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July 30th 2007

Published: September 28th 2007

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MRJ SthAmericanAdventures

SANTA CRUZ TREK

Camp on the second night at over 4000m...absolutely amazing

My next destination in Peru is the small town of Huaraz. After leaving Arequippa and deciding to head straight to Lima past the area around Ica and Pisco which was devasted by a recent earthquake I finally arrived at sea level after many months at altitude. I had been waiting for this day for many months as the altitude had taken it out of my body and I finally wanted to be able to walk around normally and feel like I wasn´t having an asthma attack. The morning was very grey and rainy as we passed through the area where the earthquake had hit and it was humbling to see the damage done to the houses and also to see that many people were camping in tents on the side of the road. Was glad not to be stopping there as I had heard many stories of looting and of people hunting down tourists to try and relieve them of their belongings.....you have to remember that these people didn´t have a lot before the earthquake and many of them had been left homeless because of it and tourists are easy targets. Many hours after that we arrived in Lima where I

HUARAZ

View of Huaraz from the top of my hostel

had originally intended on staying for the night and catching up with some friends that I had met in Argentina. I had been told that Lima is usually cloudy and grey but when I arrived it was raining as well and didn´t look at all inviting. So I made the decision to get off this bus and then straight onto another bus to head further north to Huaraz and leave Lima and sea level behind......don´t think I missed anything there. On the way out of town I did see many slums and a lot of poverty and people sleeping on the side of the road. As we made our way north along the coast I felt happy to be seeing the ocean for the first time in 4 months and even more happier when the sun decided to come back out. Ten hours later after ascending again to altitude I arrived at the small town of Huaraz. This city is based near the mountainous region of the Cordilleras Blanca and Huayhuash where there is lots of trekking and camping to be done. There are many glaciated peaks, pristine lakes, ice caves and torrid springs. This is the highest mountain range

SANTA CRUZ TREK

On the road to the start of the trek.....passing a little girl

in the world outside of the Himalayas and includes Peru´s highest peak....there is 22 summits over the height of 6000m.

So after a couple of days rest in Huaraz and a short walk to the nearby hills the day before I headed off for another trek in the mountains. This time I was to walk the Santa Cruz trek along with my trekking friends, Sam & Cat from the British Isles and Shai & Sheira from Israel....and our trusty guide and a donkey handler Juan x 2. After another early start we gathered all our belongings and took a public bus out to a small town where Juan told us to wait while he got another bus to continue on to the start of the trail. In typical Peruvian fashion a rickety station wagon arrived with Juan in it and we loaded the back with our packs, tents, food and everything else we needed for the trek. At this stage we realised that we also had to fit into the taxi.....5 big gringos, Juan our guide and also the driver. The other four in the back and then me in the front with Juan and the driver. Silently we

SANTA CRUZ TREK

Our guide and donkey man getting our gear ready

all thought that this was ok because surely we were only going just a little up the road......no 45 minutes later we are still squashed in the car and we had realised by this stage that the car also had no suspension and we kept bottoming out. All adds to the experience so I thougt it was quite funny. Finally we make it to the next little town where we are to met our donkey handler who rounds up his donkeys and loads them up with our bags and other camping equipment......this is a complete luxury to have the donkey carry our bags and made a lot of difference when walking. They seemed to be really unorganised as usual and we were told to start walking on the track and that the two Juans would catch up with us. So off we went and for the next few hours I was happy walking ahead by myself and was enjoying not only the views but also the exercise. Saying that though I was a little worried about where all my belongings were because there was no sign of the donkeys or the guide so was thinking that maybe they had done

SANTA CRUZ TREK

Doing the touristy thing in front of the start of our 4 day trek

a runner with all our stuff. This was a good excuse to stop and have lunch and wait and hope that I was wrong and that soon I would see everyone coming up the hill. This was the case and once they caught up we continued onto our first night camping spot. That day we had great sunshine and passed through a lovely valley with green hills and a small river running through the middle of it. Lots of wild flowers to look at and this was our first experience with having language lessons with our guide who was persistantly trying to teach us Quechua, the local indigenous language. This was fun but I was enjoying the peace and quiet of being in the mountians too much to be a good student. After 6 hours we arrived at our first night camp and I was amazed at the beauty that surrounded the area......our first sight of snow capped mountains that I could see out of my tent and a river running straight past our site. It didn´t take long for the sun to go down and along with that came the coldness of night, so thermals and many layers were

SANTA CRUZ TREK

Wild flowers

required to keep warm. Dinner was pretty basic and quite tasteless, but you can´t be fussy when you are in the middle of no where. To finish of the day Juan our guide insisted on playing Arsehole, which I managed to lose quite convincingly and hold the title of arsehole for the next day. That night was pretty damned cold and with sleeping on a very used foam mattress it didn´t help to keep my warm at all. It was one of those kind of nights that you are counting down the hours until the sun rises and you can get up and get some blood circulating around your body to get warm. The next day we woke and ate some extremely watered down hot chocolate with oats, possibly my least favourite breakfast, and then after loading up the donkeys we were off. For most of the second day we walked in the middle of a huge valley that was flanked by massive mountains and then behind them we walked past many snowcapped peaks. I continously thought that I might come across some hobbits or wizards from Lord Of the Rings. The sun had disappeared for most of the day

SANTA CRUZ TREK

More wild flowers

and then the wind picked up so it was pretty chilly as we walked and with getting into higher altitude the walk became harder and harder. To get us through the day we were all given a picnic bag that consisted of stale bread and cheese, fruit, lollies, chocolate and biscuits.....it wasn´t too bad on this day. Most of the day was spent on flat ground but to finish it off the last 2 hours was up hill....for some reason I was feeling really good and not affected by the altitude at all so I enjoyed the exercise again and the amazing views that we were getting. The others who had not been at altitude for very long struggled up the hill and at the end of the day had headaches and felt dizzy and were quite concerned that they might not feel better the next day......luckily after a couple of cups of coca tea everyone was ok. Our camp spot for the second night was even more spectactular than the first and I spent the rest of the daylight sitting watching the ever changing mountains. Again dinner was nothing special but warmed and filled us up and this night

SANTA CRUZ TREK

and more again

everyone was in bed early as we had an early start the following morning. I wore every piece of clothing I could find that night and managed to be very toasty all night. On day 3 we woke to a bit of rain and grey cloudy skies and the ever present mountains, which we had to climb today. We had camped at around 4200m and we then had to walk up to the highest peak of the trek to the Punta Union pass at 4760m. After loading up the donkeys we were off and for the next 3 hours we trugged along up the path to the summit......our guide seemed to be taking us on the much steeper and harder path, but which he told us was much quicker. Along the way we saw condors hovering and gliding in the sky and realised how big and grand the mountain actually was. Again I was feeling great as we walked and I really enjoyed the day and it helped that this time that I wasn´t full of mucas like the last trek. Finally we made up to the peak and sat for a while to take it all in....at that height

SANTA CRUZ TREK

Me after making it to the top of our first mountain

you do get a great view and we could see all the way down the valley were we had come from. After having some lunch, which consisted of even staler bread than the day before, we walked through the pass to find another amazing valley and very cold winds. Here we found some amazing looking flowers that were growing out the side of the rocks and that can only be found at this altitude...they were the only things that were growing up there. It was also completely silent up there with no birds chirping or other animals to fill the air. Obviously the trek down was a lot easier and along the way some sunshine came out as we descended into the new valley. As we came out of the high altitude more life came back to the area....trees, birds and other animals, flowers and rivers. I walked by myself this afternoon because again I was enjoying the exercise but more so I was enjoying walking by myself in the middle of no where. The path that day seemed to take forever to end and after many hours we finally arrived at camp to find many local people waiting for

SANTA CRUZ TREK

A beautiful valley with crazy mountain formations

us. This was really weird as for days we had been by ourselves and now they had laid out a rug and had lined up beers, soft drinks and water for us to buy. They had done this just to the side of our tents and just sat there for hours waiting for us to buy something from them.....I did feel slightly uncomfortable with this as I felt like I was expected to buy something. After a while they asked us if we wanted something and then packed up and headed back to their village 15 minutes away. The area again was beautiful but unfortuntately was completely littered with toilet paper that people had decided was better left behind than taken with them. I was disgusted at it and very disappointed that humans could come to such a beautiful place and then think it was ok to leave behind many pieces of toilet paper. That night I decided that having soup with eggs in it was not good for the bowels......every night we had had soup and our guide puts in raw eggs and then whisks it to cook them in the soup. The results are that you need to

SANTA CRUZ TREK

A freak rock that was massive and some how defying gravity and sitting out from the mountain

fart for the next 5 hours and when you are with strangers sitting down in a tent it is not the easiest thing to do discreetly. Via process of elimination I worked out that it was the egg and this night we all realised that it was the same for everyone. We all made excuses to get out of the tent to fart and then realised it was for all the same reason, once that happened everyone was a lot more comfortable. That night was a lot warmer and I even would say that I got too hot in my tent, but still the lack of matress was making my body numb. Day 4 was an easy walk out of the valley, only a couple of hours to the top. Along the way we passed a village and it was very interesting to see how these people lived. They definately do it very basically and I was shocked to see how some of the houses were. Many kids were coming out to say hello and ask for caramellos, they speak Quechua here the local indigenous language rather than spanish but the kids definately knew how to ask for sweets. Many

SANTA CRUZ TREK

A cactus and flower

of the kids had odd shoes on, dirty clothes and were quite dirty themselves. The worst thing that I saw was when 3 young kids ran out from their house to speak with us. I was with one of the girls and as we walked towards them we took a photo of them.....I didn´t realise until after taking the photo and putting my camera down the state of the kids. They were all filthy but one kid in particular made me look twice.....he was around 6 years old and had big lines of puss coming down from his eyes and his whole face was full of scabs. I was absolutely shocked and wondered what was wrong with him....I asked the guide and he told us that it was from the cold and that the father didn´t think that it was necessary to get medicine for it. I told the guide that if it was a problem with money that I would give them money to get the medicine to fix the poor kids eyes, but the guide said that with time it would heal. My concern was that the kid looked like he was in pain now and that if

SANTA CRUZ TREK

The river and the valley on day 1

it was a simple cure than I was more than happy to pay for it......also that with the way his eyes looked I was sure that there had to be some kind of damage done to his eyes. Also many locals passed us as we walked along the path and I was suprised to see that many of them only wear basic sandals made from rubber....god knows how they handle the cold in these shoes. Finally we made it to the top of the hill and to the end of the trek....again we had a lunch of extremely stale bread which was basically not ediable by this stage. All that was left to do to get back to town was to take a bus....easy enough we thought! On getting in the minibus I took the back seat as I thought other people would get in the bus as we went and I can´t fit in the front of it with other people there. Stupid mistake that was as I was now over the wheel and of course no one else came on the bus so I could of taken the front seats which are a lot more comfortable. Off we

SANTA CRUZ TREK

Walking up to camp for the first night

went on the road home soon to realise that it was going to be a long ride home....the road was full of pot holes and rocks and we just rattled and shook for the next 3 hours and as usual there was no suspension on the bus. Along with the road and lack of suspension we also had the pleasure of listening to some terrible Peruvian music at high volumes...the sort of music that might make you want to slit your wrists. Luckily as we went we had some of the most amazing scenery that I have seen in Sth America and the most stunning was coming over the first mountain to see a huge valley ahead with a couple of lakes in the middle and lined with huge white capped mountians....one of which is Peru´s highest peak. I was not tired at all when we got into the bus but after 3 hours of bumping around I was completely exhausted and was counting the minutes till we could get out. Finally we did reach the small town where we needed to swap buses and all of us were extremely thankful to get onto a newer mini bus that would

SANTA CRUZ TREK

First night camp at 3760m with an amazing view of the mountains

take a paved road. As usual there was not a lot of leg room for us and Sam and I struggled to get our legs in behind the seat in front....this was all good as there was not many people on the bus. This was soon to change and they just kept shoving people into the car as we went along and eventually Sam and I were asked to put our legs in behind the seat in front and make room for a man to share the back seat with us. So for the next 30 minutes we were completely squashed in and our legs and bums went numb as we tried not to put our knees into the back of the seat in front. I was basically half out of the window and was completely grateful when some people got out of the bus and therefore gave us some more room. Finally we made it back to Huaraz after what seemed like an eternity of uncomfortableness in public transport...we had been hanging to have a good tasty meal and a cold beer and there was many times during that day that we thought that we would never make it.

SANTA CRUZ TREK

View from my tent on the first night

We were all exhausted and after returning to our hostels for a nice hot shower we met up to have a very tasty meal and also very tasty beverages to finish of what had been a great 4 days out in the mountains.

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