Huaraz, The Cordillera Blanca
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2008
1
18
25
Trip End
Aug 15, 2008
Huaraz,
Peru
Monday, July 28, 2008
We are both pretty tired, having just finished a 4 day treck in the stunning Cordillera Blanca which has to be right up there in the list of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The treck itself, despite being described as "medium to difficult" in the leaflet was more a gentle stroll through the (admitedly very beautiful) park, which left Brig and I a little bit fustrated, as the pace of some of our other group members could be compared to a broken-flippered turtle moving through quick sand. The group member I am referring to was a captain birdseye-esk Hungarian man called Atillla who had a tendency to fall to the back of the group before strolling up alternative paths without informing our guides (liz and juan). They would then have to head off and look for him (only to find him having a nap at the top of some rock somewhere) and try and explain to him in Spanish (Atilla didn't speak Spanish) that this was not good treck etiquette. Irritating as Atilla may have been, he did have the benefit of often leaving us in hysterics of laughter. The rest of the group were all frenchies (very french frenchies at that) and one other English speaker, an American called Steve, who in between mocking us for our Englishness and Atilla for...well...being Atilla, was excellent company, and restored our faith in fellow travellers after "the canadian chronicles".
Some mountains
The route was about 60km (sounds long but over 4 days it it in fact VERY short) and took us up to 4750 meters through an incredible mountain pass and down though the valley the other side. What was exhausting about the treck though, was the cold at night (it got down to around minus 5 degrees C), which Imo and I tried to combat by going on what we called "mountain scrabbles" when we got to camp. The best of these was with out guide, Juan who, poor thing, had been responsible for walking with Atilla all day (who made Juan walk 20 meters ahead of him because he wanted to walk alone. Charming man.) and was obviously desperate to stretch his legs. This meant we were practically runnning up the mountain side, on the less beaten track. It was these "scrabbles" that gave us some of the most breathtakingly views, though: we saw what was officially voted "the most beautiful mountain in the world" as well as the mountain from the Paramount picture clip. Standing right at the top of the valley to see this was incredible, especially when we disturbed a couple of wild horses who went running off into the trees in a really cliched but beautiful way. The stars were also some of the most amazing I`v even seen. Cue generic nostalgic pipe music.
Anyhow, I could go on forever about the treck, but I`ll leave some for Briget who one of these days will get back to blogging!
Lots of Love and BBBB
Penny xxxx
