Up at 5:30 this morning. Everything was pretty wet from all the rain overnight, there was even some frost around, but we packed up and were on the trail by 6:30am.
Today started with a steep downhill back to the main valley floor. For the next few hours, the trail was more or less flat, meandering down the valley along the river, past a large lake. We felt lucky to have had so much sun the first couple days, because it was a little cloudy today.
For the last hour or so, there was a very steep downhill to the town of Cashapampa. We hiked a total of about 14 miles today, but still managed to make it to the town by 12. We caught a shared taxi to the town of Caraz, then another Combi to Huaraz, which got us back in around 3pm. Alejandro stopped by a Peluqueria for a haircut (not quite as cheap as in Bolivia, but less than $2 still ain’t bad!), then we headed back to the hostel to return our gear. We repacked all of our things, showered, then hung around in the common area until dinner time. We walked around and found a restaurant serving one of the last Peruvian dishes we hadn’t yet tried, Pacu Pacu:
It’s essentially a pork-flavored bean and rice cake, served with sauteed steak/veggies (lomo saltado). Absolutely delicious (and huge)! From here, we went back to the hostel to grab our packs, then walked to the bus terminal and got on our way to Trujillo.
Travel Fun With Cassie and Alejandro 
Cordillera Blanca was breathtaking. The lake, the snowy mountains, the views, everything was worth the grate challenge of going by yourselves. I admire both of you so much. I take my hat off.
Big Kiss
Lolis
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Thank you both for sharing your amazing adventures! The photos, your daily treks, each of you must be in great shape physically! Thank you again for sharing! Brenda McMillan
Sent from my iPhone
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Is flash flooding ever a problem in some of those valleys? Beautiful views! Cassie, maybe you can get one of those monitors to display pictures in your office and cycle through all of these beautiful shots!! What memories!
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I was hoping it wasn’t an issue! Especially when I was lying in my sleeping bag listening to the rain fall next to the river.
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