Huaraz

---

We took a day bus from Lima to the city of Huaraz up in the Andes, through some stunning scenery before arriving in the dark. Huaraz has great views of the Corderilla Blanca and the Corderilla Negra. From our room we looked out over the Corderilla Negra and the local market. It was a great spot for people watching as the locals went about their daily business buying what they need from the ladies sitting by the side of the street. There was even childrens rides like a carousel for the locals to use.

We decided to take our first day a bit easy as we were back at altitude after being at sea level for the previous week. Our first trip was to Pastoruri glacier, this only included a short walk so was good for acclimatising. The Pastoruri glacier is located in the southern Corderilla Blanca and is currently receding quickly. It is estimated that in the last 30 years it has lost 22% of its size. The drive to the glacier was longer than I expected but we past some lovely scenery. The walk to the glacier was in a loop and was pretty short (4km in total) but still made me puff on the way up - I'm going to blame this on the altitude as it was around 5,000m. After we started walking the weather turned and it started snowing. We were both underdressed for snow as we didn't expect it and didn't pack enough layers or gloves. The glacier was smaller and less impressive than some of the ones that we saw in Argentina but we were able to get up close and touch it.

Our next day trip was to Laguna 69, I had seen photos of it so was really excited to finally visit. We were up early leaving the hostel at 6:30am as we had to drive 3 hours into the Huascaran national park before we could begin the trek. Just after we entered the national park the road took us past a beautiful glacial lake, I turned around in my seat to see most of the people on the bus up against the windows taking photos of the lake. A couple of minutes later we had a photo stop much to my relief as I was on the wrong side of the bus to get any reasonable photos out the window.

The guide showed us the beginning of the trail and then it was up to us to follow it to the top, he was at the back of the group to help anyone if they had problems with the altitude. As we began the trek it started raining on us very lightly but thankfully didn't last too long.

The trek began easy with a nice flat walk along the side of a small stream before heading up into the mountains. The path flattened out again as we walked through a herd of grazing cows. The final hike up to the lake was very steep and really took my breath away, again I'll blame the altitude! The trek took us about two hours 15 minutes to get to the top. Unfortunately by the time we got to the top the weather had decided to close in and gave us light snow along with a bitterly cold wind. We didn't stay at the top for long as we didn't learn our lesson the day before and again didn't take enough warm clothes. In total the return trek was nearly 7km with an elevation gain of just over 800m up to 4,600m.

On our way down the sun decided to show for a short length of time, so we enjoyed the views and took our time. Unfortunately we took too much time as the rain came back and we got soaked before we could get back to the bus.

We had a day relaxing in Huaraz before taking the night bus to Trujillo.

---

Comments

[taracloud]

Shorts at a glacier?
What a fine couple of hikes you had there--wow, the famous Laguna 69 and a glacier--both looking gorgeous! However, I'm a bit worried if you two buffed out people were puffing on the trails--do I even stand a chance? Hopefully, they'll have a tour for slow-pokes. I can't believe what (little) Gary is wearing at the glacier--it looks as if he's ready for Trujillo already. See you there.