Llanganuco

With the arrival of June it was time for our third and final big event with the kids in the Casa Hogar - a trip to Llanganuco, a beautiful turquoise lake situated in Huascaran National Park. To expect everything to run smoothly would have been foolish on our parts, after all this has pretty much never happened since we arrived in Peru! Therefore we were a bit disappointed but not too surprised when we were greeted in the morning by grey skies over Huaraz…we`re officially in the dry season but as with most places in the world, the weather`s mixed up, so the blue skies which are supposedly guaranteed in June didn`t materialize. Not letting it affect the day, we set off for the Casa Hogar arriving at 8.45am sharp as we`d been instructed to ensure a prompt departure at 9am. Yeah right.

When we arrived at the C.H. the bus was waiting, the tour guide and driver were ready to go, and the kids were happily playing in the street awaiting their big day out. But where were the `tias`? After a quick look around we found them in the kitchen, surrounded by meat and vegetables busily cooking our lunch…nowhere near ready to go. "Media hora mas" they stated (half an hour more) so off we went to deliver the news to an increasingly impatient bus driver. Of course half an hour came and went and there was still no sign of movement. Eventually someone informed us that the gas on the cooker wasn`t working at full force so the food was taking a lot longer to cook than usual. At this point we decided packed lunches are seriously underrated but knew that this opinion would never be shared by our Peruvian colleagues. Food is one of the most important things to Peruvians, when they`re not eating it they`re preparing it, when they`re not preparing it, they`re talking about it - we`ve never seen anything like it! Not that we`re complaining, being foody fans ourselves we have enjoyed many delicious Peruvian dishes but our appreciation of it doesn`t even come close to their passion!

We eventually set off after 10am - I suppose an hour late isn`t too bad, especially after the Casma trip! The tour guide gave a geography lesson to a bus load of excitable kids (yes us too!) all the way to our first stop - Carhuaz, a village famous for its ice-cream. Of course we had to taste this famous ice-cream so all 28 of us (as predicted a few relatives came along too!) piled into the closest `heladeria`…it was definitely good but still no rival to Maud`s honeycomb. Then it was back on the bus and along some ropey windy roads. Hunger pangs were setting in since it had been a whole 20 minutes since our ice-cream so sweets and biscuits were passed around for the rest of the journey.

We arrived at Llanganuco around midday and although the clouds and the altitude (800m higher than Huaraz) made it a bit chilly, the views were beautiful! The bright turquoise of the lake sharply contrasted with the white mountains surrounding it. However, before any exploring could be done the food had to be safely transported to the picnic area. The saucepans containing our lunch were too big to carry so the wheelchair of one of the disabled kids in the home was used as their chariot and poor old JC was made to walk, albeit with help, but still, priorities!! As lunch was being prepared the kids took off to explore the water and the path around the lake. It`s incredible, Huaraz is located beside miles of stunning scenery, yet many who live there have never ventured out into the mountains, partly due to lack of resources but also to their lack of interest or desire, in many ways the surroundings are just taken for granted. In contrast, it was great to see the kids enjoying some of their country`s best features and appreciating the importance of protecting them.

Lunch was served and it was one of our favourites - lomo saltado, a kind of beef stirfry. It was reminiscent of past picnics with extended family, which summed up our group pretty well…although we`ve known the kids and tias for less than a year they`ve accepted us into their `family` and spending time altogether is always very noisy and very fun! After lunch we set off on an adventure across the lake in 3 rowing boats…cold but great craic. The lake was such a peaceful haven in comparison to the incessant noise of Huaraz. The noise soon resumed, however, when we boarded the bus once again and the kids` shouting, singing and music recommenced. Our final stop of the tour was in a quaint town called Caraz where we briefly visited the main square and treated the kids to local biscuits called `alfajores`, after all they hadn`t had dessert yet!

Then it was a 2 hour journey home, when we couldn`t help but think about our upcoming departure and how sad we`ll be to say goodbye to these wonderful kids we`ve come to know and love and who, without even realizing it, have been by far the highlight of our time in Peru.