Lima to Huaraz

Landed in Lima an hour late. Not bad for Newark. Oddest thing was, in the 2 seats next to me were two riders who are very good friends with my son. They were headed to Lima and then over to Machu Picchu and its sister city. Completely bizarre to fly to Peru with two people you indirectly know but had no idea would be traveling at all. It made for a very pleasant flight.

In Lima, Adrian spotted me right off. We had to wait about 1/2 hour more for Josh to arrive. Josh has some pretty amazing climbing experience in his past. Nepal, Rainier, Several 14K footers in Colorado. He's a mountain biker and does ice climbing. Really impressive. And very pleasant to be around. This is gonna be a good trip.

We stayed at a really nice hotel, El Patio, and got to see a bit of Lima, but not much. We left early the next morning for the 8 hour trip to Huaraz.

The drive starts out with barren landscape as in NO plants whatsoever. After a couple hours of the this (headed North up the coast), we start to climb a bit and start to see some native vegetation and some crops==sugarcane and corn mostly. We finally turned inland and started climbing up a series of switchbacks, all the time seeing more varied crops and farm animals. As the corn or peppers are harvasted, they're laid out on the ground in irregular swatches to dry. It makes for a patchwork of red, black and yellow over the farmland.

The ponies are very attactive and appear quite well cared for and well bred. I'm hoping the ponies we ride out are like these fellows. The look like great fun!

In Huaraz, we're staying at Olaza's. It is fantastic and close to everything we need to get to. Everywhere we stop, restaurants, shops, hotels, the owners greet Adrian like he's old family. It is awesome and really gives Huaraz a very friendly, inviting feeling.