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Published: August 25th 2007
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Sunrise
Early morning orange sun rays catching the tip of the mountain Coming down to sea level as we entered into Peru wasn´t that spectacular, in fact most of the towns and villages that we passed looked like one giant rubbish tip. Passing through the Sechura Desert the following day was much the same, a desolate place apart from the blanket of rubbish.
It was nice to finally arrive in Trujillo and visit the surrounding cultural sites for which it is famous. We went to see some of the Chimu culture heritage sites firstly the "La Huaca Ario Iris" (Rainbow Temple), so called because of the designs on the inner wall, although our guide admitted that it could be a dragon or even a snake..they don´t seem quite sure! The other main site is "Chan Chan" which was the Chimu capital city, which would have contained over 10,000 structures, not much is still standing today - due to erosion from the weather, farmers claiming the land and the construction of the new motorway! The Chimu people were eventually succeeded by the Incas, the most infamous of the Peruvian ancestors.
For the last week or so we have been in Huaraz a really nice town in the middle of the
Peruvian Andes and the Cordillera Blanca mountain range. It really is spectacular as huge snowcapped mountains can be seen wherever you look. It is the highest mountain range outside of Asia, with 22 mountain peaks over 6,000 metres. To help us acclimatise in advance of our trek we took a day trip out to the Pastoruri glacier. Set amid fantastic scenery the end of the glacier is partially melted leaving big holes and icicles - great for photos!
There are lots of treks that you can do and we chose the 52km Santa Cruz trek, it´s the most popular and for a good reason - it´s absolutely stunning! We did the trek over 4 days and 3 nights, we had perfect weather, sunny clear blue skies during the day and thankfully no rain at night. The first day that you drive to the starting point you have to cut through/over the mountains - the journey was breathtaking as every time we went round a tight corner on the unsealed track at heights of approx 4,000m we all held our breath until we had made it safely round. We couldn´t decide whether or not it was a good sign
that the minivan had been fitted with roll bars inside..so we tried our best not to think about it for too long! The trek started by meandering through villages and through rich farming land in valleys, all the little kids have cottoned on to the fact that tourists are passing right by their front doors, so they sit outside asking pleasantly for mainly chocolate but any food will do really. I was relieved of the majority of my packed lunch after half an hour, to warnings being shouted back by Sam "if you give it all away, don´t expect to have any of my lunch, you´ll just have to go hungry!!"
The second day we started to climb through forest until the area opened up revealing massive mountains and we started our ascent up to the highest point to the Punta Union pass which sits at 4,750m. The views were so fantastic that you just didn´t know which way to look first. Even though it was the hardest day we were surprised at how easy we found it, the acclimatisation day out to the glacier had obviously helped as well as the endless amount of coca leaf tea
Pastoruri Glacier
Us at the bottom of the glacier that we drank which is supposed to help with the side affects of altitude. We camped at about 4,400m so it was absolutely freezing during the night, fortunately our great sleeping bags from NZ coped easily..much to the annoyance of a guy in our group who was suffering with an inadequate hired sleeping bag which wouldn´t zip up!
The 3rd day was probably my favourite - we took a detour from the traditional trek out to a glacier lake and to see Alpamayo mountain. From here we descended into open valleys scattered with huge rock boulders, following the rivers where cows and donkeys grazed and passing by more turquoise blue lakes. At this point we were all dreaming of a nice cold beer so we were amazed to find at our last campsite a little shop selling just that - heaven!
The last day was just a 4 hour walk out of the trek, walking through a more closed valley with eucalyptus trees and cactus´ clinging to the mountain walls. None of us wanted the trip to be over on the last day, it was just too nice to leave - especially when we realised that
Top of the glacier
4,900 metres above sea level 8 people plus rucksacks & camping gear had to squeeze into an estate car and descend a road similar to the one we drove up on the first day. Me and Sam had a great view over the cliff edge as we were both wedged into the front passenger seat with me practically sitting on the drivers lap who looked no more than twelve. When we had to reverse a couple of times as cars were coming the other way, we were all thankful that at least our last four days had been brilliant and so if it came to it this was a good a time to go as any!
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Hayley
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Mountains
Hello Your pictures are amazing!! Keep trekking in the Andes!