Huaraz

I took an overnight bus last night to Huaraz. The bus ride was a little rough even though I got a semi-cama. It didn't help that they played two movies! I just wanted to sleep.

Huaraz is at an altitude of 3,031 meters (about 10,000 ft)! The interesting thing was that most of the bus ride was flat but the last couple of hours (the only ones during which I was sleeping) we did almost all of the ascent. When I woke up I really felt the altitude. I'm glad I took some decamethasone before leaving. It felt like something was holding back a more full-on altitude sickness.

Huaraz is actually quite a dirty city. I knew it wasn't going to be the most beautiful city ever since most of it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1970 but I was actually kind of suprised by how dirty it was. It's still pretty in its own way since it's nestled in the hills. I like it here. It kind of reminds me of Sarajevo, one of my favorite places of all time.

The river I'm NOT going to go rafting in!

Also, it's interesting to note that the people here speak Quechua (the indigenous lanuage) in addition to Spanish. About 45% of Peruvians are purely indigenous (Lonely Planet - Peru) which is very high compared with other countries in Latin America. About 13% of the population speaks Quechua (wikipedia).

This is a photo of a typical indigenous outfit (from wikipedia, I didn't want to hassle anyone for a photo of themself).