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Published: November 30th 2009
"Tell the white man that to get to where we live, the roads are so bad thatthey will die on the journey, and that we have no chicken eggs to give them".
Message from a village headman to the Comte de Santiges in 1834.
Well the roads had not improved since then as there were none - just Incan or pre-Incan tracks encricling one of the most beautiful sections of the worlds second greatest mountain range, the Andes.
Having visited the ruins at Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna near Trujillo (where Peruvian hairless dogs wander - they are so warm that elderly arthritis suffers use them as a kind of body warmer) and so were in the mood for a bit more history but this time outside in the wild.
And the wild it truly is. It is 110km from Huaraz a small town in the Andean foothills at 3000m altitude. After this, the bus attempts to traverse a crazy contour line hugging the edge of a mountain with steep drops leading to a raging river hundreds of metres below. We took this track for a further 2 hours to the town of Llamac where the
only form of transport is either on a horse, donkey or by foot. We chose the later but were assisted by three gastrictly challeged donkeys who carried the majority of our supplies for the nine day trek.
Our guide was Glicerio, ably assisted by his sister Jovanna, our donkey driver (hurra, Arriba, dereche the main commands that each donkey adhered to except when I tried them. I think its all in the pronounciation).
The Cordillera Huayhuash is a series of snow capped peaks that range from 5000m to 6634m (Yerupaja). This is also the site of Joe Simspons tale of survival on Siula Grande in Touching the Void. Along the way, we climbed passes of 5000m or more, and walked 120km.
The conditons were wet and cloudy for the main part and at night temperatures dropped to 3 or 4 degrees. Paradise eh? The weather aside it was fantastic. We dined with a President (allbeit of a town without roads and a population with 1000 donkeys and only 400 people), we helped an elderly lady with dental problems by giving her paracetamol on a pass of 4800m in the rain. She was on her own with no-one
within miles and only had a rug and poncho with her. We caught Trucha (a tuna like fish) to eat for tea in a dining tent and conversed in Spanish throughout as no-one spoke any English.
Our guide was able to bribe all the fee collectors with cookies, breakfasts or $5 hand-shakes and we ended up paying 15 soles instead of 290 soles to visit the park! He took us on little walked passes and we passed innumerable lakes and glaciers as we circumnavigatedthe mighty peaks. In total we saw one tourist in the nine days, although the number of Peruvian locals was much higher. We stayed with Glicerios uncle in Huayllapa in a house without running water and or any kind of heating.
We passed heards of Allpacas, Llamas and Vicunas and saw mighty condors flying overhead. All in total peace and quiet without roads for miles. The highlight of day five was undoubtedly the thermal springs at a constant 42 degrees in total iolation, over 50 miles from the nearest road.
What an eperience and as many a teacher would say in relation to the poor weather, all character building stuff.
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Louise
non-member comment
Even awesommer!!
How can you top this journey? The scenery is breathtaking and so wild. You will have trouble choosing which photos to have made into proper pictures to chart your journey round the globe. I presume the donkeys can only turn to the right... worrying! Look forward to next chapter. Take care. Adios y hasta luego mes amigos. Louise