Week 43: Puerto Inca, Huacachina, Huaraz 
Tuesday, November 8th

We woke up in our amazing tent campsite, practically alone on a beautiful beach, and for the first time in days there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately we were out of food and it was time to move on. We ate our remaining food for breakfast and then went to the black sand beach. The sand is rich in minerals and absorbs the sun so it’s very warm. I wanted the therapeutic benefits so I had Sarahi bury me in the sand. We had fun looking at the black sparkly sand and I felt awesome afterwards. We packed our things and at the perfect time a taxi arrived with a few guests. We returned to Chala and ate lunch. I had some nice fish called pejerrey. I’m not sure if it’s freshwater or saltwater but it’s a small tasty fish with filets that are easy to remove from the spine. We found a collectivo (12 passenger van taxi) to Nazca, the city famous for the Incan Nazca lines. We decided not to go because you really need a plane flight to see the lines and it costs USD $80 per person for a 15 minute flight. Instead we hopped on a bus headed a few more hours through the desert to Ica. We found some cheap Chinese food and then took a ten minute taxi ride to Huacachina at the edge of town. Huacachina is an oasis with a pond and Palm trees nestled among massive sand dunes. We arrived before sundown and walked around the lake until we found a cheap hostel that was awesome. We had a whole eight bed dorm to ourselves and great common areas for hanging out. After checking in we got cleaned up and then headed out for a night time walk. We bought a bottle of rum and wanted to play a drinking game for the presidential election. I told Sarahi I thought Clinton would win by the time Florida’s results came in. We were so surprised when Trump started winning everything! Unfortunately I fell asleep in Sarahi’s lap and missed the results in the end. 

 11/9:

The next day we still couldn’t believe Trump won so we spent quite a bit of time reading the news and Facebook reactions. 

We found a breakfast place right next to the oasis. After a big breakfast we sat by the oasis pond for awhile. We returned to our hostel and relaxed for awhile. We bought hamburgers, chips, avocado and beer for lunch and took them to the shore of the pond. After lunch we booked a buggy tour for the afternoon. It cost less than $10 per person and lasted from 4pm until sunset at 6. The dune buggy was fun to ride in and then we started sandboarding. These sand boards are home made and much lower quality than the snowboards we used in the desert of Chile. But you can easily lay or stand on the board and we slid down several different sand dunes. Plus the buggy drives you around so we barely had to walk up and sand dunes. We met a nice guy and a few older ladies on our tour. Then we watched the sunset and had a great view of the oasis. It was a really fun tour. Next we got cleaned up and headed to dinner at a Thai restaurant that was quite nice. 

11/10:

Sarahi was quite upset with me on this day so we ate breakfast separately. I bought some snacks and ate them on the beach. We met up later and took a pedal boat out on the oasis pond. Later I swam in the pond, but some other tourists seemed disgusted so maybe it was a bad idea… We packed our things, ate a quick lunch, and then headed to the bus station at around 3. We arrived in Lima at around 9 PM and then quickly found a night bus to Huaraz. We ate a snack and then hopped on our bus and tried to sleep even though it was freezing cold. 

11/11:

We arrived in Huaraz just after sunrise and it was cold outside. We were tired so we found a cheap hostel from my lonely planet book and were soon napping. We woke up and had some relationship discussions until we realized the day was half over. We headed to lunch and by the time we left it was three in the afternoon! We attempted to visit the hot springs but they were closed by the time we arrived. We spent the evening preparing for the Santa Cruz Trek, which we planned to do ourselves. We weren’t feeling prepared also we signed up for transportation to the Laguna 69, a famous day trek a few hours away. We went grocery shopping and spent $40, but we bought five cans of tuna, fruit, pasta, and everything else we needed for our trek. We ate dinner and prepared day packs for the next day. 
11/12:

We woke up before five am and waited for awhile to be picked up. Then we rode two hours in a bus and stopped for breakfast. We stopped again to pay the park entrance fee and then stopped for pictures at an amazing blue green lake. Soon we arrived and began hiking. The trail was beautiful with a glacier fed river, nice trees, and green grass. Soon we started hiking steeply uphill for a couple hours. There were amazing glacier capped mountains and waterfalls all around us. It was beautiful. Finally we reached the Laguna 69. Just above the lake is a huge glacier and large waterfall pouring into the lake. It was simply stunning. We ate lunch here, took pictures, and sunbathed until it was time to head back. The walk back was much easier and soon we were at the bus. We walked about 12 miles but we felt pretty strong. We returned to the hostel, showered, and then went to dinner at chili heaven. This restaurant has Thai, Indian, and Mexican food, but specializes in anything spicy. We had Indian and Thai curry and both dishes were so spicy but delicious. We took care of some last minute things before our trek and headed to bed. 

11/13:

We woke up at 4:45 am after another poor night’s sleep. We grabbed our bags and walked to the corner where we took a combi (Peruvian term for collectivo taxi) and rode for a couple hours to the next town. From there we took another combi about three hours, just past the road to Laguna 69. We continued until we reached a very small town and began hiking down the trail. Most people take a guided trek of the Santa Cruz trail for about $250 per person, but we only paid around $100 for both of us. We were a bit sore from the previous day and found the trail to be harder than expected. We stopped for a lunch of tuna, cream cheese, crackers, blueberries, and grapes. We walked downhill then slowly uphill through a valley along a beautiful River. We had nice views of the distant snow topped mountains. After another four hours of hiking we arrived at the first campsite. It was at this point we realized we had packed light. So light in fact that we didn’t bring a pot for cooking our food. (Sarahi forgot it). We had mostly noodles and oatmeal and had no other way to cook our food. We decided it was just about impossible to cook our food and didn’t want to starve for three more days of hiking. I couldn’t see another option besides eating a cold dinner and walking back the next day. Sarahi was on the verge of tears and I was quite disappointed as well. Just then a German couple arrived who we had seen on the bus on the way. The guy asked us if we were ok, and Sarahi half jokingly asked if they had an extra cooking pot. He went to consult with his girlfriend and said that they had a small pan that served as the lid to the pot. But because of the altitude and cold, it’s almost impossible to boil water in a pot without a lid. It seemed we would both struggle to cook if we took their lid/pan, but we asked if we could just camp near to them and borrow the pot/lid combo for cooking. They said sure so we continued another thirty minutes trekking to another suitable campsite. They made dinner first and then we borrowed their pot. We made pasta with tomato, cheese, and pepper sauce, and added onions and a can of tuna. It was delicious and so nice to have a hot dinner. We started a fire and hung out with our new friends for a little while. We were all tired and headed to bed by 8 pm. That night it was freezing and we could barely sleep. We woke up with frost on our tent and it was really hard to go out into the freezing cold!