Finally! Free travel! After endless group meeting and discussions we are finally in the middle of our free travel week.
We have choosen to go to Huaraz and Trujillo, Peru. Right now we are in Huaraz staying at the lovely Caroline Lodging. Yesterday we broke up into three groups. My group consisted of Magen, Kelsey and Elta and we went horse back riding. Meghan, Chloe and Helen went to Lagoon 69. Maleea, James and Andy went moutain biking. Everyone had a great time.
The horse back riding was an adventure though. We were told to be ready at 9am, so at 9 we were in the lobby waiting patiently. Finally at 9:35 a man showed up for us. We got in a taxi with him and went to a taxi/van/bus depot thing. There heconvinced us to take a 4 hour house back ride for only 15 soles more per person. Then, after he had collected our money, he put us on a bus and left. We were really surprised. He hadnt told us where to go!
We drove for about 20 minutes and then the bus stopped. The boy collecting money told us this was our stop. We got off and looked around. We had been dropped off on the side of a higway. We looked around and saw a sign that said Caballos and assumed that was where we were ment to go. We walked up a dirt path to a house and 7 horses. A tiny peruvian woman in colorful clothing greeted us and told us to wait, there were two more people coming. After an hour of waiting around a couple other travelers showed up. We all got on our horses and started off. For the first twenty minutes of the ride our guide was not with us. We started to worry that we would be riding by ourselves. But she finally showed up.
We rode up rode up higher and higher and got a great few of the surrounding snow capped mopuntains. The ride was great but by the last hour everyone was tired and sore, even the horses. In the last hour my horse tripped 4 times. But it was still a really cool ride.
We rode down the roae and aburptly the woman told us to get off, the ride was over. We got off and hobbled to the main rode. There her teenaged son helped us get a bus. We waited for 45 minutes and finally one stopped for us. It was more like a taxi van and fit for probably 15 people. There were 30 of us cramed into the van. Kelsey, Elta and I were standing up while egan was lucky enough to get a seat.
We were finally dropped off on the edge of Huaraz and, after a some really good soup, we walked half an hour back to the hostel. It was a long day, but a fun and memorable one. Hopefully our time in Trujillo will be just as awesome!
- tiny woman, colorful clothes
