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We celebrated her birthday the evening before with a cake and presents :)
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Well, this trip was NOT for the feint of heart 😳 We gave Ella a few different options of places we could go for her birthday and she chose the Aguas Turquesas. It wasn't what we were expecting (in some ways), and, in true Peruvian fashion, the tour agency didn't disclose that the main road leading to the AT was closed so we had to take a detour! The 3 hour trip took 4 hours and 45 minutes to get there! The car ride wound around the mountain pretty much the entire time. Imagine the curviest road you've driven on. Now, imagine that curvy road on the edge of a mountain...that is over 5,000 meters (1,000 meters higher than Pikes Peak). Now, imagine that curvy road has no shoulder, is basically one lane and you have various animal and people obstacles to look out for. Oh, and then imagine that it's a dirt road 🙈 Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Luckily, our driver was awesome (even though he loved looking at the scenery
while he was driving). I did
not partake of the beautiful views as looking over the side was terrifying! lol Here's just a little taste of the drive there.
Because of the curvy road, the lady in front of Noe got sick about an hour and a half into the drive. The driver was able to pull over in time. Paul, however, did not get so lucky! 🤢 He's never gotten car sick before and it came on so suddenly there was no warning. Good times. I had already asked to sit up in the front seat because I was nauseous. So Paul joined me. We felt much better in the front...but it also gave us a front row seat to all the "curvas peligrosas".
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we hiked down to the water once we finished at the top and got to see everything up close. All the rocks and stones are white. |
I was dreading the ride back home. I knew it would be dark for part of the ride, and I realllly wanted to get through the curviest part before that happened. I even told our nice driver - if you get us home safely, I'll give you a tip :) lol. The poor guy was so exhausted by the time we arrived! We stopped a few times along the way and Ella always found dogs to play with 💙 When we stopped for lunch/dinner, we even got to see and hold a 3 week old baby sheep!
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She's like the pied piper with dogs :) lol |
Overall, it was a nice trip...but I wouldn't do it again. When the main road opens up, I think it'd be worth it...but the fact that we couldn't get in the water (and it was so cold), and the trip was so long, made it not really worth it. This was one of the things on our Peru bucket list to see though. so I'm glad we got to do it! It will definitely be a birthday Ella remembers! lol
En Cristo,
Laurie y la familia Juarez
Happy birthday, Ella! I feel for Paul and his carsick moment. I had the same thing happen to me when I was visiting my SIL's parents out in Oregon. They wanted me to see Crater Lake but the trip involved a lot of curvy roads, and I made the mistake of sitting in the backseat and having to wear my sunglasses because I mislaid my regular glasses. Ugh. I would say the color of the water is due to copper sulfate; limestone would more affect the pH. Beautiful pictures!
ReplyDeletethanks Jan! I was very happy the front seat was vacant - or I would've gotten sick as well! I thought maybe you'd know about the water color! thanks!!
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