The bus ride yesterday turned out to be 8 hours instead of 10, and the bus was nice, so it wasn’t too bad.
Huaraz is a small city (60,000) in the foothills of the Andes at about 10,500 feet elevation. There are not many tourists here except for backpackers, as it’s a nice jumping-off place for high mountain hiking.
Today we drove over a 14,600 foot pass to Chavin where we saw pre-Inca ruins, built over 3000 years ago. Majestic scenery all the way there. It was raining at the pass on the way back. We must be in the tropics to see rain at 14,600 feet in mid-winter instead of snow. Surely if it keeps up it will turn to snow in the pass tonight, but maybe not where we are at 10,500 feet.
Devon’s flight yesterday was delayed another 2 hours (from 1:00am to 7:00am), but he finally got home. He will spend a couple of days in Tempe with his girlfriend, then back to California and work.
Nothing else too exciting going on.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Donna // Jul 16, 2006 at 7:15 pm
You certainly are having a spectacular tour. I look forward to seeing your pictures. Be thankful you’re avoiding the 110 degree heat here. There is a storm rolling in tonight, but it’s still HOT! The worst few weeks of the year.
2 Daryl // Jul 17, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Have you had many thunderstorms yet?
3 Donna // Jul 17, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Nothing yet to speak of. A couple of evenings of thunder and lightning but not much actual rain. It’s coming, though. Maybe by the time you get home (hope, hope).
4 Richard // Jul 18, 2006 at 10:21 pm
You have been higher on land than I have ever been. Dale and I climbed Mt. Whitney which is 14,496.811 according to the sign on top. I wish there was a bus that went up there. We were both pretty sick having come up from living at sea level with no time to acclimate. Sounds like you are seeing some marvelous scenery.
5 Daryl // Jul 19, 2006 at 9:29 am
I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to go with the rest of the group when they went over the 16,000 foot pass. That was the day Devon was sick and I stayed behind to take care of him.