How can I get my head out of the clouds with views like these?

Catacombs:

For one of our classes, we all went on a tour of downtown Lima on a double decker bus and stopped to tour the catacombs at the San Franciscan Catholic Church. No pictures were allowed but the church and beneath were really cool. We only saw part of the catacombs, but there were so many more parts we didn't see. It is so crazy to think when people died they just put the dead bodies in piles. Even creepier than that is years later when most of the church goers didn't even know they were right above an ancient burial ground, someone went down and organized the bones. There were parts with only femurs and parts with only skulls, some areas were in patterns...just crazy. The whole time I felt like I was Indiana Jones looking for some long lost treasure because some of you know how much I love those movies. 

The capital! 

There was a ton of European architecture in this area and it was beautiful

Panorama of one of the really cool squares we drove by

Don't remember what this was, but it was a majestic building lol

Since our Thursday class was moved to Tuesday for the bus tour, for the long(er) weekend some of us decided to take a trip to Huaraz. 

Huaraz:

The overnight, 8 hour bus ride consisted of no room to move around, no wifi (although it was promised), and a screaming 3 year old for over half of it (not an exaggeration). We finally arrived early in the morning in Huaraz and headed to the hostel to catch some much needed sleep. Later we explored a bit of the city and I found some llama park thing where, of course, I try to go make friends with them-they were not looking for any new friends I learned.  

Park of llamas I wanted to befriend 

Leo watching as none of his fellow llamas wanted to eat the grass I had picked as a friendship token. :(

I am ashamed to say I paid for this llamas friendship, and it was short lived. I saw it coming though since obviously he's too cool for me. 

Day 2 began our 3 day adventure. Some guy that stopped us outside the bus station tried selling us his tour, he ended up riding in our taxi to our hostel and since Amelio, the guy who ran the hostel, seemed to know what he was talking about we figured it wasn't a scam. So we handed over 100 Soles for our 3 days of adventuring (for those that don't know the conversion hat is $30. Yes. $10 for each day!) So Day 2 we hiked/rode some crazy horses to a glacier. The best purchase I have made so far is the 5 Soles I spent to rent a winter coat at the bottom. A sweatshirt and rain coat would not have helped in the sideways sleet that was pelting us. The view was pretty but really hard to enjoy when you just want to seek cover from the sleet hitting your eyes and neck. 

We were very happy about our new Peru hats

This is a picture of "Christ's Profile" (the far right of the snow capped mountain: the black parts are the hair, eye/eyebrow and beard)

You can easily see how excited this baby llama was to take a picture with me, I love her. 

We were so excited about our horses even though they ran up the mountain

You can see how cold it was but I almost got close enough to touch a glacier but we were too miserable to venture farther in the sleet to touch...more ice

That night after returning I bought an Alpaca sweater. This is the softest thing in the world and I love it so much because it kept me warm for the rest of the trip. (Side note: everyone in Lima told us to pack for winter, but when they wear jackets at night in Lima thinking it's cold when it's not we idiotically chose not to listen to them. Awful decision on all of our parts. It really is cold, even for Nebraska girls). 

Day 3 we hiked to Laguna 69 which is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done. On the drive there we stopped at another lagoon which was amazing, then had to continue another hour on a road that almost threw me out of my seat a few times. 

But seriously. How beautiful?

Now, the hike: dun dun duuunn

I'll set the mountain climbing scene: My shirt soaked in sweat, light rain drizzling down, gorgeous views, what felt like a completely vertical climb, my constant urge to throw up from start to finish,  the pounding headache, and soaking wet shoes from choosing the wrong path across the flat wetlands was what my day consisted of. But the sight at Laguna 69 was absolutely amazing that I can't put it into words. Now that my symptoms are gone I can say it was totally worth it, yesterday I may have had a different answer. There were so many times I wanted to give up and even more times when we thought it was right around the corner to then find out we weren't even half way there (these two usually events went hand-in-hand). I owe it all go Danielle and Gabi, we stuck together through all the pain, angry cows, hundreds of little breaks and wet shoes. It's easy to figure out that this was a very early night for us all. 

FINALLY we can see it!!

SUCCESS!!! 

I've never worked so hard for a pb&j sandwich and nor has one ever tasted better 

Absolutely amazing. 

For some reason I've had a hard time taking pictures seriously lately

Candid but cool (these people wouldn't move from where I wanted a picture taken lol) -photo cred to Danielle

Don't worry, I got the pic

Day 3 was...an adventure to say the least. Originally we were supposed to go to the glacier on this day but we changed it to the first day in order to do something different on day 3. So when we woke up Sunday we had no idea what the day held. We got on a bus, dressed for whatever mountain top or valley we were dropped off at and prayed to God it was not another hike. He must have heard us because we found out from someone who booked the tour knowing what they paid for that we were going to ruins that included no hike. YES!!! The ruins were interesting and we got to go down in a few labrum th areas below the structure. Ceilings were low and steps were high. I know people were shorter back then so I honestly have no clue how they got up and down those steps because it was a struggle for someone my size to conquer. 

Kind of hard to see, but this is the building

A bit closer

Underground

I love feeling like an explorer, even though I didn't discover this I kept looking for hidden messages or false rocks. Also I tried going down a dark staircase to explore fo real but unfortunately was talked out of it :( still regret that

Great way to end a day of exploring ruins

An even better place to have lunch. 

All in all it was a great, relaxing way to end a crazy weekend filled with llamas, exploring, new friends from around the world, and sore muscles. The 8 hour bus ride Sunday night had no air conditioning so it was again a sleepless 8 hour ride. This may be a rough week but we leave Thirsday afternoon for our 10 day spring break in Mancorra. One week I'm in the mountains, the next I'm laying on the beach for a week. No complaints here!!