet purple corn popsicles instead which did turn out to be very good though. From there, we proceeded to drive another couple of hours up towards Lake Paron located within the Cordillera Blanca. At this point in the journey, it was a windy bumpy road on the rocks and dirt of the mountains. Luckily we finally arrived and we began our short hike up to the view point of Lake Paron.
After enjoying the view from the top, we made our way down some very precarious rocks until we arrived on the beach, where we had the option of renting a kayak or taking a ride in a rowboat. With our limited Spanish, we probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to do either of them, but luckily we met a nice girl our age who went to school in New York and speaks Spanish. We split a row boat ride with her and one other girl.
While on our nice boat ride, Jonny decided it would be a good idea to jump into the icy cold water. Our Spanish-speaking friend helped communicate Jonny’s idea to the boat driver (who then said he hoped Jonny knew how to swim, otherwise I’d be a widow), and he pulled over to some rocks so we could climb out. I briefly considered jumping in too, but I only got as far as taking off my socks before I realized I really prefer being warm and dry. Soon enough, Jonny dove in (and quickly ran out) to the cheers of everyone on the beach.
After drying off, making it back to shore, and waiting for our driver to get ready while we narrowly avoided an aggressive running cow, we rested on the 2 hour bus ride back to Huaraz. Since we only ate a bit of bread and a purple popsicle all day, we were starving and decided to treat ourself to dinner at Chili Heaven, a place that serves an interesting mix of Indian, Thai, and Mexican food. On our way back to the hostel we also couldn’t resist grabbing some 30 cent churros.
And that’s it for now! We are still in Huaraz, planning on doing another day trip to a lake and then figuring out how to get on an 8 day trek through the Andes, but that’s a story for another day.
Originally published June 16, 2018 / See the Huaraz gallery
