Huaraz, Peru, South America

I had a really nice day today at the Pastoruri Glacier, even though I was affected noticeably by the altitude for the first time. I started the day out with a nice breakfast at my hostel, and then got picked up by my tour at 9:30am. There was a full bus load of us, and most of them were Peruvians, but I got a seat next to a family of Israelis, so I got to speak to them on the way to the glacier. It was a father, son, and daughter (Shimon, Yuval, and Michal), and they are traveling all around Peru for a month. It was good to chat and hear about what they’ve done and seen in Peru so far so I could get some tips.

It was about a two and a half hour ride to Pastoruri, including a stop to have some coca tea and buy some snacks for the trip. Once we got to the glacier I met a French guy named Mark who I walked with up to the glacier. It was only about a 40 minute walk, and it was a very simple walk. There was a paved path even, so it shouldn’t have been difficult, but we were at about 5,000 meters (15,000ft), so that made it a lot harder. We took a couple of breaks on the way up to catch our breath, and near the top I started to feel the effects in my head. I was feeling light-headed, and a little dizzy, and this is the first time the altitude has ever affected me like that.

It was a pretty nice landscape to check out, and the glacier was very impressive. I brought a couple of sandwiches and some oreos, so Mark and I sat at the top and had some lunch before heading back down. It was incredible how much easier it was to go down than it was coming up. It was as if there was no effect at all from the altitude on the way down. It was great!

Our ride back took about three hours because we stopped for an hour at the same restaurant as on the way up, so some people could eat dinner. It made no sense to me though because they ate dinner at 4:30pm, when we could have driven straight back and gotten to Huaraz at 5:30pm and had dinner at a proper time. Ah well, some things here just don’t make sense.

We got back to Huaraz at around 6:30pm and I wanted to have dinner at this place called Chilli Heaven. I had seen it last night when I was searching for a fleece, but it was closed, so tonight I was really craving a burrito. The israeli family had never had mexican food before, so they wanted to join me. After a few weeks of just having Peruvian food, they were keen to try something new. It was excellent! We had a few burritos and Shimon had the chicken fajitas, and everyone loved their food. It was a success!

After dinner I said bye to the family and headed back to the hotel to watch Monday Night Football. I wish I had stayed out. This was the worst game I’ve seen the Patriots play in about ten years. We got hammered 41-14 in Kansas City, so it was hardly worth coming home for. Oh well, there’s always next week. I’m off to bed now because I have a 5am wake up to go hiking to Laguna 69. Hopefully the altitude doesn’t affect me too badly there.