IV. SA Peru/W4, 8d: Huaraz EN

Mo, 10.04. Laguna Willcacocha
After a roughly 7h bus ride with Moviltours I arrived around 6am in Huaraz.
Huaraz is located at an altitude of 3,010m within the so called 'Cordillera blanca', the biggest Andean mountain range in South America with most mountains being above 5,000 and 6,000m as well as Peru's highest mountain Huascarán with an altitude of 6,678m. It is a hiking and trekking heaven as well as Peru's adventure town with a lot of activities such as bungee jumping, ziplining, canyoning, climbing and ice climbing. There is just so much to do here that you could easily stay for weeks or months with the necessary money; I decided to do the two most popular nature tours here, Laguna 69 and Nevado de Pastoruri as well as the famous 4d Santa Cruz Trek which would turn out to become my absolute highlight.
I like to call Huaraz itself as small Cusco and I really loved it. It is not yet that touristy, there are hardly any big tour operators, for most such as G Adventures it does not count to Peru's highlights and is thus calm, naturally surrounded by super nice mountains and glaciers and still with many locals. Thanks to the Chinese influence you can find a lot of Chivas here (Chinese restaurants mixed with Peruan specialities) as well as tuktuks and it is also very cheap. My hostel Andescamp was very small and family run with Ivan and his cute small family, well located and yummy jam-majar-banana pancakes for breakfast :)
On Monday I first chilled in the hammock and also had a 4 bed dorm on my own so shortly before the celebrations. After that I walked a bit around town with the nice Plaza de Armas, the many street stands and the Mercado.
Together with an Israeli (oh yes there are many here) I took a 20m Colectivo from Huaraz to Puente Santa Cruz to do a small hike, 2h up from 3,500 to 3,800m and 1,5h down to Laguna Willcacocha. The weather and hike were amazing, we were accompanied by two dogs and saw lamas. The lake itself was super small but we had an awesome view over Huaraz and the surrounding, partially snow-capped mountains.
On the way back I then enjoyed a yummy tremendous Churro filled with majar and bought some keke for the treks.

Tu, 11.04. Laguna 69 & Llanganuro; Callejon de Huaylas
That day I went to the famous Laguna 69 being picked up at 5am before driving 3,5h through the Callejon de Huaylas in Huascaran National Park.
The Cordillera Blanca with its mountains and volcanoes still grows 1mm per year and counts 77 lakes as well as 41 rivers in total. Most rainfall is now in the Andean winter around March and April.
We first saw the so called ladies lake Laguna Chinancocha/Llanganuro with a super turquoise colour, 28m deep and located at an altitude of 3,850m.
After that we hiked 3h (I did it in 2:15h) 700m up from 3,900 to 4,600m and were rewarded with a breathtaking lake, Laguna 69. As I was 45m quicker than scheduled I almost had 2h there and thus enough time for lunch and to enjoy the awesome landscape - such a nice blue-greenish-turquoise colour with waterfalls and glaciers as well as only 2* cold water. Every now and often it is also worth looking up in the sky: there was a circular rainbow around the sun, a so called halo; I have never seen something like that before and it even topped the double rainbow at the Victoria Falls :)))
On the 2h hike back the sun suddenly came out so that at this altitude I unfortunately could not help being burnt immediately. After another 2h nice drive we arrived in Huaraz at around 7pm where it already and typical for this season started raining around 4/5pm :P

We, 12.04. Nevado de Pastoruri 5,150m
That day I went to glacier Pastoruri of up to 5,500m altitude and temperatures below cero.
On our way there we got a lot of information such as that the air here is so clear that many people from the cities first get sick or that both the glaciers Pastoruri and Alpamayo could have been melted completely within the next 10-15 years.
We drove through the villages Recuay, Ticapampa and Càtac, passed Quebrada and Laguna Pachacoto, saw Aguas gasificadas at Pumashin and then the typical for this region high Andean plant Puya Raimondi as well as the Lago de 7 Colores in Pumapampa.
Then we finally reached Nevado Pastoruri and after a roughly 40m walk through light rain I was finally standing in front of the incredible ice fields, snow mountains, blueish glacier colours and lakes - just breathtaking :) As typical for mountain regions the weather changed dramatically in a hail and then small snow storm so that we fled after 30m ;)

Th, 13.04. - Su, 16.04. 4d Treking Santa Cruz
Yeah, that day was the start of the 4d Santa Cruz Trek, also known as the most beautiful trek in South America - and it turned out that I would not be disappointed.
First of all, we were quite a small group of only 8 people (Laura and Tony from the UK, Tamara and Levona from Israel, Kristin from Sweden/Australia, Jeff from Canada and Sandra and me from Germany) and had with Vivi also even a female guide. Similar to Salkantay our luggage as well as the whole camping and cooking equipment was carried by donkeys and all meals were included - however, we finally had authentic camping in normal small tents, 4 days without sanitary facilities such as toilets or showers (there were enough stones/bushes or rivers for a quick wash as well as babywipes :P) and within beautiful nature. Moreover, we were accompanied by the dogs Lulu, Pablo and Fernanda during the whole trip which always waited for the last one and showed us the way :)))

The first day was as usual quite an early start at 6am and we then also had to drive 2,5h through nice mountain landscapes. After a short delicious breakfast we drove another 3h through beautiful nature which gave us a first taste of what to expect the next few days. The road was a pure gravel road, there is a reason why distances in Peru are given in hours instead of km :P
After a lunch snack consisting of an avocado sandwich, banana, cookies and chocolate bar the donkeys were packed and we finally started, on the first day easy 9km 3-4h through mainly green mountain landscapes that reminded me a bit of Austria.
Around 5pm we arrived at our first camp directly located below a glacier and immediately got Coca tea with funny travel stories in our common tent. For dinner they put up a candle and we had a typical Peruan veg pasta soup as well as chicken with rice and potatoes.
Around 7pm we already went to bed thanks to an incredible cold and tiredness. The bottom of the tent was unfortunately already quite wet but thanks to thick mattresses and sleeping bags the night was not too cold - nevertheless we could see our breathes and were freezing a bit ;)

06:00/06:30 was also the time to get up on the second day. It was again or still very cold so that the really tasty scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions for breakfast made me very happy again :)
After that we hiked roughly 4h up through very beautiful glacier and lake scenery whereas only the last part over slippery rocks was pretty steep and due to the altitude also demanding. Before that we had a 15m siesta overlooking different lagoons and then reached the pass at an altitude of 4,500m - walking through this pass and the landscape directly behind it were just incredible and the first super highlight, especially as the donkeys also came straight afterwards.
It was also the perfect space for the lunch break, this time with cheese sandwich, another siesta and nice wake up with view of the glacier and lagoon :)))
After that we hiked 2h down to another nice campground and the third siesta at a really nice warm temperature. This site was really special as we could directly see Paramount Mountain. Unfortunately also a bit windy but therefore the night was similar to the first one full of stars and later lightened by the moon.
We then enjoyed again Coca tea and Tequeños, super tasty cheese rolls and then had quinoa soup and lomo saltado with rice and French fries for dinner. After that we played cards and were super proud to only hit the tents around 9pm - with a super noisy night as the dogs were constantly trying to chase away the cows that came closer and closer to our tents :P

On the third day we also had breakfast at 7am, this time with delicious fried eggs.
The day before we decided to walk another 3h and 9km to Laguna Arhuaycocha and that was one of the best decisions: the lake with its awesome blue colours, the many glaciers as well as the Paramount Mountain in the background were just incredible.
After that we hiked 5h partially pretty steep down to the next campsite and had our lunch snack, this time a tuna carrot sandwich at a beach similar lagoon.
After roughly 23km in total we then had again Coca tea and popcorn and later on vegetable soup as well as spaghetti with tomatoe sauce.

On the fourth and last day we had cereals for breakfast before walking down for 3h. The landscape changed dramatically, from high mountains and glaciers to green grass and farmlands. On the last stop we then also got to know Fernanda's cute puppies Princesa and Hitler (no comment at this point), had a ham sandwich this time and waited for the donkeys.
We then drove for 2,5h through nice landscapes back to Huaraz where we arrived in the afternoon and I enjoyed a pretty good shower after 4 days :D

Mo, 17.04. Huaraz - Chill & Relax
Another Monday chill day ;)
After all the hikes and body efforts I took a break that day, having a late breakfast and a lot of relaxation in the hammock - I finally also had time to write my travel diary as well as to sort the pictures and do some collages :)
At 10pm I then took the 9h night bus from Huaraz to the north of Peru, first to Trujillo. The situation after the inondations is slowly improving but there was still only one bus company (Empresa 14) operating directly from Huaraz for only 35S - from there I want to head further north to Chiclayo and then Tarapoto to the rainforest; Peru has the 3 regions Cierra, Costa and Celva (mountains, coast and rainforest) and after 3 weeks in the mountains (2 in Cusco and 1 in Huaraz) as well as 1 week on the coast (Arequipa to Lima) I would like to see the rainforest/Amazon, above all as it is cheaper and easier here than in Ecuador or Colombia.Read more