This
time our trek would take us to the Cordillera Blanca which we’d heard was
particularly stunning. By the time the
bus was laden and we were all aboard we established that it was a group of 11
so in theory we should have 2 guides.
Not only did this not happen but we’d be meeting our guide at the
beginning of the trail where he was saying goodbye to his previous group. Not only was this very unfair on the guide
and against Peruvian trekking guide rules but it meant we’d be doing the trek
in the opposite direction. Not that we
were bothered about which way round we did the walk as we were sure it would be
fantastic scenery no matter what. Once
again we were the oldest in the group but a couple weren’t too far behind
us. Plus with being so unhealthy
recently we were the fattest and looked like the least capable. Now we know we’re noticeably below standard
at the moment but we knew this trek attracted lots of people who’ve never
walked in mountains before.
The
van journey to the start of the trek followed a scenic valley then we set off
on a side track to Cashapampa at 2800m. There
was much faffing as mules were organised and our Soles65 a head entrance fee
tickets were checked plus the van unloaded and repacked. By 11.30am we put our first steps on the
Santa Cruz trek where the path rose steadily alongside a brisk stream. The sun was shining and we were warm enough
to get down to our t-shirt layer. Would
the weather remain our friend for the entire trek?
Initially
we had our guide down as a bit of a clown and this opinion didn’t change much
over the 4 days. However, there were
times when he could be more sensible and try to read his customers more
closely. He didn’t have us down in the
lead group before setting off which on looking at us is a fair analysis but he
soon had to change his mind. On watching
our steady pace for the first uphill section of the walk he subsequently told
us we would have to go in front. He was
happy with our sedate plod and could see that we had experience so wouldn’t
push ourselves once we reached altitude.
Therefore we were free to go at our own pace and could carry on to the
first campsite. We duly did and it was
lovely to feel like we were on a private trek but at the same time have the
support team. Judging from the paths we
were on you could easily do this trek independently and simply hire a mule if
you don’t fancy carrying all the heavier gear.
However going in a group means costs are shared and the 4-day trek only
cost us US$120 each. Plus it’s
reassuring to know you’ll get to the right place before nightfall, your tent
will be pitched and even more lazily someone will cook your food and boil your
water.
The
only time the path was quite tiring was when we had to walk through deep, loose
sand making the going a little sluggish.
Or as Steve pointed out we weren’t aware we’d signed up for a mountain
beach trek! Other than that it was a
very pleasant walk following the stream and surrounded by vertical cliffs. The good weather remained with us all the way
to camp but we’d been watching clouds gather at the head of the valley. Our tent was up and we were changed and
sorted out before a light drizzle set in.
If that pattern remains for the rest of the trek we’ll be very
happy. Just for the record it was 2
hours later before all 11 of our group reached camp.
Our
guide, Abel, definitely loves an audience and his tales are typically
protracted and tall. However the rest of
the group are a nice bunch and conversation has flowed freely – there’s always
tales of where you’ve been and travel tips to exchange.
Day
2
We
were woken by our tent being bashed and the outer zip being opened; a little
out of order we thought and besides which we had our alarm clock. It all turned out to be a build-up to Abel
making a point about keeping everything right inside your tent to prevent robberies. He took it all way too far when nearly an
hour later four people were standing around with frozen feet revising their
plans. He’d whipped the boots when
opening the tents so all was well but ……………… a bit out of order we thought.
That
aside we had our early morning brew watching the sun’s rays glinting on the
high peaks at the head of the valley. It
was a bit chilly but nothing like previous treks as we slowly gravitate towards
the equator and winter moves into spring. The sun soon warmed us up and
initially we fell in stride with the guide and actually got a sensible
conversation out of him about ancient peoples of the area. We’d been thinking of visiting some of the
pre-Inca sites and were now eager to learn more. Abel also explained the day’s route to us so
we could see off at our own tortoise pace and wait for the hares to catch up
later.
The
walk initially was very easy as it was flat along the river to the first
lake. From there we took a slight detour
to a viewpoint but to be honest it was lovely everywhere you looked. The path then skirted along the edge of the
lake until we reached a rocky, sandy area where there used to be a second
lake. Last year a huge landslide rumbled
down a side valley and promptly filled in the lake; the power of nature never
ceases to amaze. We crossed a bridge
over the stream that flows over the absent lake and entered an area of stunted
trees. We could see a zig zag path and
knew we had to look out for such a feature to take us to a second
viewpoint. However, the start of the
path wasn’t obvious and we reached this section way earlier than the time we’d
been predicted.
So
we carried on along the more obvious path and on rounding a bend could see two
sets of impressive mountains and a path higher up the slope. We began to wonder if we’d missed the side
track but the timings were way off and we were now entering the upper
valley. Instead of cutting across the
flat grassland we took the path on the foot of the nearest slope and kept our
eyes peeled for the zig zag path. A
little further on we could see a sign that clearly indicated that the area is
regularly used as a campsite. So with no
obvious zig zag path to clamber up we crossed over the boggy, stream riddled
valley to the campsite.
It
wasn’t even 11am; could this really be the second camp? The signboard name looked familiar enough and
the altitude of 4250m was spot on. Oh
look! Here comes the mules; we’ve never
reached camp before the support team but I suppose they thought they had plenty
of time as we’d all be on a side path.
Anyway we promptly turned round and set off back down the valley where
within a couple of minutes we met our chef.
Luckily he used lots of hand gestures when explaining which way we
should go and of course we’d already seen it all. The path steadily worked its way up the side
of the mountain and met up with the top of the zig zag path we’d shunned
earlier. Here we met up with the rest of
our group who were stunned that we were behind them. They were even more surprised on hearing that
we’d already been to camp and doubled back.
At least we could tell them that camp was in another cracking spot and
that all the gear had arrived!
So
our huge detour hadn’t really put us behind schedule and we continued on a very
pleasant path up this valley. There are
of course numerous high peaks in the area over 5000m and some of them top the
6000m mark. They’re generally technical
climbs but of course plenty of people love that challenge. We satisfied ourselves with striking off on a
short uphill path to the edge of a glacial lake. I don’t just mean the water was somewhat
nippy – not that we went in to testify to the temperature! No, one of the glaciers actually reaches down
to the lake and there were a couple of mini icebergs floating around. It was a most impressive sight and we were
extremely glad we’d doubled back. We
even witnessed a minor avalanche as we were tucking into our packed lunch. The chill wind blowing down the glacier and
off the lake meant we didn’t hang around for the allotted hour’s break. We were back up to about 4500m and some of
the group were feeling the effects of altitude so needed some time to rest.
On
retracing our steps we were soon back in the sheltered valley and feeling
warmer. As we were plodding our way along one of the more dominant peaks fully
cleared and we got great views of the mountain that is supposedly used on
Paramount Pictures’ logo. We can’t
verify this information so take a gander at the photo and decide for
yourselves. As we approached camp at
Taullipampa (4250m) the third glacier glad mountain range of the valley came
into view. Obviously we’d already seen
this but the tops were now perfectly clear and it was great to be able to see 3
fantastic mountain ranges while standing in the same spot. All told we’d walked a quite a long way today
and as we were getting changed and putting on extra layers the clouds
gathered. Again the rain only made a
slight pitter patter on the canvas but the rumbles of thunder were more
worrying.
Today’s
nonsense talk revolved around some scientists in Lima predicting there’d be an
earthquake the following night. How on earth this has been decided I don’t know
as all other earthquakes round the world seem to catch folk unawares. Anyway it was all talk about what to do if
there’s an avalanche / landslide blah, blah.
Then the guide tried to get us all to sing so Steve and I legged it back
to our tent. I only sing for 3 year olds
where I get paid for such behaviour and besides we came to trek and enjoy the
mountain scenery so don’t need enforced entertainment.
Day
3
We
were up early as instructed but there was little movement in the campsite so we
had to wait a while for a warm brew.
Abel tried one wearing very thin joke too many this morning and I in
particular made it clear that we weren’t impressed. He then tried to infer that Steve was in the
wrong and being the one with the wrong attitude but why should we be treated
like children and accept it? Suffice it
to say we didn’t set off in the best of moods but chatting with some of the
others soon cheered us up. We’d decided
that it would be prudent to stick with the group today to prevent us getting
too cold while waiting at the top of the pass – obviously we were going to get
there first!! Then we were told we were
to do just that so we shuffled along in a group. To be fair the pace wasn’t too slow (our
5000m+ pace!) considering most of the group were trekking for the first time at
altitude.
It
was noticeable chilly when we set off and clouds shrouded most of the high
peaks. As the sun rose the clouds
gradually lifted and it was a very pleasant walk up to the top of the Punta
Union pass at 4750m. The views looking
back down the valley we’d spent the previous two days walking up were lovely
but cloud still hung to the very tops.
On looking over the other side of the pass we were dismayed to see cloud
at much lower levels. Fortunately it
wasn’t dense and therefore not raining but unfortunately it meant we couldn’t
do the alternative ridge route down the other side. I’d already predicted that we wouldn’t be
doing so as only Steve and I and one other lad had voted for this the previous
evening.
Still
the path down the other side was clear so we were free to go at our own
pace. We left the glacier clad peaks
behind and entered a valley of vertical, sharp edge rocks. The weather improved but it never got
roasting hot and we were all just glad that it wasn’t raining. As we reached the valley floor the path
meandered along a river and we entered a beautiful wooded area. There was lots of green spongy moss, red
peeling bark, colourful flowers and birds flitting about. It made for a lovely end to the day’s walk.
Our
little breakaway group of four were first to reach camp Huaripampa at 3700m
which was bathed in sunlight. A gaggle
of locals saw us arrive and promptly set up shop selling woolly hats, pop and
oh no; beer! It didn’t take long for us
three Brits to crumble and buy a slightly over-priced beverage. Well – the sun was shining bright, we were in
a cracking spot and most of the trekking was done. Unfortunately we’d not long since popped open
the bottle tops when the clouds and the rain came rolling in. We simple huddled up inside a tent and waited
for it to pass. Rain, shine, rain, shine
became the set pattern for the remainder of the afternoon. By nightfall the wind had picked up and it
was raining steadily. To say the tents
weren’t the best is an understatement and it was a case of wait and see how
waterproof they were. One lad’s tent
proper leaked but he simply shrugged his shoulders and reminded himself that
you get what you pay for. The trek was
very cheap so you have to expect corners to be cut and gear not replaced as
regularly as it should be.
To
be honest I feel we’d been lucky to do the bulk of the trekking in the dry but
the change in elements helped us to decide what our next steps should be. We’d love to do the much longer Huayhuash
trek but we’re now seriously pushing our luck with the weather and besides there
are other things to do and see.
Day
4
We
were up much later today as there was just a short walk to meet up with the van
and most people appreciate the lie-in following the hike up to the pass the
previous day. In fact the end of the
trail only took a couple of hours and it basically linked hamlets and
villages. It’s always interesting to see
the rural way of life plus we were still within the Cordillera Blanca which had
proved to be as stunning as we’d been led to believe. To be honest this trek could very easily be
done in 3 days and I wish we’d known that was an option.
Abel
finally learnt to read the group a bit better and to treat us differently to
match our likes and character. It made
for a much nicer feeling within the group and ended up parting on good
terms. We had an hour to wait for our
transport to arrive and since the only benches were plonked outside the local
pub-cum-shop-cum-restaurant you can guess what happened! Yet again only the 3 Brits tucked into a beer
but to be fair to us we only had one each.
We also finally tracked down a bowl of local food whose principle
ingredient was beans. In the end it
turned out to be basically a poor-man’s / vegetarian’s ceviche with the added
onions, tomatoes and sweet corn marinated in lime juice and pepper – yum.
It
took about 4 hours to drive back to Huaraz but the journey was
spectacular. I know I’ve said it before
but how do they put in roads when the valley sides are virtually vertical? As we crested the top of the pass we were
greeted with a fantastic vista of a narrow V shaped valley with glacier topped
peaks, a zig zag road and two stunning blue lakes. The Andes certainly haven’t let us down.
Back
in Huaraz Steve quickly tracked down a room for the night that ticked all the
boxes. Hostal Concorde offered clean,
simple doubles with en-suite, wifi and cable TV for Soles50 a night. It was fantastic to feel squeaky clean again
before going out to meet up with the others for a beer or three and some
fodder. The next morning saw us watching
Liverpool vs Man U and City vs Arsenal – hmm, maybe if we stop watching our
teams might start winning!
Travel
Tip: Galaxia Expeditions was very cheap and you do get what you pay for, the
mountains are the same no matter how much you pay. http://www.galaxia-expeditions.com/html/nosotros_ingles.htm
