While walking down the main street in Huaraz (rainy day at 7PM) we heard a commotion and a lot of shouting. We turned in time to see a bull with a yellow bullfighter's spear sticking out of his back, running the wrong way down a busy one way street. Cars screeched to a halt as the bull ran straight towards them. At one intersection, two men narrowly avoided being gored by arching their back in an immitation of a bull fighter move. Behind the bull, a couple guys with ropes were madly running, trying to catch him.

They ran up the street and then we lost them. Of course, as always happens in these situations, we'd left the camera in the hotel.

We caught the 8AM bus to Chavin. It is a beautiful but difficult road over the mountains.










The first part was through a river plain so it was relatively flat. We went by adobe villages with red tile roofs contrasting against the gold hills. Some of the villages still had ruins from the last big earthquake in the area (1970s). At one point the road sqitched back and we found ourselves facing huge mountain peaks covered with snow
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After driving through a town we began to ascend up narrow roads with stunning views which I eventually opted to ignore, closing my eyes to avoid the combination of nausea and fear invoked by the bus suddenly swerving around potholes caused by falling boulders and getting dangerously close to the edge of the narrow road.

The mountain peaks in the Cordillera Blanca are like nothing I've seen. On some of them you can see the folds in the rocks created when the Andes were forced up into existence. They look almost vertical where in the Rockies they are more diagonal.

Chavin is a pleasant village: clean and well taken care of. The Plaza de Armes has gardens, a fountain and buildings that looked like many had been recently painted.



We stopped by the tourist office to find out about return busses. The agent also informed us about shared station waggons leaving for Huaraz whenever they were full.

The road from the plaza to the ruins was lined with souvenire shops and tourist restaurants serving Cuy Picante (Spicy Guinea Pig), the local specialty.

It seemed like we were the first tourists to arrive at the ruins for the day. Unfortunately there weren't any English speaking guides.

As we followed the signs around the perimeter of the ruins, I began to worry we had been on a bus for 2 and a half hours for ruined stone walls. Fortunately the path reached the opposite side of the ruins which revealed a huge courtyard. There were some underground tunnels visible and lots of heavy stone walls but no carvings. The tunnels weren't lit so we didn't want to explore them. The path wound around to some stairs with snakes carved on them. Then we walked by the entrance to the temple: two carved columns with a carved head stone
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The carvings were strange and hard to comprehend. I could make out claws and what looked like lots of teeth but they didn't seem to make a logical figure: just strange swirling lines and parts. Back at the entrance I glanced at a photocopy of someones article about how all the different parts represented different symbols.

Another stairway led to the tunnels into the interior of the temple. The tunnels were labyrinthine with dead ends and lots of passages all built from heavy stones.





There were windows that looked into other passages. One led to a huge carved pillar but we couldn't get close to it. It is believed that the temple was used to "shock and awe" people into submission to the the priests who became the dominant power in Chavin society. The people would be fed San Pedros cactus and then led into the tunnels where the priests would confuse them with polished coal mirrors, lights shining through the various tunnels and sounds. After going down a stairway to the outside of the ruins, we finally found one of the famed headstones

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Originally there had been many spaced all around the outside of the temple. Now all except one, have been moved to museums. Even most of the headstones on the scale model of how the original temple had been have been taken!

As we walked around the ruins we heard horn music. Across the river from the ruins was a house where musicians were playing. We could make out bright colored clothing so perhaps it was a celebration. On the hill over one part of the ruins was a small herd of llamas grazing peacefully. The ruins are nestled in a peaceful location with the mountains rising above.

After visiting the ruins we walked back through town and got into one of the shared taxis. Eventually we had enough people and set off. On the way out of town we picked up an old woman with a net bag with 2 live chickens. One of the other passengers moved to the back with the chickens. Rowshan pulled the chicken bag out from under his legs when he noticed the poor chickens were being used as a pillow.

The ride back was faster and more comfortable though it was still a bit rough swerving around the potholes.

At one point the driver pointed to a mountain side where a land slide had happened 50 years before. Now it was full of trees. "Plan de Peru," he said. Sure enough, it did look like a map of Peru traced in green onto the mountain side
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Beyond it was a beautiful lake and yet another stunning peak.

Rowshan felt better and with another day of aclimization, we decided to attempt to hike to Lake Churup again. The weather was clear as we set off across the fields. We made it up the hillside to the point where we had given up the day before with a lot less breaks and quite a bit faster. I was panting hard the whole way and did start to call for more breaks and a slower pace.




The point where we'd left off was the crest of a hill that dropped down to a river valley. The path clung to the edge of the valley, staying even for a dissapointingly short period of time before climbing steeply up a rocky slope which I imagined would present us with a stunning view of the lake. We slowly climbed, stopping for a snack of crackers and cheese. At one point our trail directions mentioned a divide in the trail with one option being longer but easier and the other being shorter but requiring a bit of "a scramble." We took the path that seemed to keep lower.

Finally I saw another crest with several stone markers. We pushed ourselves toward it, eagerly anticipating the view of the turquoise lake. Instead
we saw a slight dscent and then a steep rocky area
with a waterfall/cascade of at least 100 ft This was the "scramble."
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We sat looking at it, trying to figure out how we'd get up it. I saw a bit of movement and noticed a black and white dog running about on the rocks. There were also two people trying to get down. One looked stuck, spread eagled across a rock face. As we were watching a man and two kids who we'd seen a ways behind us on the trail overtook us and headed up one side of the rocky face. We opted for the area near the cascade. It was a tough climb but not dangerous. At some points we had to crawl up the rocks seeking handholds and footholds. The black and white dog scampered down to join us and leapt up the rocks ahead of us. The climb seemed to last forever.

"This lake had better be good!" I yelled to Rowshan. Eventually we reached the top and were greeted by a red signpost reading Laguna Churup and the elevation, around 4,500 meters. The lodge is at about 3,700 meters. Barely taking time to admire the lake I lay down on a rock and shielded my face with my arm. Eventually I could breathe normally and I stood up and looked at the lake. The sky was overcast so the color was dark but it still retained a turquoise color. It was crystal clear and we could see water weeds and rocks. Sharp grey stone cliffs rose around it and Mount Churup rose up behind majestic and white.

While I'd been resting, Rowshan had made friends with the dog by feeding him crackers. He wouldn't allow Rowshan to pet him but he would come up and snatch away a cracker. We admired the lake. The man and his sons, who we hope were locals because they climbed so quickly, went up to a higher rocky area above us. Rowshan started experimenting with the echo- a fine one since there were lots of stone cliffs to bounce the sound about. The man's kids also began responding: their location produced an even better echo.


Lake Churub Echo Sound

It began to rain/hail so we headed back down. The family went too, quickly speeding past us. The black and white dog followed us all the way down the mountain. Rowshan named him Churup
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I actually grew kind of fond of him. Sometimes he'd walk next to me, sometimes with Rowshan. Other times he would lag behind as if playing Red Light, Green Light, freezing when we looked back and then continuing to follow us when we started walking. He didn't bark and didn't spray everywhere. When we reached a house where a couple loud dogs lived, Churup turned back. Rowshan tried to lure him with a cracker but he just snatched it and ran back up the trail.

That evening there was an amazing sunset.