Happy Birthday to me!

Of all the things to do on your 20th birthday, trek to a beautiful lake at 4600m in the Peruvian Andes is one of the best.

I woke up around 4:30am to call Dad and Annabel and receive birthday wishes, before unwrapping the birthday present I've 'lugged' all this way around South America… a pack of brunch bars. Which are actually super useful!

We headed off into the dark on a packed coach, back up the main highway that runs through the Ancash region north of the capital, Huaraz, and is the main artery linking this tourist town with the tourist attractions of the surrounding Cordillera Blanca.

The main road is on the flat valley floor, but to reach the start point of the trek to Laguna 69 you have to snake up the switchback roads of the valley side and ascend towards the mountains. The trek started at 3900m altitude, already higher than La Paz!

To be honest, I spent most of the trek up in my own little world. The scenery was utterly magnificent. I headed up, plugged into my favourite Mumford & Sons album, Babel, and snaked up the mountain paths, coated in huge, annoying flies but that didn't matter. The looming glaciers more than made up for that.

The trek was tough, the Laguna is situated at 4600m altitude, but the altitude was only one difficult component. The other was how dusty the paths were, although thankfully on the way down a slight drizzle made the path less slippy (because it bound the dust).

Laguna 69 is an absolutely magnificent place, I'd go as far to say the most beautiful place I've seen in the whole Andes, perhaps sparing Patagonia. The problem with the Cordillera Blanca is that you do ever so slightly feel like you're being herded like sheep… it's a bit of a rush as you're working to a tour operator's schedule and I felt in Patagonia I had more time to enjoy the scenery.

It was still a great way to begin being 20, which is also quite surreal to be honest. And a fantastic send off to Peru. I'm currently in a Franco-Peruvian restaurant, which the hostel manager frantically found for me as the only place in town serving Cuy (Guinea Pig) at this time. I neglected to bring any camera so no photos ☹ but still, I have that one from when I was 11!

Alpes Huaraz is another brilliant South American hostel. The owners appear very keen to ensure their guests have as good a time as possible, it's clean and whilst the Wi-Fi is poor, that certainly helps make a social atmosphere. After this Cuy, the plan is to have some beers in the hostel with 2 Portuguese Medic interns and 2 New York data scientists I met on the tour today.

It's so weird thinking this is the end of my time in Peru. 1 more night, a rushed visit to Lima and then am off to Costa Rica. I almost can't comprehend being in the Caribbean, and the heat! It's now I realise just how good a time I've had and how fast everything has gone. It was a fantastic decision to come back to South America, I think I'd like to try living here in the future, but more likely Argentina or Chile than Peru. Still, am really looking forward to heading off to another country, as I near and surpass 40 countries (ish) and see something completely different…

Vamos!