Laguna Churup y Churupita

 So, we had one more day in Huaraz, but nothing scheduled for it. There were a few different trails I had thought about doing, some that were crazy long that looked amazing and I wanted to go hike and had thought about different options about doing them without the kids (find a member to let the kids stay at their house for the day, ask Hisao if they could stay at his hotel, let them hike the trail behind us but just slowly and then we'd gather them back up again on our way back) but ultimately decided to just be all together on a trail we could all do. So in the morning Hisao took me and the luggage to the bus station where they kept it for us for the day (luggage is a pain to try to sort out) and then he found a colectivo for us to take up to Laguna Churup. One couple came on it too. They were from Spain and we talked to them a bit.  Then we got to the trail and started climbing. Straight up.  'Twas very steep. 

Some places had chain which was very fun.

There were lots of people on the trail, and I think we talked to some people from Switzerland and other countries. These people wanted a selfie with our family, so I got one too. :)

Soooo steep. But we were still actually passing mostly everyone, which made me proud.

We kept thinking we must be getting to the lake just over that next ridge, and then it wouldn't be.

But we finally made it!

So cool!

Most everybody settled in and ate lunch and apparently Talmage got comfy with his book.

Jethro, Orrin, and I climbed up the trail farther towards Laguna Churupita.

It was still steep, and Jethro hikes fast, but we sure had some great views.

We scrambled up through the boulder field.

And then we got to Churupita, and it was lovely. And we had it all to ourselves except one couple from France (actually I think only the guy was from France. I can't remember where the girl was from). We talked to them for a minute, and he said, "All Americans say 'aMAAAzing' about everything! This lake is aMAAAzing. These mountains are aMAAAzing." and later before they left I said, "well, since you're here, will you take a picture of us in front of this amaaazing lake?" ha

Jethro and Orrin jumped across some rocks to the boulder island in the middle. Can you see them there--tiny little ant-men?

Then we hiked back again.

It started raining.

Okay, this picture cracks me up like crazy, because just how I happened to take it, doesn't Jethro look like a genie hovering in the air, overlooking the other three, ready to ask "What is your wish?" or is that just me?

It was windy on the way down. Hazel, Ethne, and I had a good time.

Then we got back to Huaraz and had time to kill and no hotel to go back to anymore since we had checked out, so we walked around in the drizzle.

Oh yeah, and Brett was trying to figure out a way to make a call to the USA to talk to our car insurance place to cancel insurance (which he had already done through email and they just hadn't been quick about it) and so he was talking to these people foreeeeeever and we were just waiting foreeeever but a nice person finally just let him use their phone to make the call.  It was funny seeing Jethro and Talmage from across the street.

Then more walking around Huaraz.

It was so wild. Like, looking through the pictures now is just ho-hum, yep, but at the time it was still so new and so mind-blowing just the newness of it all, and the difference from what we know.

This was walking through the indoor market. Another crazy place.

Kids playing in there while their parents worked.

Seamstresses in a row.

Okay, those carrots in the picture below remind me that carrots are so good. You'll think that's weird, but the carrots are so so much sweeter in Peru than here and they're delicious (plus you can peel them and not have to worry about disinfecting them or anything so that's handy too), but actually I don't think we'd discovered them at this point.

We had decided to go to a restaurant that Hisao recommended, but it didn't open until late, so we were literally just sitting on the sidewalk waiting. I'm sure people thought we were completely cuckoo.

And then we saw missionaries and it made me soo excited!! I was waiting to see missionaries and they were so nice!

This restaurant had food of all kinds of cuisines and was hands down the best restaurant we ate at in Peru. Sooo good. Ethne and Wyatt shared fajitas.

We had mango curry.

There were some other curries, but everything we had was delicious. We stayed in the restaurant waiting and waiting and waiting, and while they didn't kick us out, I feel like they really wanted us to get going, so we finally did.

and walked to the bus station to wait some more until we finally got on our bus at 10 or something.

I brought Skipbo cards but we all pretty much hate Skipbo now.

Night busses are not the best, it's pretty hard to get a good sleep, but I still think it's better than an 8 hour ride in the day.

Adios, Huaraz!