Huaraz, Peru

Day 85

We arrived in Huaraz at around 6am, both Ellen & I slept well for a change. Finally getting the hang of these night buses! We went and checked into our hostel and got in on the free breakfast.

We have met up with an American girl Stephanie who we met in Arequipa, she is keen to do some hikes as well! For the day, we literally went to 8 different tour companies to see what tours they have running in the next couple of days. After 7-8 hours of running around we finally found a tour we want to do and that fits in with the time we have left in South America – 4 day Santa Cruz Trek + 2 day Mount Pisco summit. I was surprised that Ellen jumped at the chance to summit a 5700masl mountain, when we finished the summit of Huayna Potosi she said, “I am never doing that again”. I think she has forgotten the pain she was in!

Now that we finally decided we could relax and we all went and had some delicious Indian for dinner.

Day 86

Today we are going for an acclimatising hike, we are heading to Churup laguna, the trail head is about a 40 minute drive out of town.

We had a quick breaky at 7am and then headed out of town to the trail. When we arrived, we could tell the air was thinner already – we were only at approximately 3800masl. Fair to say we have lost a bit of acclamation from our 3 days down at near sea level in Huaccachina & Lima.

We wandered up the path towards the lake, it took us around 3 hours to get to the lake at an altitude of approximately 4400masl. No headaches or sick stomachs so that is a good sign the altitude isn’t affecting us too much – apart from the breathlessness.

The lake was beautiful, if the sun came out a little bit more I would have gone for a swim. But no, it was wayyyy to cold. We hung out at the top for an hour or so and then wandered back down to the bottom where the van was waiting for us.

We headed back into town, paid for our Santa Cruz tour which is leaving tomorrow. We are going with a company which has really good reviews, and is a bit more expensive. We all don’t want to have bad experiences like we did on the Salkantay trek in Cusco! Steph was in a different tour to us and she was hit on by her guide!

Steph cooked us some delicious ramen in the hostel and we had an early night in bed. 4:50am wake up tomorrow!

Day 87

We were picked up on time and headed off to the start of the trek in a small village named Cashapampa. We had a small breakfast here, our group is only 4 people – myself, Ellen, Steph & Anna (a UK girl on her first ever multi day trek).

After breaky we headed off. The altitude we started at is 2900masl and we headed up and up and up and up. It was a cracking day but super hot. We stopped for lunch by a river with the cows.

We kept wandering and arrived at camp by 3pm. A very cruisy day to start!

For the afternoon to pass the time we played a lot of cards and took in the nice views around our camp. A nice relaxing start to our hiking adventure!

Day 88

We were woken at 6am by our guide with some coca tea! This is a big step up from the treatment we received on the Salkantay trek in Cusco! Today we have a much bigger day of hiking, around 8-9 hours.

We left at 7am without a cloud in the sky as we wandered through the valley. It was a fairly uneventful 4 hours of walking, and then the clouds came back! We got drenched with rain as we headed up a mountain to the main viewpoint of the Alpamayo mountain – unfortunately when we arrived we couldn’t see anything!

We kept walking further up towards Arhuaycocha laguna, and you wouldn’t read about it – the clouds disappeared and the sun started shining! We had some lunch in the sun, again with a heap of cows. Everywhere we looked while eating were massive glacier peaked mountains. Our guide said he has climbed every one of them. I am jealous!

After lunch, we went to Arhuaycocha laguna, there was only us and another group there. So awesome to have this place almost to ourselves. The other group was swimming, bloody crazy! The lake was so cool, probably the second best one we have been to behind El Chalten in Argentina!

We then walked back and down a few hundred meters to our next camp site.

The clouds had rolled in again so we couldn’t see much of the mountain peaks surrounding us. For the night, we drank a lot of hot chocolate and played some more cards. I also got some majestic photos of donkeys.

Nice ass

Day 89

Early wake up again! The clouds had once again cleared for the morning, absolutely breath taking scenery. We were all very content, we could have stayed there and chilled for the day.

But no, we headed off at 7am, and headed up up up over the pass at 4700masl. None of us felt sick from the altitude which is a promising sign. Once we got to the top and looked over the pass there was rain and clouds everywhere – it felt so weird. It was like walking from a warm room into a freezing cold one! The views in the direction we came from were breathtaking!

We cruised all the way down to the bottom, stopping for lunch on the way. Because it is the wet season a lot of this trail was completely destroyed from the donkeys. It was probably the least enjoyable part of this trek.

Nonetheless we made it to camp, another 9 hour day done and dusted! We are feeling the effects of 2 big days of hiking, very sore and hungry! Early to bed tonight.

Day 90

We headed off at 7am, and walked through some small villages for 2 hours before a final ascent to finish the Santa Cruise trek! We said goodbye to our donkey driver man and caught a very bumpy bus up out of the valley to the start of our Pisco base camp. From the top of the mountain range we could see the top of Mount Pisco! This made us all very nervous – such a long way up!

At the start of our Pisco trek we said goodbye to our new UK friend Anna & said hello to a German girl Martina – still a group of 4!

We hiked a couple of hours to the Pisco high camp which sits at 4650masl. No headaches or sickness from any of us – we will crush it we were thinking.

For the afternoon and night, we just hung out and rested for the summit attempt tomorrow, praying for good weather!

Day 91

Biiiiig day. We woke up at midnight, had a quick breakfast and gathered our gear. Crampons, boots, ice axe, helmet, harness & lots of layers! At 1am we were off to the mountain. The first part turned out to be a 3 hour scramble over rocks to get to the glacier! The mountain looked a lot closer to high camp, so we were a bit shocked. Ellen was having trouble with her boots, the ones we have to wear have a very firm sole so it doesn’t allow much movement or flexibility when moving over the rocks – there may have been tears. Uh oh, we are in trouble early.

We had a 30 minute break at the bottom of the glacier, put on our crampons and roped up to each other. One guide was roped to me, Ellen & Steph. The other guide was roped to Martina.

At 4:30am we headed up the glacier, we noticed immediately it was a lot steeper than the 6000m mountain we climbed in Bolivia! None of us said anything though, we were huffing and puffing up the ice. After 2 hours of climbing the sun started to come up, and we could see the peak! It didn’t look that far away I thought, although we still had 400m of climbing to go!

We kept climbing the mountain, one of the slopes I swear was 60 degrees! Ellen was pretty much ice climbing up it. I was more concerned about how we will get down this thing. We kept climbing higher and higher, with many stops on the way.

 

The top kept getting closer, but still seemed so far away. But at 9am, 8 hours after leaving the high camp, we made it to the top! It was unbelievable. Pisco mountain peak is the smallest in the area at 5700masl, but it has a full 360 degree view of the many mountains around it. It was really, really cool.

We chilled at the top for around about 20 minutes taking selfies, posing like sexy llamas etc.

Then the clouds rolled in out of nowhere! We couldn’t see more than 10 meters in front of us. It was time to go back down – Steph was leading us down the mountain trying to follow the footsteps. It was pretty hilarious watching, she didn’t really have any idea where she was going – I was waiting for her to disappear into a crevasse!

To get down the steep sections, our guide rigged up a bolt in the ice and we all abseiled down. It was pretty fun, but also scary! He then just walked down the mountain in no trouble at all, he must have super flexible ankles!

We made it to the bottom of the glacier at 11am. Tired but super nervous about the scramble over the rocks back to base camp! We had a thousand stops on the rocks, but we made it back to high camp at 2pm. A huge 13 hours of hiking complete!

We had some lunch, then went and had a siesta for the afternoon. I felt much better at dinner time. Pisco mountain isn’t as high as Huayna Potosi, but man it was so much harder, and in my opinion the views were much better. Bigger isn’t always best??

Our guides joked that we were ready for a bigger mountain tomorrow. No thanks, we are done for a while I think. Mountaineering is a very tough gig!

Day 92

Last day of camping! Ellen is complaining she is so dirty. I love it, smell like a man lol We were all feeling surprisingly good after yesterday’s efforts, so we headed off nearby to the famous Lagoona 69.

Hundreds of people come to visit this Lagoon every day, but we were the first ones there at around 10am. Unfortunately, the clouds were around this morning so we couldn’t see the top of the mountains surrounding the lake (including Pisco).

We headed back down the trail to be picked up and driven home to shower! On the way down we counted the people coming up just to see Lagoona 69 – 154 people!! It would be such a big day, it is a 2.5 hour bus, 3.5 hour hike up, 2 hour hike down, 2.5 hour bus back. Not for us – we saw it in a much better way!

We got the bus back to Huaraz, checked into our hostel and had a shower. Ellen was stoked!

We then went and had dinner at the company’s owners house for the night. We had plenty of Pisco sours to celebrate – it is our last real day in Peru after all!

Day 93

Today we had a bit of a sleep in, some breakfast and packed up. It is a weird feeling, in 24 hours we will be able to understand everything everyone is saying – we are heading to Canada!! Woooo.

We caught the 7 hour bus back to Lima, arriving at 6pm, then we went straight to the airport. Lima traffic is bloody crazy! It has the worst traffic I have ever, ever seen. Cars will clog up intersections on purpose! I don’t think we missed much by skipping this city.

At the airport we chilled for 8 hours, our flight didn’t leave until 2am. So we slept, ate and did laps of the airport.

More photos are located here.

We have had such a good time in South America, it is probably the funnest place we have travelled so far. Diverse mountain ranges, nice people, history & culture. AAAANNND it is cheap! Some people say that South America is dangerous, I disagree. I think it is no different to any place in the world, don’t be dumb with your belongings and don’t put yourself in dodgy situations, oh, and don’t go to Venezuela. We will definitely be coming back to do Columbia & Ecuador next!

We met a lot of people on the way and made some new friends from all corners of the globe. I didn’t expect it, but we ran into a lot of people between 25-35  who have also quit their jobs and gone travelling. Doctors, Engineers, Teachers, Lawyers, IT gurus – you name it. And also tonnes of Israelis – I thought this was random. The Israelis love it here!

LIFE IS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!