All about my mountain trip

Wow, it's taken me a long time to do this post. I guess I was just daunted by how long it would end up being... :)
Well, how do I begin? I guess from the beginning... We left Lima last Friday night, took an over night bus (8 hours) to the city of Huaraz. Huaraz is located in one of the most amazing places I've ever seen. It is surrounded on all sides by mountains. You can see the snow capped mountains in the distance and the shorter ones nearby. The climate their is hot and very dry. Everything there is much cheaper than in Lima (hard to believe, huh?). We stayed in Huaraz two nights to acclimate in a hostal that cost roughly $6 a night and feasted on delicious food that was practically free. This city was practically destroyed in the 70s by an earthquake and it is slowly rebuilding. It is, for the most part, quite rustic, except for the fairly built up down town/plaza area where most of the tourists hang out.
We left with a group on Monday morning for our trek. It was a 3 hour, bumpy, nauseating bus ride up a crazy mountain road to the trailhead. Our first day started with a packed lunch of bread with cheese, cookies, and fruit (this was practically identical every day except for the flavor of the cookies and what was on the bread). We hiked for several hours, a moderately difficult trek in my opinion. The mountains were astounding every day. We camped the first night in a valley next to a stream. The horses grazed nearby. It was incredible. But, when the sun went down, it sucked. I was not prepared for how cold it would be. And the man who had set up the 4 day/3 night package had told us there would be a winter jacket for me to use.... But, as I should've expected, this wasn't the case. At night, we ate soup, noodles, rice, potatoes or egg omelets (yes, the actually brought several dozen eggs hiking in the mountains...as to how they managed to stay whole...).
It was nice having a guide, I have to admit, because the trek wasn't easy. They fed us 3 meals a day (even tended to my vegetarianism!), gave us tents and sleeping bags, brought donkeys to carry our heavy bags and equipment, and were overall very interesting guys. Two of the them were indigenous men who spoke Quechua and Spanish. They were fun to talk to. And, although they had little money, they seemed to be loving life. I mean, how couldn't they? All you had to do was look around at the surroundings to understand.
The second day of our trek was, without a doubt, the most difficult. We climbed nearly the entire day. Six hours of difficult, altitude climbing, huffing and puffing effort to get to a height of 4,750 meters (or 15,675 feet). I don't think I had ever been so exhausted in my life.
The last two days were fairly easy...mostly descending and much easier on the lungs. We saw such beautiful sites this trip. Such gorgeous mountains and lakes, strangely beautiful flowers and plants, birds and curious indigenous people.
When we returned from our trek, we ate pretty much an entire mountain worth of food. It was quite ridiculous actually. My stomach wasn't happy with me, and still isn't quite back to normal from the trials of that trip.
The worst part of the trip, I must say, was the bus ride home. Not only did I feel sick and uncomfortable, but...my camera was stolen from the cargo hold. I'm very disappointed, but I guess that's life in Peru.

The other day, because we were missing them so much, Aaron and I MADE bagels from scratch. It was so much fun, and we spent the entire day doing it in his host family's kitchen. And his family ended up eating almost all of them... these crazy American little breads. We made plains, sesame, a special peruvian kind with Aji pepper, red onion, and lime juice, and everything. They were amazing. Aaron and I decided to make this a regular Sunday afternoon activity...now I never have to worry about not having my favorite American food. :) That night we also went to see a Peruvian rock band that was doing a tribute to the group Radiohead. It was a lot of fun.

Hmm...one more update. Today was the first day of classes. I am quite overwhelmed by how difficult they seem. That, and I believe I'm in the beginnings of some culture shock depression. They say that about a month in, or at the beginning of the actual semester for this group, you really feel overwhelmed by everything. Let's just say I just REALLY wanted someone to talk in English to by the end of a day of only listening to Spanish. In two of the classes I attended to check out, I was practically the only international student. It was pretty scary. I'm sure that things will get easier soon. I feel like once I get into the semester, meet some more Peruvian friends, and actually choose the classes I'm taking, things will be much less stressful.

Well, that's all the pain I'm gonna put you guys through today...I regret I don't have any pictures to post now, but I will hopefully get some from the others from my group and figure out how to post some soon. Hasta luego, todos!