Laguna Parón

So, we broke camp the next morning and had breakfast and said goodbye to our cooks and then drove and drove

through very interesting little villages and then up into the high mountains again where we saw lots of people out working in their crops

and up and up the windiest, switchbackiest road ever in the word, until we got a flat tire. Then we stopped and the driver fixed it, but Brett was dying, wishing he could just do it himself.

And then we made it to Laguna Paron, which was spectacular and probably my favorite lake in Peru. It was overcast at first, so not showing off as well as it could (I had asked Walter the night before if he thought we'd have clear skies for the lake tomorrow, and he said, "I don't know, we'll have to give a gift of coca leaves to Pachamama...")

But still, extremely amazing anyway!

Walter with Navy, how cute.

We walked up the entire side of the lake.

And then we kept going.

To this lake--Laguna Artesoncocha.

We stopped and ate our lunch here, which Walter had been carrying for us in his backpack. It was a delicious fried rice type dish.  We slicked it right up. 

After lunch, Walter took us up to a great viewpoint overlooking both lakes as well as the beautiful mountain peak (Artesonraju) that apparently Paramount Pictures based their logo off of (although if you look that up, people say a variety of mountains). Walter told us how he was climbing that mountain once with his father and a mountain climber, and they started seeing some gear around the ground. So then they started searching, and they found a dead body of a guy who had been climbing alone. He said that was the first time he came up on a dead body... So does that mean he's found more since then?

It was amazing that the clouds cleared for a bit while we were there-- so we could see the mountain peak, and also it was warmer when the sun was out.

This picture is a lie! I thought all the kids learned how to do the whistle/birdcall sound, but it's not true. I think Ethne did learn how but not Hazel actually. Or vice versa.

Now heading back.

I'm kind of annoyed that now I've found out that there's one particular overlook spot that most everybody takes a picture at, but our guide didn't take us to it (and as I said, I didn't know about it at the time). But oh well. 

I took a whole lot MORE pictures on the way back, because the clouds were less dense and there were patches of blue sky which made the water even more incredibly bright and brilliant.

The following three pictures are some of my favorites. I feel like they finally captured the brilliance of the water.

And then we drove back to Huaraz 

to our hotel, where we gathered our luggage that they had stored for us for the last few days and we settled into two new rooms (boys in one and girls in the other) (that once again did not have hot water in the showers, brrr). And we went out into the crazy city to find sustenance, and decided on pizza. It was nasty as far as pizzas go, but importantly, it filled us up. That guy on the right of the picture talked with Jethro for a long time while we waited. He was a student who studied at the university in Lima, I think?, studying law. Ethne found that out when she told Jethro to ask how old he was and what grade he was in, and then he was 23 and a university student and she felt embarrassed because he had looked much younger. haha. 

What a thrilling, and tiring, day!