Trujillo, Huanchaco, and Huaraz

Trujillo is a town north of Lima that apparently has the best looking men and women in Peru... I wasn't impressed but maybe they were sleeping. I arrived pretty late into Trujillo and got a room at this little place. The next day I walked around town a little but really wasn't in the mood for being in a town, so I took a cab to the little town of Huanchacho, which is a beach town about 12km outside Trujillo.

In the plaza in Trujillo

Since it was Sunday, the beach was PACKED! I walked around for about an hour but then had to go back to the hostel cause it was so un-enjoyable to walk around. The hostel I stayed in, Naylamp, was amazing. It was right on the water and the staff was so nice, the people staying there were really cool, and the place was so clean. Most people in the hostel had intended to stay a few days but wound up staying for over a week or more. It was one of those places that suck you in. I could have stayed a lot longer, but my time is limited, so I had to move on. While I was there, I took a surf lesson, and I stood up the first day and was like, "yeah, I like surfing, this is good stuff". The next day, however, I took out the surfboard on my own (and when you are starting out, it isn't even a surf board, its more like a raft), and got the crap kicked out of me. The waves were HUGE, and when I did catch one and tried to stand up, I immediately fell backwards and did about three summersaults under water. It was scary but the worst part was trying to paddle back. You would use all your might to paddle about a food and then a huge wave would come and knock you off your board again and you would be back at square one. It was awful. I lasted an hour before I huffed it back to shore and called it quits. I will have to try again one day. But that was enough for the time being.

The local boats

Nacho, me and Pierre

Naylamp Hostel

Sunset

I was planning on going up north to Mancora for some more beach time, but I thought to myself, ya know, I will have a ton of beach time in SE Asia, lets go to the mountains some more. Huaraz is known for the local trekking, especially the Santa Cruz trek. I wanted to do this trek for a while but its the rainy season so I wasn't sure if I should. But I decided to come here and see what it was all about. We arrived in Huaraz early Wednesday morning (by we I mean myself and Pierre who I met in Huanchacho). I looked around and found a trek leaving the next morning so I signed up. That night, I got a call saying the trip would have to be postponed until Friday because another person on the trip was sick. Whatever, no big deal. So the next morning, Pierre, myself and a couple from Spain do a morning trek up to a lagoon. It was miserable. Everything was wet, you couldn't see anything cause of clouds, and it was cold. After doing that trek, I was like hmmm, maybe I don't want to do this for 4 days on the Santa Cruz trek. So we got back to town and Pierre and I went to the office where we had signed up to do the trek and said we didn't really want to go anymore, because of timing and weather. The guy at the office, stupid Keke tours (don't use them!), said that we could either pay $60 to not go or $90 to go. I was like what the hell kind of fucked up logic is that. If I spoke more spanish I would have been all over him, but he claimed that he had paid for everything already, which is BULLSHIT, cause thats not how things work here. I am not stupid, but I couldn't figure out how to argue myself out of it, so I decided to suck it up and go. Now imagine hiking and sleeping rain for 3 days, and paying $90 to do it. Well, thats what I did, and I was bitter the whole time, so it wasn't my favorite trek of the trip, but it wasn't SO bad.

Huaraz main center

Day hike where we couldn't see anything

On the Santa Cruz hike

Not the best conditions, wet feet for 3 days

The trail... snow

Punta Union Pass, it was actually pretty, but would have

been nicer if it were sunny!

The last day was pretty nice, but still wet

The valley

The group

I did it!

The trek was supposed to be 4 days, but we shortened it to 3 cause we didn't feel like walking in the rain anymore. Today I bought a ticket to go to Iquitos, which is the jungle of Peru. I take an overnight bus to Lima tonight and then a flight out tomorrow afternoon. Screw Lima, haha. So I only have a little time left in Peru, which is weird cause I really like this country. I will be sad to leave, but ahead is Colombia which I am very excited about!