Huaraz & Cordillera Blanca
PERU | Thursday, 3 July 2008 | Views [259]
Glacier lake at Alpamayo
Back in April, we had asked our Spanish teachers to tell us their favorite place in Peru. While Lula and Alvaro picked Cuzco, Fabricio chose Huaraz and described it as the Peruvian Alps. Never been to Switzerland, but ok. Given everything we've seen so far, that's a pretty lofty title, so we decided to make it our last stop in Peru.
Huaraz is the main city in the Cordillera Blanca. It is described in the guidebooks as being a concrete mess and nothing to write home about, but I think that's a harsh description. From the top of our hostel, we could see at least 10 snow-capped peaks, which moves any city up the pretty list in my opinion.
We stayed at Olaza's B&B, which was recommended to us from some friends. It was a nice place, however the breakfast was lacking, only two pieces of bread, coffee, and juice. You'd think that the trekking capital of Peru would provide a more substantial breakfast, but it was not to be. An interesting note about the Olaza famiy: they own many tourist-related businesses in Huaraz including the B&B, a really nice cafe/restaurant, a souvenir shop, and a mountain biking agency. It's quite an empire.
I was happy though to be at Olaza's and not a dingier hostel, since I contracted a nasty case of traveler's diarrhea in Huanchaco and the symptoms began the second we reached the B&B in Huaraz. Thank god I made it through the overnight bus ride. I was sick for two straight days and not until I started popping Cipro (antibiotics) did the symptoms go away. I could describe in more detail what TD is like, but I will refrain, in case anyone is reading this while eating. Let's just say it is not pretty, nor is it fun. I can't remember the last time I pooped my pants! Needless to say, it holed us up in the B&B for 3 days and I missed my opportunity to go mountain biking with Julio Olaza. I guess it gives me something to look forward to whenever I make it back to Huaraz.
Our 4th day in Huaraz saw us at the beginning of our 4 day/3 night Santa Cruz trek. The SC trek is the most popular in the Cordillera Blanca and can be completed in either direction, with the 4750m pass either coming in the 2nd day or the 3rd. We opted to get the tough day done earlier in the hike and signed up with Galaxia Expeditions, which was also recommended to us by a friend and after shopping around, provided the best value. So, at 6AM in the morning, we arrived their office with our clothes in 2 plastic bags and a positive outlook for the next 4 days. As one can imagine, there was much hustle and bustle going on, getting equipment together and loaded into the taxi for the first leg of transport to the trailhead. The brother of the owner of Galaxia took care of our clothes, putting them in a blue duffel, which was identical to all the other duffels of equipment, that would eventually be put on a burro that would carry everything during the trip.
We made it to the trailhead in one piece, although during the final 3 hours we were sitting 4 across in the back of a taxi. This is a good point to mention our trekking party. Our guide was Miguel, a 23 year-old Peruvian who has been leading groups for 5 years, and prior to that, completed the rigorous 3 year guide training school. For the critical reader, Miguel started when he was 15, when most of us were starting high school. Our cook, Hugo, was around 40 and very quiet. And he was an excellent cook, making cheese wontons for an afternoon snack that could have been served in any restaurant. Our mule driver/assistant was very young and didn't say a word the entire trek, but he was effcient though, which is needed. I will leave out the story about him not tying up our burros on the last night, which led to an early and unsuccessful search party, and we had to rent a new burro to carry all our gear the last 3 hours. Finally, the other two clients were Sebastian and Eneko. Seb was born in Paris, grew up in Peru, moved to Marseille, France when he was 10, and has been living in Northern Ireland for the past 3 years. Seb spoke fluent English, Spanish and French, and was a riot and a life-saver, but more on that later. Eneko was from the Basque region of Spain, spoke no English and his Spanish was at such a fast pace that we were straining to keep up with his conversations. Trish refrained form asking the obvious, "Are you a separatist?"
So, the hike started off innocent enough, with a 4 hour trek to our first campsite. It was a relatively flat walk and it only rained for about 30 minutes. By the time we reached camp, the sun was breaking through and we were all ready for a nice, hot dinner. Unfortunately, the blue duffel with our bag did not make it the trek with us. It was left back at the agency. We deduced that there must have been a communication issue between Marco (the owner and who we had been working with) and his brother, who put our clothes in the duffel and walked off with it at the agency. He put the clothes in storage, thinking that they were extras that we did not need for the hike. Because there is no cell signal in the mountains, there was no way of contacting the office until we exited the hike in 3 days. Shit.
After our initial shock, we decided to finish the trek, mainly because if we turned back, the cook had to come with us and we did not want to ruin the hike for Seb or Eneko. This decision was made, however, before it snowed 6-inches overnight. We had no idea how much fell until we woke up the next morning to a leaking tent and a marshy mess that was the campsite. It was still snowing and made for one uneasy feeling as we started our climb to the pass at 16,000 feet.
I'm not going to go into detail about the 2nd day, Trish has choosen to erase it from her memory, that's how bad it was. Imagine hiking in snow up to a foot at times in inapproprate summer gear. Our guide Miguel, ever prepared, lent Trish his snow pants, but after a few hours, we were soaked. And there was no trail so to speak ok. What would have been the trail was either a sizable stream, or so snowed over it was dangerous to walk on. Basically, we spent the first 4 hours scrambling up the slickest rocks imaginable in thin air. When we finally reached the 4750 mt. (16,000 ft.), it was so cold and snowy that we could hardly celebrate reaching the pass. Going down the other side was no picnic either, many people say going down is more difficult, and I tend to agree. It's especially hard when you get hit with a bad case of soroche (altitude sickness). We did make it, after 9 hours of hiking to camp. The sun finally came out and we were able to lay our soaking shoes, socks, and clothes in the sun, and I was able to pass out with a headache in the kitchen tent. The freezing night found us wearing plastic bags on our feet due to the lack of other dry clothes. Seb was a godsend though and lent us his other pair of socks, so Trish had some dry ones to sleep in. I used two water bottles filled with boiled water to warm my socks before putting them on right before getting in my sleeping bag. Remarkably, this works and I suggest the tactic to anyone that is in a similar situation.
Day 3 was a bit different; the sun was shining. After serious efforts the night before, we were mildly successful at drying our shoes and clothes. We hiked a few hours to a glacier lake at the base of Alpamayo, reportedly THE most beautiful mountain in the world. Then we had a leisurely 4 hour hike along the valley floor to Camp 3. The Santa Cruz valley is spectacular, with lakes and mountains and wild horses causing a sense of wonderment. Everyone should experience it at some point.
Day 4 was an easy hike out of the valley and ride back to Huaraz. I'll mention here that Galaxia was incredibly apologetic about the clothes incident and gave us half our money back. I would recommend this company to anyone looking for guides in the Cordillera Blanca, they're top notch.
There was one more night at Olaza's to rest up, and then we headed out the next day at noon on a bus to Lima before saying goodbye to Peru.
Tags: the great outdoors
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