Lima and Huaraz

We arrived in Lima on September 15th and took a taxi to the hostel directly from the airport. We arrived at around 5pm and just went out for dinner and then went to bed. The hostel owner has a dog, which is nice because I love animals, but it was a big naked dog (I don't know if that's normal :D) that reminded me of Melissa's naked cat :D I didn't pet the dog, though :D
The next day, we went on a free walking tour of Lima, which was pretty good. The best part was the end, because we all got free Piscos. Pisco is a traditional alcoholic drink that was served in shot glasses. Needless to say, we enjoyed that :D After that, we went to have some food. I had Lomo saltado, which is beef with tomatoes, onions, fries (they serve everything with fries here :D), and rice. Laura had Causa, which is a type of potato cake. Delicious dishes from the Peruvian cuisine :) Before going back to the hostel, we got tickets for an overnight bus to Huaraz, which was 8 1/2 hours away and left at 9:30pm:)
We arrived there at around 6am and went straight to the hostel to drop off our heavy backpacks. The hostel owner kindly gave us a free breakfast :) Then we went around the not-so-beautiful city and inquired about tours in the Andes. We booked a 4-day trek for the next day (Santa Cruz Trek). Back at the hostel, we were told that we didn't have a reservation for a room.. great :D so instead of a 6-bed room, we got a 2-bed room YEAH :D That was really nice :)
Later, we went out for food and that's when I realized that I don't like falafel :D
When we were packing our stuff for the trek, someone from the agency knocked on our door and told us that the trek would start one day later because three participants got sick. But we could choose a day trip from the shop for the next day and get it for free.. that's also a good alternative :D So since we didn't have to get up early the next day, we played pool with an English guy from our hostel at the pool bar next door for a few rounds and then fell asleep in bed after 2 hours and plenty of beer :D
The next morning, after breakfast, we went to the agency's shop and decided on a hike to the Pastoruri glacier at 5000 meters above sea level. The first time we would be at such a high altitude :D Unfortunately, most of the time we were sitting in a bus with 15 other people and drove to the glacier. On the way there, we passed by a lagoon and had a coca tea at a restaurant as a precaution. When we reached 5000 meters, we had to hike for another 40 minutes to the glacier, which was really nice, but I could feel the altitude :D after taking three steps uphill, my heart was beating as fast as if I were sprinting and breathing wasn't so easy. The glacier itself was breathtaking and the lake next to it reminded both Laura and me of the lake in Hogwarts :D a really beautiful place. The way back down to the bus was easier and then we drove back to Huaraz for 3 hours. At the hostel, we made wraps and packed our things for the trek that would actually take place the next morning :D
We got up a little after 4am, got dressed and ready calmly, and then got picked up at 5am. At the bus, we met our 6 group members and it was a colorful mix :) we had two couples from Poland who didn't know each other before, a French girl who lives in Mexico, and a Brazilian guy. And of course, us German potatoes :D After 4 or 5 hours of driving, we arrived at the starting point for our trek. Here, our 4 donkeys were loaded up and our guide (Ricardo), the cook (Maximo), and the donkey driver (I don't know his name) introduced themselves. We also got a delicious packed lunch and then the hike at 3700 meters above sea level began :) We were a pretty fast group, so our guide offered us the option to do part of the 900-meter ascent the next day on the first day, instead of camping at the base camp, and hike 300 meters higher. We thought that was great and did that :) after walking through a beautiful valley, we eventually reached the 300 meters, which were really strenuous, but yes, our camp was really cool and we slept at 4150 meters. In the evening, it started raining heavily and we all enjoyed a delicious meal together in our communal tent. The rain didn't stop and the temperature kept dropping, so we all went to our own tents, in our warm sleeping bags :) Unfortunately, we found out that all the tents were leaking.. the ground was completely wet and water was dripping onto our sleeping bags through the tent roof. Laura and I put towels over our mosquito nets and managed to sleep half-dry, but cold. The next morning, we were greeted in our tent at around 5:30am with a warm coca tea and lots of snow :D Yes, it had snowed during the night, which we didn't expect at all :D Outside, you could only hear Eric, the Brazilian, laughing because it was his first time seeing snow and he threw his first snowball :D We quickly packed our things (fortunately, everything stayed dry) and had breakfast together in the big tent, amused by Eric. And then our snow hike began. We walked ahead without our guide and the donkeys, and we could roughly see a path, so we just walked along it and it was awesome! The scenery was so beautiful and we were in a big cloud and it was cold, but we warmed up quickly from walking and the altitude didn't bother us anymore :) After three hours, we finally reached Punta Union, the highest point on our trek, and the view was incredible. In the distance, you could see a lake in the valley.. so we walked to it as well.. That took another 4 hours and the descent was really annoying because the snow was melting slowly and our shoes weren't waterproof, so they got wet very quickly. Well, after 5 falls and a lot of cursing on my part, we arrived in the valley and there was no more snow :) We took a little detour to a viewpoint where you can supposedly see the Paramount Pictures mountain (you probably know the logo with the mountain and the stars), but it was too cloudy to see it. The rest of the trail felt long, because it seemed like we would never reach the lake somehow. :D To our surprise, we did reach the lake and the camp. We immediately set up our tents and got a soup. Here, Laura made friends with our donkeys, who enjoyed not only their soup, but also Laura herself very much :D Two hours later, we had dinner, which we all ate together in the kitchen tent because it was so warm there :) We spent this night at an altitude of 4100 meters and luckily didn't wake up to snow. Normally, on the third day, you would only walk 9 kilometers, but we decided to keep going until the last camp right next to the village, where we would be picked up. The hike was very nice and the trail was either flat or downhill, so very relaxed, and after 5 1/2 hours and 18 km, we arrived at the last camp. Just before that, a few men were celebrating some kind of festival in front of a small church and of course, we got to try their homemade whiskey :D It was firewater, but actually very good :D In the camp, we of course had a beer first (as I said, the beers here are 620 ml each) and then another one :D To end the day, we all went to a thermal pool, which was actually just a big hot pool (we thought we would swim in the river next to it) and had a beer there and relaxed in the hot water :) To end the day, we had spaghetti bolognese and celebrated a bit before going to bed. :)

On the last day, we were picked up at 10am and arrived in Huaraz after 3 hours and a delicious ice cream. Here, I went straight to the hostel, while Laura went to get our bus tickets to Lima for the night with Eric. In the hostel, we were allowed to take a (I wish it had been warm) cold shower. Then we went out for food and met up with the rest of the group for a Pisco and had a nice last evening :) At 10:30pm, we took the night bus to Lima, where we arrived at 7am.
Here, we said goodbye to Eric and took care of a bus to Cusco, which we will take at 1:15pm. The journey will take 22 hours YEAH :D
We passed the rest of the time at Starbucks and with breakfast at McDonald's (hamburger and fries) and now we're on our way to Cusco :)

See you later, hasta pronto
Laura and Chrissie :)