Travel, Photography, Life.
Santa Cruz Trek
A 4-day trek through Peru’s Cordillera Blanca.
Santa Cruz Trek Day 4 of 4
Oct 10th
October 7, 2005
Day 9
Today was the same routine as the last few days: Wake up at sunrise, eat a small breakfast, pack up my stuff, and start hiking. It only took two hours to get to Cashapampa, our final destination at an altitude of 2973 meters (9754 feet). The trek was downhill almost the whole way.
At Cashapampa, Gregorio, Carolina, and I took a taxi down the mountain to Caraz. At first, we were the only ones in the taxi, but more and more people kept getting in. Just when I thought it was full, a guy squeezed into the hatchback behind all of our luggage. That must have been a fun ride.
In Caraz, we loaded our gear onto another bus and took off for Huaraz. The hour-long bus ride was rather inconsequential, but I had mixed feelings about being back in society with the honking horns and belching car exhaust.
Morad wasn’t able to get a room in the guest house we were staying in previously, so he went to another hostel and I got my own room for the night. It was fifty percent more expensive than the double room, but still not a bad price at $5.
Most of my afternoon was spent putting together notes and looking at photos from my Santa Cruz trip. I also got a ticket to the nearby Chavin ruins for tomorrow. The rest of my evening was spent doing things that I couldn’t do for the last four days like showering and washing clothes.
The complete photo album for this entry is here.
Santa Cruz Trek Day 3 of 4
Oct 10th
October 6, 2005 – Day 8
Once again I got up at sunrise. I slept a little better, but still not too well. I had a biscuit with some jelly and butter for breakfast and prepared to leave. After discussing the plan for the rest of the trip, four of the six of us decided to do the rest of the trip today. Only Carolina and I stayed back. It didn’t make sense for me to rush things since I´m not on a time limit and I paid for four days, so I might as well make the most of it. We said our goodbyes and the four of them left about thirty minutes before the rest of us to try to make it to the end before the last bus left.
Gregorio, Carolina, and I walked leisurely since it would only be four hours to the next campsite. Once again, there was beautiful scenery the entire way. We passed another big lagoon and more mountains. The walk was flat almost the whole time. We got to camp and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, it rained for several hours after we got to camp, so there wasn’t much to do. For the most part, we had been lucky in avoiding the rain up till that point.
This was the warmest night of the trip so far. It was also the most relaxing. I went to bed early and got lots of sleep in preparation for the last day of the trip.
The complete photo album for this entry is here.
Santa Cruz Trek Day 2 of 4
Oct 10th
October 5, 2005
Day 7
I didn’t sleep very well our first night of camping. I was warm enough, but the tent was set up on uneven ground, and I had the sensation that I was falling the entire night. I was glad when the sun started coming up and I could get out of the tent. We ate a simple breakfast similar to porridge, gathered up our gear, and took off at about 8:00 AM.
The trek was difficult from the beginning. Yesterday we walked mostly either downhill or on flat ground, but the first four hours of today’s trek were uphill. We kept passing other trekkers who were going in the opposite direction. We never seemed to be able to get a good idea of how long it would take to get to Punta Union, the highest point of the trek. Our guide kept saying “two more hours,” but it was obvious he didn’t know what he was talking about because he said that for two hours straight.
As we walked higher and higher, it got colder and colder. After awhile we got to the point where there was snow on the ground. I never thought I would see snow so close to the equator.
Eventually, it got to the point where our group was stopping every five minutes. When we could see Punta Union, we started splitting up. All I cared about at that point was making it to the top. I imagine that it wouldn’t have been very difficult doing the same trek at home, but this was my first time at a high altitude, so I got fatigued very quickly. In the first four hours of the hike, we went from an altitude of 3870 meters (12,697 feet) at our camp to 4750 meters (15,584 feet) at Punta Union. Nevertheless, one by one, we all made it to the top.
When I reached the highest point and was finally able to see the other side of the mountain, I gasped. The lagoons and mountains looked like they were taken out of a postcard. After looking in awe at the natural beauty that surrounded me, I took some pictures and ate lunch.
After staying at the top for about thirty minutes, our group began our descent. Our guide pushed on at a very quick pace. I got a headache and started to feel really week. The altitude was getting to me because I didn’t drink enough water. I eventually had to take a break and down a liter of water to get some energy back. Almost everyone in our group felt the same way. Nothing really bad happened, but I can only imagine how bad it would’ve been had we been even higher. Maybe we were just a bunch of spoiled brats, but it was still tough.
After walking downhill for two hours, we reached our camp at an altitude of 4250 meters (13,944) feet. I immediately went to my tent and passed out. After waking up an hour later, I felt good. After drinking some mate de coca, I felt even better. Our group ate supper and talked for awhile. Some interesting conversations about money and politics developed because we were all from different countries.
Later that night, a few people started talking about cutting the trip a day short. Our third day would involve four hours of hiking, followed by two more on day four. Some people had a limited amount of time to travel, so they figured it would be worthwhile to save a day by walking the entire six hours on day three. Our guide was worried that he´d get into trouble if some of his group left, but eventually he accepted that cutting out the fourth day was possible.
I went to bed at 10:00, later than any other night of the trip.
The complete photo album for this entry is here.
Santa Cruz Trek Day 1 of 4
Oct 10th
October 4, 2005
Day 6
It was a long day. I had to get up at 6:00 AM to meet up with the rest of the people for my trek. After being up late the last several nights, getting up at sunrise was really rough. There was good news, though. I thought I was going to have to take my big backpack for the trip because one of the shoulder straps on my daypack ripped apart on my flight to Peru. I took it to a tailor the night before, but I didn’t think I’d be able to pick it up in time. However, not only was the tailor awake, but he had fixed my backpack, and he only charged me 1 Sol (30 cents) for the privilege.
After throwing a few items in my newly-fixed daypack and putting together a bag for the donkeys to carry, I headed out to the tour agency to meet everyone and get our gear together. The tour would consist of seven people besides me:
Morad, from France, who had been traveling with me to this point
Erik, from France, who is currently living in Australia, but thinks he is Bolivian
Mickey, from Israel, who despite not speaking Spanish has an uncanny ability to bargain for everything from this trip to a night’s stay in a hostel
Benjamin, from Germany, who will be returning to Berlin soon to continue studying electrical engineering
Carolina, from Switzerland, who has been traveling around the Americas for over a year
Gregorio, our quiet 18 year old guide
Our donkey man
Everyone in the group was traveling independently, which made it easy to get to know each other. Also, everyone except me spoke at least three languages, so I’m pretty sure they were all talking about me in French or German behind my back the whole time.
To start our trip from Huaraz, we rode a typical Peruvian bus for an hour to a small town where we ate breakfast. No sooner than we had gotten there, Benjamin was nowhere to be found. It turned out that he had just gotten into Huaraz that morning and hadn’t gotten a chance to do such essential things as go to the bathroom or use the Internet. Morad went looking for him, but then he didn’t come back. One by one, people kept disappearing. It was like one of those cheesy horror movies from the ’80s where the killer just sat back and waited for people to leave the main group. I decided to stay put. After finally getting everyone rounded up, we ate sandwiches with beef and onions at eight in the morning, and took off in another bus.
Most Peruvian buses aren’t buses as we know them in the US. They are really just ten-passenger vans that are not made for people more than five feet tall. I counted thirteen people in our bus for the majority of our trip, but I was told that it would take twenty people to meet the Peruvian definition of “full.”
We rode the bus for three hours. The majority of the trip was up a mountain. There were no guardrails on the narrow gravel road, so I got a little freaked out at times. Everyone else seemed calm, though, so it was probably a safe road, at least relatively speaking. The road kept twisting and turning up the mountain, slowly but surely. Along the way, we passed a majestic lagoon and some of the most beautiful scenery I had ever seen, but we never stopped. I was told that the bus driver was in a hurry. The way the road wound up the mountain, I kept seeing the same scenery over and over, smaller and smaller. Finally, we got to the top of the mountain and began our descent. We had to go back down the other side of the mountain for thirty minutes until we reached the start of our trek.
After the three hour bus ride, we arrived at Vaqueria, our starting point. The only problem was that our donkeys had not yet arrived. This tour already seemed very unorganized. I guess that’s what you get for going the cheap route. We ended up waiting for over an hour before being able to depart. Why were we in such a hurry to get there that we couldn’t even stop to take a few pictures?
The first few hours of the trek took us through several native villages. There were people doing laundry, farmers working in fields, local children following us, and of course lots of animals being herded. It was very interesting to see how the native farmers go about their daily lives.
After walking across rivers, through forests, around lagoons, and past mountains, we arrived at our camp. We walked for a total of four hours. The walk itself wasn’t very difficult, but there was little daylight left when we got to camp. That’s when I really noticed how disorganized the tour was.
With dark setting in and the temperature quickly dropping to below freezing, our guide and donkey guy worked quickly to get the tents set up and cook dinner. The only problem was that they didn’t have a flashlight, a pocket knife, a scissors, or enough silverware for everyone. We had to stand around with our flashlights and give them enough light to cook. There also were no chairs, so we had to eat on the ground.
Despite the few problems I had with the lack or organization, I still enjoyed my day. I saw some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, and I got to enjoy getting away from civilization for awhile. The group was still in good spirit going into day two, which would prove to be the toughest day of the trip.
The complete photo album for this entry is here.