Arrived in Huaraz

Hola,
After 30 hours of traveling by air, taxi, and bus i arrived in Huaraz. During my flight over Lima, I saw all the shanty towns and a large tire dump on fire on the beach. My fist land experience was a 30 minute cab ride in the middle of town during rush hour! Wow, that was super crazy with all the calculated near misses with cars, buses, dogs and people. the drivers there are excellent. the first taxi guy wanted 130 soles, the second 55, the last 25 (about 9 dollars). the farther you get from the terminal, the less expensive it gets. I was overwhelmed with the smell of exhaust in Lima. my second experience in Lima was a four hour wait at the bus terminal in a bad part of town, but all of Lima seemed like a ´bad part of town´ to me. I was afraid to leave the terminal. The bus to Huaraz first went along the desert coast and the road cut into huge sand dunes hundreds of feet high that overlayed a volcanic rocky Pacific coast like California´s. Four six hours later we crested the 12,500 foot pass leading to Huaraz. Sealevel to 12,500 in six hours is the fasted i have ever accended, but the small headache passed upon arriving in Huaraz.
In Huaraz, all is good and my bags are in tact. my room cost me 5 dollars a night and the showers are caliente. the bed spread is all multicolor Peruvian style. i love it here so far but still am intimidated by my surroundings, local food, and my poor espanol. but that all will come soon. the elevation here in Huaraz is about 10,000 feet so i need to acclimate here for about 3 days before heading up into las quebradas (canyons) escalar los montanas (to climb the mountains). See my spanish is getting better all ready! i am playing ultimate frisbee in the mountains tomorrow afternoon with some Americans from a cafe! I could see staying here for a while. but i hope to go to Cusco and Lake Titicaca to teh south and possibly a surfing spot up north near the border with Ecuador.
_Chris

Huaraz