Huaraz is a city off the beaten path for many tourists to Peru, but has become an increasingly popular destination for adventure seekers and lovers of the great outdoors. The city itself is not the main draw. By far the main attraction to this area is the twin mountain range, the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra, a colossal corridor of rock which dominates the city and offers a tantalising escape into the Peruvian wilderness.
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Flor de Huaraz and Gringo Karl
Karl arrived in Peru from South Africa four years ago, full of hopes and dreams and with a job repairing classic cars. Not knowing anyone, or speaking Spanish, it was all the more of a shock to him when the company folded and he was left penniless.
Huaraz
Huaraz is the largest city in the valley, the most industrial and most wealthy. From the hills that surround the city you can see that if fills this part of the valley completely. Being the largest city in Ancash though doesn’t make it modern. It is still relatively poor and many traditional adobe whitewashed houses and unpaved streets.
Me vs. The Pastoruri Glacier
For The Karikuy Blog, Lani Conway details her struggle to reach the roof of the world.
An Andean Tradition: Knitting with Alpaca
Kate Robertson shares her experiences in the Andean region of Ancash and the story of an Alpaca knitting project she helped get off the ground.
Without Machu Picchu you’ll enjoy the trip of a lifetime
SPECIAL: PERU WITHOUT MACHU PICCHU – Machu Picchu is closed. It will stay that way through all of February at the very least. Do you have your flights booked and are wondering what to do next? Should you cancel or put off your trip to Cuzco?
Central Peru
Ancash Home to some of the world’s most spectacular snow-capped mountains, and the highest in Peru, the department of Ancash consists of a narrow coastal strip and two huge cordilleras, Blanca and Negra. Between these towering mountain rages you will find the towns of Yungay,…
Travel
A large part of this blog in dedicated to tourism, places and attractions across the country. There’s so much to see and do in Peru, and all of it is so compelling, that you can’t help but be pulled this and that way across the…
The Worst Mosquito Bite So Far
I was bitten a couple of times at Machu Picchu, but this bite was much worse than the previous record from Huaraz all those months ago.
A large lump formed on my wrist with a red rash that ran up my arm to my elbow. When we returned to Cusco we went to Inkafarma for some pills, paid about S./5 and was handed Cetrizine – which I already had half a tonne of.
The Chavín culture
A full two-thousand years before the rise of the Inca empire another culture ruled most of the central Andes and spread their influence yet further. The Chavín, from their capital Chavín de Huántar in modern day Ancash, and with their roots in the very first civilisations and city-states in the Americas such as Caral, Sechín and Ventarrón, created what was Peru’s very first empire. In doing so, they instilled an idea in Andean peoples that lasted until the arrival of the Spanish – rule under one government in one society with one common culture is beneficial in this harshest of environments, that better and central organisation would bring better crop yeilds, as well as more free time for monument building, religion and science.
Yungay
Could you imagine the ground trembling beneath your feet with such tremendous force that you could barely stand? Then have it stop abruptly with just enough time to get outside to apparent safety before a deep rumbling again shook the ground and darkness enveloped you? Nor could the little town of Yungay and its 25,000 inhabitants imagine they would be victims of Peru’s worst ever natural disaster.
Carhuaz
We arrived in Huaraz at around 5am, and as mentioned in the previous entry, we booked ourselves on a tour around the area. Unfortunately, after little sleep on the bus ride here, we had to leave the hotel at 9am. The first stop was a small Andean town along the valley called Carhuaz.