Our introduction to Cordillera range starts with a seven hours bus ride from Chimbotte to Caraz via spectacullar Cañon del Pato. Unsealed road winds through unbelievable terrain with mountains rising 1000m above valleys. We have to cross several passes and drop back to valleys before we enter Cañon del Pato where Cordillera Blanca meets Cordillera Negra within 16m wide gap. Very narrow road with 32 tunnels is cut into steep hills and often the bus gets uncomfortably close to grumbling edge. Looking out of the window we cannot even see edge of the road and no wonder we have stomach crapms. We are the only turists on bus and locals give us many smiles. This must be one of the most scenic roads we have seen so far and unfortunately somewhat neglected by backpackers. Caraz is nice cute and tidy town and we spend here three nights before hiking famous Santa Cruz four-days trek. Firstly, after catching up with lost sleep we take a collectivo to Yungay village which was completely burried by avalanche of ice and rocks from Huascaran on Sunday 30 May 1970 triggered by an eartquake. Walking on this massive graveyard sends shivers through our bodies as we learn the avalanche swamped the town by speed of 300km/hour. No one had a chance except small crowd in local cemetery and kids at circus. At 6768m, Huascaran being the highest mountain in Peru stands up in distance 15km and even from here looks impressive. Next day a taxi takes us to Lagunas Llanganuco where at 3800m we hike about 6km to build up our aclimatization before walking Santa Cruz trek. Two lakes are constantly filled with blue-green water coming down from glaciers and even it is cloudy today they look magnificent. Tonight Alberto from Pony´s Expedition is very helpfull to organise everything neccesary for the 42km Santa Cruz trek which would start on Saturday 4 Oct. Personal guide Edgar and donkeys driver Gustavo will do their best over next four days to ensure this hike will be memorable experience. The trek starts at Cashapampa (2800m) with a 9km hike to first camp-site (3700m) which we reach by 3pm. Thanks to Gustavo tents are already up and we can rest for couple of hours before Edgar cooks two course dinner. As soon as sun goes down the temperature drops rapidly and short sleeves are replaced with three layers of worm clothing. Even with beanies and gloves we cannot stay in the main tent much longer and by 8pm we are already in sleeping bags. Not feeling really well tonight I (Ivan) wake up about 1am with a severe diarrhea and copletely empty myself. This is probably my body´s reaction to the altitude and tomorrow will be missarable. Day two starts with wake up call at 6am accompanied with hot coca tea followed 7am nice breakfast. I do not have any appetite and all energy from yestarday is gone. Luckily today we have to hike 12km mainly on more or less flat terrain with total altitude gain only 450m. When we arrive to our second camp Edgar cooked herbal medicine and that with few tabblets made me much better. Breathing is more difficult here at 4200m and by midnight the rain has changed to snow. By the morning everything is wet as snow melts on the tent and we are not very warm but hot coca tea and pancakes for breaky improves our enthusiasm. Everything around us is beatifully white. Today is the hardest hiking day and the snow will not help as we need to cross the pass Punto Union (4800m) by 11am to arrive to next camp before darkness. The sky is dark grey and one cannot say wheather is raining or snowing. Our shoes are completely soaked even before we make it to the pass and we still have another 9km to walk over 1000m descent. We prey for some sunshine but mountain gods appear to be deaf. By 2pm tired but happy the hardest section is finished and walking downhill becomes somewhat easier. Taking lunch during a short sunny break is quite pleasant and our clothing slowly starts to dry up. Our joy is only short lived as dark clouds roll in and heavy rain soaks us completely in minutes. I am swearing to gods in my mind but do not say it loud - what about if they hear me? We still have another day to get back! Absolutely exhausted but very proud we arrive to camp by 4:30pm and immediatelly change to dry clothing. Hot coca tea helps to regain body temperature and by the dinner we seem to be back in shape. Edgar is proud of our achievemnet especially when we arrived to the camp before other and much younger groups. After dinner we celibrate with boiled red wine and can call ourselves Los Montañeros. This last night sleep is going to be good not only because we are tired but also we are back at lower altitude. It is Tuesday morning and we start with traditional coca tea. Today we need to get to the unsealled highway by 11am to catch some sort of transport back to Yungay and we start walking at 7:30 as usual. On the way we pass local village with many kids stretching their hands for lolies and it is our pleasure to make them smile. At highway (3m wide dirt road) we are told of possibility not having any transport today due to last night landslide and indeed there are no any cars coming up for hours. More hikers soon emerge from the valley for the same reason and we all wander how we are going to get back to town. Local lady makes hot tea and everybody laughs as Edgar suggest we can all sleep in one big dormitory tonight. Hang on! This house does not even have a roof! By 2pm first bus arrives and the fun is over. We say goodbye and squeeze with many locals into a minivan. Three hours journey back to Yungay is an adventure of its own as we ride through yet another massive mountain range with a pass at 5000m. We see Huascaran again, this time from other side and our trip concludes with a steep 1000m descent to Lagunas Llanganuco which we can now see rom the bird´s perspective. Mission completa! Thank you Edgar and Gustavo with your donkeys! It was challenging but also very awarding hiking trip. In four days we had chance to see many over 6000m peaks and beautifull lakes. Cordillera Blanca will remain in our minds for ever.
We stay one more night at Caraz and on Wednesday we visit Huaraz before leaving Cordilleras for good. We need to be in Lima by Thursday night for a spectacular train trip Lima - Huancayo which departs only twice a month. It is time to move!
