Feb 16-20

So the last week ive been in the mountains. I left tuesday morning and walked out of the city up the hills and into mountains. I originally planned on going to thos lake called Churup, but once i got to the base of the mountain i decided to skip it and head another 7ish miles further up the valley to get to these othere 2 lakes. Once i actually got to the trailhead i had was pretty exhausted so i made camp next to the river that i would follow up the whole valley. Wednesday i walked up in between two huge sheer rock mountain faces and made it to the base of the lakes that were further up in the mountains. I made camp in this little rock circle thing and spent the night, waking up in pouring rain. It stopped soon though and I hiked up to the bigger lake. It was spectacular. The water was turquoise blue and the snow and glacier covered mountains rose super high above. Every so often, the mountains would crack and rumble like thunder, but im pretty sure it was the ice moving/ falling. The first big long one i was ready to grab my bag and book it because i though some ice might fall in the lame and cause a lake tsunami! I climbed a cool boulder a bunch and then headed back down to where i made camp, which was also the fork at which the other path would lead to a higher lake (4800 m). I started up the suuper steep side of the mountain on what i figured were cow trails because i definitely lost the real path. I made it up to a more terraced part when it started raining. It wasnt to bad though so i kept going until it started pouring and getting really cold. I found a flat spot and made camp real quick, and spent the evening fairly wet. But it was alright because in the morning it was perfectly clear. The sun was so strong and dried up everything in an hour or so while i had breakfast and coffee, and then i packed up and headed up the rest of the mountain (only about 700 m on the trail) and found an incredible place. Its impossible to describe how i felt at that completely pristine lake, but check out the pictures for an idea. The rest of Friday i hiked out and back to Huaraz, after getting lost a few times when i wasn’t paying attention to the fairly clear trail haha. 

Ive spent the weekend relaxing and letting my blisters heal a bit before i head out tomorrow morning for the northern mountains. Ill be out for about 2 weeks so ill update when i get back to Huaraz around march 7th.
   
I met a donkey and fed him trail mix.

    
baby horse! (His fur was still all nasty from just probably very recent birth!)

    
There were looots of cows. Also i didnt know cows (females) had horns!  I had a few close encounters with some but they were nice, they just wanted to check me out.

 

   
 
The first lake

  
The stone campsite

   
The second lake

 
I made a bunch of donkey friends

   
2nd lake.. I meditated on top of a rock looking at this for i dont even know how long but it was freakin amazing

 
Campsite before the 2nd lake

   
2nd lake 

 
1st lake from up near the 2nd lake 

 
I got bored while waiting for water to boil

 
 I found a few cow skulls and bones  

  

  A cool waterfall thing

  
The valley from above on a super steep mountsin side