Trekking in the Cordillera Blanca (Huaraz and Trujillo, Peru)

Trekking in the Parque Nacional Huascaran

After leaving Lima, I headed north to Huaraz, a small town which is surrounded by the spectacular white peaks of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range. The town was flattened by an earthquake in 1970 so is not exactly blessed with historic architecture, but I found a nice cafe for lunch shortly after I arrived which happened to stock beers from Sierra Andina, a local microbrewery. Always keen to try some local produce (particularly if its beer) I tried one of the four beers the brewery produce. As I drank the Alpamayo amber ale, I noticed a poster on the wall which said that the brewery was open every afternoon and welcomed visitors. With nothing planned for the afternoon it seemed that fate was calling me to pay them a visit so I did just that and spent a couple of hours there chatting to the staff, learning about the brewing process and, of course, sampling the other three beers they brew - the Inti Golden Ale, the Huaracina Pale Ale and the Don Juan Porter - all of which were very good.

Bottling in progress at Sierra Andina

Yum!

The real purpose of my visit to Huaraz however was to tackle a four day trek in the Cordillera Blanca, known as the Santa Cruz loop, which I had booked with Galaxia Expedicitions. The Cordillera Blanca is the highest mountain range in the tropical world and consists of 35 peaks over 6000m, including Peru's highest mountain Huascaran (6768m), and dozens of other peaks almost as high. Most of the mountain range sits within the Parque Nacional Huascaran meaning that it is largely undeveloped and an excellent location for some remote hiking.

The next morning, I along with several others who had booked to do the trek were driven out in to the mountains, a long 6 hour drive over a high mountain pass to get us to the village of Vaqueria were the trail started. Trekking with me would be Linda (from Canada), Dan and Edith (from Canada and Peru), Fernando and Anita (from Brazil and Argentina), and Juan, a Colombian guy who was part way through an epic bike road from his home in Bogota to Usuhia, the southernmost settlement in South America. Depending on your level of Spanish you can read more about Juan's adventures on his website. Joining us would be our guide Milagros and our arriero (donkey herder) Roberto whose job it was to go ahead of us each day with our equipment and supplies on the backs of several donkeys.

Roberto loads up the donkeys

Setting off in to the Cordillera Blanca

Following our long drive, day one was a fairly short walk up the valley from Vaqueria to our first campsite which sat at an altitude of 3870m. Conditions were slightly more basic than on the Inca trail and the equipment was a little less high spec, but at a quarter of the price for a similar length trek that was probably to be expected. Milagros was not only our guide but also the cook (on the Inca trail we'd had a dedicated cook who even had a chef's hat!) but she did a great job of preparing food for us every night on a pretty basic stove. The campsites were also very basic with no toilets or washing facilities (arguably preferable to the disgusting toilets at the Inca Trail campsites!). What was most noticeable however was that there was only one other hiker at our campsite and that we hadn't seen any other hikers all day - a huge change from the often busy W trek and Inca Trail. This was a constant throughout the trek as we saw very very few other hikers and pretty much had the spectacular scenery to ourselves.

An ex-toilet at the first campsite

The next day we awoke to spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, including some snowy peaks which had been covered in cloud the previous evening. It had been very cold overnight, but after a welcome and warming breakfast we set off for the second day of the trek. Day 2 was to be the toughest day of the trek as we would be walking over the Punta Union pass to cross to the next valley which meant ascending to an altitude of 4750m.

Excellent views of the snowcapped peaks early on Day 2

On the trail up to Punta Union

The trail climbed steadily for several hours and the high altitude meant we had to take things slowly, but eventually we neared the top of the pass - a small crevice in the rocky ridge separating two higher sections of snowy mountains. The highest altitude I'd previously walked to was the summit of Mount Meru in Tanzania which stands at 4566m, so getting to the top of the pass meant reaching a new highest altitude for me, so it was really pleasing to finally make it to the top.

At Punta Union with Anita, Fernando and Linda

After stopping at the pass for around twenty minutes to eat some lunch and take photos down in to the valleys on either side of the pass, we began our descent. On our right we passed a beautiful blue lake, whilst we started to get better and better views of the surrounding mountains as the clouds cleared as the afternoon went on. After a couple of hours of descending we reached our campsite for the night, a fantastic spot next to the river where Roberto had arrived a couple of hours earlier with the donkeys to set up camp. This had to be one of the most spectacular sites I had ever camped at, as we were surrounded by spectacular mountains on all sides and had the pleasing sound of the river babbling past us. The local cows took great interest in us however and seemed indifferent to our attempts to shoe them away from the campsite and even seemed to enjoy following us to the toilet!

Campsite at the end of Day 2

We'd reached camp by about 2.30pm in the afternoon so were able to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sun and taking in our beautiful surroundings, watching on as the clouds steadily cleared from the surrounding mountains, giving us particularly good views of Taulliraju, a 5830m peak.

The view from my tent at the second campsite

The clouds clear to reveal Taulliraju (5830m)

Santa Cruz (6259m) and Alpamayo (5947m)

Before going to bed on the second night we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Linda, Anita and Fernando who would be leaving early the next morning to complete a shorter three day version of the trek, leaving just four of us to walk together for the remaining two days. On the third day we first walked up to a viewpoint slightly above the valley for better views of Alpamayo, but unfortunately the weather was against us and the mountain was obscured by cloud so I was glad to have got a good shot of the mountain the night before when the weather had been better.

With Dan, Edith and Juan at the Alpamayo viewpoint

The rest of the day was spent walking down the valley, which meant easier walking than the day before, although the scenery was just as spectacular. After several hours of walking we arrived at another beautifully located campsite by the side of the river, where we were to spend the third night. Milagros again whipped up a fantastic dinner, but we were all early to bed after a third consecutive day of hard walking.

Heading down the valley on Day 3

Our campsite at the end of Day 3

The view from my tent at the third campsite

The fourth and final day was a shorter day as we walked down the last part of the valley to the small village of Cashapampa. By now the river had grown from the small mountain stream we had first walked alongside to a raging torrent of rapids and waterfalls that was great to walk alongside.

Juan stops for a breather on Day 4

Roberto and the donkeys overtake us on Day 4

By about 10.30am, Juan and I had reached Cashapampa and the end of the trail. After persuading a local shop owner to open specially for us, we bought a celebratory beer and drank it together while waiting for Dan and Edith to finish. This brought a fantastic four days in the mountains to an end and what had been an fantastic hike thanks to the spectacular scenery and the remoteness of the mountains which meant we'd barely seen any other people on the entire trail.

Happy to have made it to the finish

Trying on a local traditional hat in Cashapampa

I left Huaraz that night to begin a rather hectic few days of travelling to get from Peru to Ecuador. First I caught an overnight bus to Trujillo, where I spent a day while I waited for my next bus to take me on to Guayaquil in Ecuador. While in Trujillo, I killed some time by visiting an extensive set of Chimu ruins just outside the city. As mentioned in the last blog, I've really enjoyed learning about some of the pre-Inca civilisations in Peru and this was another good chance to learn more. In all, we visited three different sites, which were all part of Chan Chan, the huge capital city of the Chimu empire. Some of the city was remarkably well preserved (helped by some restoration efforts), and although rather different from the Inca sites I'd seen on the Inca Trail, the remains were equally impressive. 

Huaca Arco Iris, Chimu temple

Intricate geometric shapes at Huaca Arco Iris

Ceremonial space at Nik An Palace

My next bus was due to leave Trujillo at 12.45am that night, but a two hour delay due to a puncture on the way up from Lima meant we didn't leave until nearly 3am, meaning a frustrating few hours waiting in a cold, dark bus station with no news on when the bus might appear. The journey itself wasn't much better as crossing the border in to Ecuador took a total of 5 (yes five!) hours, by far the longest border crossing of the many I've experienced on the trip so far. Despite lots of signs at the border extolling the wonderful new modernised migration service, the woefully understaffed desks and slow computer systems meant long queues to both leave Peru and enter Ecuador. We then had a rather farcical delay at customs as our bus was held up for two hours because one passenger had clearly upset the customs staff by trying to bring a large flatscreen TV in to Ecuador by bus!

This meant arriving in Guayaquil nearly eight hours late at close to midnight, over 24 hours after I'd arrived at the bus station ready to leave Trujillo. On this occasion I'd chosen to stay with a family in a spare room, rather than a backpacker's hostel, so Patricia and Homero, the couple I would be staying with for the next couple of nights had to stay up late to welcome me, which fortunately they were happy to do, saving me from spending the rest of the night in the bus station. After two nights spent on buses, and three nights before that under canvas, it was a relief to be back in a proper bed!