Huaraz, Peru - a tour of Llanganuco Valley, or what can an angry mountain do to a town!

Of course, even before I even had a chance to step down from the bus, I was "attacked" by hostel/tourist office workers, offering places to stay and excursions. And, the thought came right away, 'it won't be hard to bargain again':)) So, I got a private room for only 15 soles, as well as three consecutive days of excursions reduced to 90 soles, from 120.

A tour of Llanganuco Valley was programmed into the first day. We were picked up in the morning and taken through the towns along the valley between the two mountain ranges. The towns were small and seemed quite nice and friendly, but there wasn't anything special about them except for the fact that they are surrounded by beautiful mountains, on the east by massive and majestic "nevados" (snowy peaks) of Cordillera Blanca, and on the west by rugged crest of silent and dark Cordillera Negra.

Our tour bus stopped in few of those towns, encouraging us (tourists) to add to the commercial come rotary, but for me it was all about the sights and pictures:)) One of the towns, Yungay, was particularly interesting due to the tragedy it encountered at the beginning of the '70s. Practically half of the town, right through the middle of it, was destroyed by an avalanche that came down from a giant right behind it, Huascaran (6700m-tall mountain). This monstrous "bulldozer" of rocks and snow was caused by an earthquake and split the city in two, taking the lives of thousands of people. You can still find the remains of Plaza de Armas, the Cathedral, and a bus fused with a truck in a weird and twisted way (you can see pictures in the 'Photo Albums" section of my blog - top right-hand side).

A visit to Huascaran National Park was also included in the tour, and our bus took us to a lagoon situated nearly at 4000m above the sea level (more than 13000ft.). The surrounding mountains however, were not as visible as I'd hoped for due to cloud coverage, but I still had a nice 40-minute walk through a bushy trail:)) It was very windy, and therefore quite cold, but trail running is a perfect solution for that:))

We've finished our day with palm trees, an incredible view of a burning sky, and a ceramics-making presentation, again, encouraging us to make more purchases.