Day 373 – Huaraz
Non Classic tour to Laguna Paron (aka Paramount Tour)
Today was our first guided tour in Huaraz. We had organised the trip the night before with the amazing staff member from Akilpo Hostel. The classic tour, just takes you to Laguna Paron where you can walk around the lake. The tradiational tours are cheaper but don’t include walking around the lake. Therefore, as recommended we opted for the non classic tour. The tour cost us 95 PEN ($41.58 AUD) per person.
Getting to Laguna Paron
Unfortunately, the non classic tour’s pick up begins between 4.30 and 5.00am! We woke up at 4am to pack our day packs. As we waited in the lobby, we saw a Laguna 69 tour (which is super popular tour) leave before us!
We were picked up around 5am and got into a van. Pretty much everyone on the tour had booked from either Akilpo Hostel or their more classy Guesthouse. No one really chatted much, since it was 5am!
The drive was long. And the last hour or so was full of winding roads. We arrived at the Laguna at 8am.
Laguna Paron
At Laguna Paron we parked the van right next to the Laguna. It was beautiful.
The tour with Akilpo, covers everything, from the entrance to Huascaran National Park, breakfast, lunch, transport and guides. We had breakfast right there in the carpark. There are no proper seats, but everyone managed to find something to sit on. The breakfast was surprisingly good and filling.
Then we started the hike along relatively flat ground. This is good since we were already 4,200 metres above sea level. The water is just a spectacular blue. We enjoyed it more than Laguna Churup (Day 372). The large scale of the water and the surrounding mountain ranges are just incredible.
After hiking around one side of the Laguna, we continued to Laguna Artesoncocha, which is apparently in front of a mountain range that is the inspiration for the Paramount Pictures Logo. To me…it’s a no. However, the laguna is nice, without this claim to fame.
We had another surprisingly good lunch here before heading back to the van. The return trip, followed the same path, but the views were still amazing.
By the time we came to the car park, there were other tourists in the little row boats and sitting around the edge of the lake. We were glad to have done this non classic tour instead.
Then we had a 3 hour ride back to the hostel to enjoy. Along the way, we talked to a French girl, who has spent the last 10 years of her life living in different countries. She was able to do this as a French language teacher, which was pretty cool.
Back at the hostel we gave in some laundry, and washed up. Later we went with our Canadian physio friend to a really nice Argentinean pizza place in Huaraz for an amazing dinner.