Santa Cruz Trek
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2007
1
23
26
Trip End
Sep 03, 2007
Yungay,
Peru
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Our 4-day trek through the Cordillera Blanca started out with getting up very early on Friday to make it to the Montrek office (where we were to meet our guide and fellow trekkers) at 0630 so we could catch a local bus to our starting point.
We arrived at the office and waited for over an hour and a half. We, along with the other trekkers were wondering why we weren't leaving. The owner of the office kept assuring us that we'd be leaving shortly. At one point, a guy (who presumably worked there) came into the office, fully drunk. We think he must have just popped in from a big night/morning of drinking since he fell right in front of us on the stairs and stank of liquor.
By approximately 0800, our guide arrived and we were finally off. The rest of our ride to our first trekking point went quite smoothly.
Day 1 - Laguna 69
Our first trek was from Yanapaqcha to Laguna 69. The trek was a slightly challenging uphill, but the pristine blue lake and glacial waterfall just below the Chacraraju Glacial made the trek absolutely worth it! Along the way we saw an exotic variety of plants, including a Cactus that had fruit on it.
Day 1 - cactus or fruit tree? you decide
On our second day, we woke up around 7am to catch a colectivo bus to our next trekking point (the official Santa Cruz Trek). There were two buses waiting and the bus drivers spent quite a bit of time loading them up. Once loaded, our guide asked the driver where we (the trekkers) should sit, since he had reserved seats the previous day. A huge argument broke out between the bus drivers and our guide, so in the end, all of our gear was removed from the bus. Let's just say the bus drivers and all the passengers on the bus were steaming because the whole ordeal took up approximately half an hour.
A taxi driver was around, so he offered to take all of us trekkers (7 in total) in his taxi, and our guide stopped a passing pick-up truck to carry our gear. The 2 hr drive only took 1.5 hrs in the taxi. All trekkers were quite scared en route since the taxi driver drove at quite a high speed around one-way tight curves with very steep cliffs.
Day 3 - View from Punta Union
The third day took up to the mountain pass known as Punta Union (4,750m) seated below Mt Taulliraju (5,830m). The long climb was hard and tiring, but the view was ultimately rewarding. After a sharp descent we made a small detour so that we could go to a lookout with a stunning view of Alpamayo (5,947m).
Day 3 - Aplamayo mirador
At night we were finally reunited with our donkeys who went AWOL that morning (we think they heard how hard the climb would be).
Our last day of trekking was relatively easy despite taking about 6 hours or so, as almost all the way was flat or downhill. After a long wait at our end point for a taxi, and then another wait for a public bus (the first broke down after a minute), we arrived back at our hostal tired and in need of a shower and nice meal.
Day 4 - Completion of Trek
