Huaraz is located in the Cordillera Blanco range in Northern Peru.If anyone has seen the film Touching the Void (where the climber cur the rope on his friend) this is where it happened. We arrived here not really knowing what to expect or what we wanted to do so had to make the trip around all the tour agencies checking out the local treks.
The most popular one was the Santa Cruz trek and after talking to lots of agencies who were offering a nice cushy trip with donkeys and cooks and guides we decided to go it alone and do the trek solo. Our biggest worry was the complete lack of information on the trek itself (we were relying on a crappy map from the tourist office) and also the altitude which reaches 4750m at its highest point. Despite this we rented our gear, packed our bags and bought the usual consigment of crappy treking food....ie pasta and noodles and off we went.
We had to get a bus from the town at about 6am that morning to take us to Caraz and then a shared taxi to a little village called Cashapampa in the middle of nowhere where the trek began. We were looking longingly at the donkeys at this point....wondering should we just go ahead and hire one....but we continued on, getting lost twice the first 50m into the trek and having to ask directions twice!
The first two hours (despite what we were told) were all uphill and it was a real test. But eventually we made it over the worst and met a French Canadian guy, kris who walked along with us, breaking the monotony.It was just as well we met him too because as it turns our I had given away one half of our water purifying tablets...the ones with the chlorine so we had no way of purifying the river water (and judging by the amount of donkeys and cows pooing in the vicinity the water was probably rampent with bugs).
We reached camp the first day at about 4pm and set up the tent. The campsite was basic to say the least. There was two toilets which just looked like someone have driven a sledge hammer through the concrete and said "there´s your toilet" and an old women selling beer! We had a lovely meal of the typical soggy past with sauce and tucked ourselves in at about 7.30 for sleep!It was a freezing cold night and the sleep was not the best so we were almost glad to be getting up at 6am the following morning to start off again. The second day was pretty level treking although we were so tired we weren´t making much progress. We left Kris half way as he attempted to do an alternative trek through some of the most amazing scenery in the world supposedly.....amazing or not it wasn´t going to convince us to trek for an extra day. We had a short climb , gasping for breath at the end of the day to our second camp at 4200m...and we were pretty happy to throw down our gear at only 3pm.The campsite again was basic, more horrible doorless toilets again and minus the lady selling the beer.The view made up for it though, we were nestled in a valley with a snow covered moutain towering over us. After battling with our ultra confusing tent for about an hour we finally got it up and luckily for us because the rain arrived on for the rest of the day and night.
Another even worse feed of pasta and we started dreaming about all the lovely food we were missing from home , especially since it was bank holiday weekend. We tried our best to stay awake till after six for lack of anything to do we ended up with torches out at about 8. It was a better nights sleep apart from the wild horse that nearly mowed down our tent in the middle of the night. We heard a lot of neighing nearby and then the thundering sound of hooves, so close that I really though that was it....we would be trampled to death by a wild horse ..what an unfortunate end! Next morning, having survived our brush with death we found the hoof marks scarely close to the tent and all the dirt the horse had kicked up on the tent....close shave!
Day 3 involved the steep climb to the Punta Union pass at 4750m. We walked along like a couple of ole codgers...gasping for breath at every step. It was really slow going but we took a bit of consolation in the fact that even the people with donkeys and tiny backpacks were struggling too. We climbed the first section and I thought that was it, not realising we had to do the same and more to reach the top. The views were pretty spectacular but it was hard to enjoy them with the pain we were feeling. Every step was a supreme effort the closer we got to the top. We finally got to the pass after about 2.5 hours solid climbing. It felt great to have conquered our demons and broken through our pain barriers! It was all downhill after that (litterally) the weather had got pretty misty and wet. At this stage we were joined by a Czech couple, Jitka and Geo Geo who had kindly lent us some iodine and we had given them some cooking gas...a fair trade! We were well impressed with the fact that they had started the trek straight after the overnight bus from Lima....pretty hard going.
We kept a pretty fast pace for the rest of the day determined to get as far as we could ,if even to cut out a night and make it back to Huaraz. but every person we met gave us different times for the next camp or the next village so we never knew how our progress was going. Along the way we were accosted by the "Caramello" brigade....all the local kids who have obviously copped on to the fact that all the trekers carry lots of chocolate and sweets. They basically come running up from afar shouting "Caramellos" and then stand there waiting for a reward! We also came across an unatural amount of animal poo...donkey poo, horse poo, pig poo, cow poo, human poo....for a national park the place just seemed to be swimming in a tide of Sh**te.
We struggled on making it to within a half hour of the village at about 5pm where we could catch the bus, where we were told there was no hope of getting a bus at this stage. We were almost glad because the last uphill climb would probably have killed us so we camped down for the night, and even treated ourselves to a beer from the local shop. The four of us sat around our stoves combining the last of our food to make for a fine feed! Lights were out at around 9pm....a very late night for us and we were looking forward to getting back to civilsation first thing next morning.
Next morning we were up at about 6am all set to get back to Huaraz nice and early. It was just as well we hadn`t attempted the last part of the trek the evening before because it was about 40mins of constant uphill. We got to the village.....don`t know if it is even classified as a village as there was about two houses and a bus shelter, and we sat there hoping for a taxi or bus or any method of transport. We were there about half an hour, cooking up a bit of breakie at the side of the road when Tadgh asked a woman what time the next truck would be passing.....as she said 10 o`clock...a truck went whizzing by and we all stared not even knowing which way we wanted to go....turns out it was going our way.
Well that was the last thing we saw going in the right direction for about 5 hours!Not knowing this we sat there chatting to Jesus...no we didn't have 'an experience' it was just the local (probably only) village child whoose name was actually Jesus. Anyway he got tired after us we gave him a few biscuits and he realised he'd done his job and moved onto the next lot of hikers for more food.
The weather got colder and wetter and we were in teh dpths of depression....cold, wet, dirty and hungry and talking about all the food we missed from home probably didn´t help matters! Eventually though at about 1pm we finally got a car to take us, which we joined with a couple of Israelys. We piled into the car and he took us within a short walk of the main gates where we would have to pay the park entrance of abtou $25 which we were very sore abtou considering the conditions. obviously we´re not the only ones since the lonyl planet actually tells you how to avoid paying it! Anyway, our taxi man offered us a scam to get us through ...his friend woudl drive us in his curtained mini van and then our taxi man would pick us up at the other side, for a small fee of course. All hell broke loose though when his friend landed him in it and said he was only looking for half of what the taxi driver had asked for. The Israelys went nuts and said they would find their own way and then the Czech couple got mad with them for giving out....anyway we finally agreed a deal and loaded into the van, ducking down behind the setas with the curtains pulled. The driver even loads some of his friend in teh front to make it look more authentic. We passed through no problem and were completely giddy with our 'mad' scam that we´d pulled!
So at abotu 6pm that evneing....12 hours later we got back to Huaraz..the Czech couple hopped straight onto a bus to Lima....what did I say about hard core??!! ...but us, being a bit softer, opted for a hotel and a feed and a wash, and got out of the God awful town as quick as we cuold the next day!
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