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Published: January 14th 2009
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Yay!! Back to the mountains!!! I had a nice time on the coast but I was constantly questioning what was missing and I found it as soon as we entered Huaraz in the early hours of the morning on the night bus from Trujillo. The cool air hit me as we left the bus and the white snow capped peaks all around the city made me feel at home again. After having around 6 weeks in the mountains of Ecuador I was ready to reacquaint myself with the altitude and do some great hiking.
I found Huaraz to be quite charming and was instantly remindered about the number of indiginous people living in and around the city. This was my first experience of indigenous people in Peru after seeing alot in Ecuador. Instantly I noticed the difference in the hats and the detail in the embroidery on their dresses and skirts. Lots of crafts were being sold on the street and the occasional Llama was being used as a companion throughout the rainy day for some. I only hoped that we would see alot more indiginous people in the mountains.
I spent the day trying to work out my
options for the hiking tomorrow. Unfortunately there wasn´t many people around so I couldn´t find any hiking partners and after making some enquires it looked like I would save only $30 if I did it by myself and hired tents, cooking stuff and maybe a guide. So I signed up with an agency and would be leaving with 4 people for the Santa Cruz trek in the morning. I can´t wait to get to Patagonia and buy a tent and do this all myself but I thought I would see how this goes.
We started our journey early in the morning by taking a collectivo to Caraz where we changed vans and started winding our way up into the mountains. The roads were pretty rough and my knees were massaging the back of the person in front of me. Our group consisted of a Peruvian couple and a Brazilian couple. Our guide, Abel, seemed like a cool guy so I was hoping for an interesting 4 days. We passed a nice laguna on the ascent and after stopping briefly to take a few snaps we made our wasy up to the starting point of the trek after one more
Weqlla flower hangs on the cross
The flowers are sometimes painted silver and are hung on the crosses to protect the towns from the destructive forces of nature. They are also ground down and made into a drink as it apparently fixes alot of problems for babies. hour.
After a quick snack we headed down into the valley to begin our 4 hr hike for day 1. As soon as we began the rain decided to join us...lets hope it wouldn´t be around for the entire 4 days. It was a comfortable trek through the valley passing many potato crops and children yelling "caramello, caramello". Luckily for them the Quenual tree is also chewed to relieve toothaches. Abel explained to us that the juice of the cactus was used as mortar when building all the houses in the villages many years ago. This turned out to be a great choice because with the many earthquakes that have occurred around the region these are the only houses that have stood the test of time. Why don´t they still use it now? I´m not sure.
Eventually near the end of the day we got our first glimpse of the many snow capped peaks that we would see in the next few days. We made camp just before sunset with nice views all around up the valley. Tomorrow we would walk up to the Punta Union Pass (4750m) where the views are meant to be spectactular. It was
also New years eve and it was the definitely the quietest celebration that I have ever had. No alcohol or crazy antics. We all enjoyed some hot chocolate and the peacefulness and beautiful surroundings. Noone even made the New Year as we all rugged up in our tents some 3 hours before midnight.
I definitely felt the cold on our first night even though we were around 3500m and we would be camping at a higher altitude on the 2nd night. A sleepless night was had by most of us but we all gathered up all the energy we had to make a decent attempt at day 2. Luckily for us our cook and mule driver Emilio made us some eggs for breakfast so we were all ready to go at 8am.
Day 2 was alot tougher but this was compensated by the amazing scenery. As we walked closer to the snow capped peaks we passed little lakes and amazing granite formations on either side. The Punta Union Pass was made around lunch time and we were greeted with spectacular views down through the valley with 6000m peaks on both sides. Of those peaks the best were Quitaraju
(6040m), Artesonraju (6025) and Taulliraju which looked the most menacing just to the right of us. I won´t even attempt to describe how beautiful it was...just have a look at the photos.
Luis was the only person who struggled with the altitude (and fitness) but once he made it to the top it was easy going on the way down. Before the descent we were greeted with a heavy hail storm which made the going slow as it was quite slippery. It was a further 2 hours past an amazing blue lake into the valley where we would camp for the 2nd night. The campsite was at 3700m and it was colder than what we experienced last night. Lots of tea was had by all after dinner and Abel kept us all amused by playing a dice game with us for a few hours before we retired to gather up some strength for tomorrow.
Unfortunately cloud and alot of mist greeted us in the morning which amde the decision alot easier for our route today. If the weather was clear we were going to walk up to a base camp at 4800m where great views could be had.
Instead we just wandered through the valley for 6 hrs and camped by the river that night. It was an enjoyable walk, especially seeing the river gaining strength every hour. Our campsite was by a waterfall so in the afternoon we crossed 2 rivers and experienced the power of the water off the glaciers up close and personal. Emilio also had a successful fishing trip in the afternoon so trucha was on the menu for dinner that night. For the 2nd night running we played some games after dinner but had to rug up as it was bitterly cold. Tomorrow would only be a 3 hr walk before making our way back to Huaraz in the afternoon.
The last morning was quite an easy stroll and by 11am we had finished the entire Santa Cruz circuit. In total it was close to 40km and we were all looking forward to some rest once back in Huaraz. It was a great 4 days, with day 2 going over the punta union pass revealing some amazing scenery of the glaciers. Lets only hope Patagonia is better!!!
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