Sunday, April 17, 2016

The most perfect mountains I've ever seen

I'd had multiple people tell me that if I only had one hike to do in Peru, I had to do it out of Huaraz. And I only had time to do a couple of days of hiking. So I booked it up to Huaraz. I arrived on a night bus, so I figured I'd spend a day sorting out my plans and leave the next morning. Laguna 69 (yes, thats what it's called pervs) is the classic day hike that everyone does, so I figured I would do that and find another day hike to do.
The view from the van on the way up
Then I found out that the Laguna 69 hike can have up to twenty or thirty people in the group. Wait what. I do not want to hike in a group with thirty other people. Instead, I decided I could risk it and do a four day trek called the Santa Cruz trek. Because I didn't have time to hang about and make friends to hike with, I joined a tour. Joining a tour meant that we had donkeys. Which meant they carried the food. And everyone's extra clothes. Our guide was also a phenomenal cook. Talk about luxury on a camping trip. Holy crap.
HOOMAN! Lets go.
The trip takes four days, but the first and fourth days contain a decent amount of driving, so there were really only two days of serious hiking. The thing that they warn you about much more than the physical difficulty of this hike is the altitude. Huaraz is at 3000m, and the rest of the hike is higher.
A large valley we crossed on the first day
Day 1 started with several hours of driving before we were dropped off in a small pueblo. We were given sack lunches while they tied the bags on the donkeys. Fun fact, one of the donkeys was super friendly! I had never petted a donkey before. He would try to lean his face against you if you stopped petting him but didn't walk away. After that we walked pretty much downhill/flat for a couple of hours and arrived at our first camp. The donkeys and our stuff got there a lot faster than we did, so the tents were already set up and water was boiled. As luxurious as it was to have all this help, I'm almost embarrassed to admit how little they expected us to do. Definitely not the same as some of the other backpacking trips I've done.
Sheep checkin' us out
Day 2 started with breakfast at 6am. We didn't have that long of a day, but we were hiking in the rainy season. Usually if it rains, it happens in the afternoon. It's better to get up early (ahhhhh why) so we aren't all walking in the rain. Fair point. Luckily, right as I stumbled out of my tent into the cold morning, I looked up and saw the glacier above us glowing pink and orange in the sunrise. The warm colors lit up the sky for only about five minutes, reminding me that sometimes managing to drag myself out of my tent in the early morning is worth it.
Glowin' morning glacier
We walked for about six hours, up over a pass with an elevation of 4750m. As we left the small town on the previous day, a dog was walking with us. We figured that he would walk with us for a couple hours and go home. He was still with us the next morning and appeared to be heading up the pass with us. As we all slowed down and started to breathe more heavily, the dog started running around and chasing birds. Show off.
Walking up to the pass, way to early in the morning
Gorgeous views
Keep up hoomans.
Cool pokey rocks
It really doesn't look that hard, except you can hardly breathe. Its a feeling you can't explain to someone who's never been high up.
We ate lunch just on the other side of the pass out of the wind. Our dog came with us, wolfed down any food we tossed his way, and found his own snack to nom on, aka some ribs from an old donkey skeleton. Gross, homie. 
Woohoo!!!
Gorgeous valley, gorgeous lake
Finally tired
Nom nom?
Nom.
Once again, the tents were already set up when we got there. It meant we got to lay around in the sun with our shoes off. There were some new dogs at this camp. It seems like they just hang out and wait for the hikers to pet them and give them snacks. 
Practicing selfies
Hello friends, feed me?
The next day was another early morning, but we didn't have so much elevation change. Just a long day. We walked up to a lookout and a beautiful lake with a glacier falling into it. We were hoping for clear skies, because today was the day to see some of the more famous mountains in the area. One,  Artesonraju, is said to be the inspiration for the Paramount Pictures. Alpamayo is said to be one of the most perfect mountains in the world. We didn't get to see the 'classic' view, but we were still hoping the clouds would clear so that we could get a clear view of these gorgeous mountains.  
Maybe vain, but when you're stoked about your hair after three says without a shower, you take a selfie
Noms?
Everyone found a nice spot near the lake to sit and chill
Looking down from the lake
The Paramount mountain is behind the cloud
Pretty and purple
Alpamayo decides to show off a little
After lunch below the lake we headed down to the river. We walked along the valley for a few hours to get our last camp. Coming down from higher altitude, its amazing how much warmer it was down in the valley. We spent the night by the river and got eaten by mosquitoes. Oh and did I mention it was St. Patrick's Day? Happy day everyone!!!
Finally make it down to some flat ground
Flat ground, big rocks
Our last camp site
Some night photo practice
Thank you to the donkeys and Victor for dealing with all the stuff!
Dog vs. cow
For our last day we only had a couple hours walk until we found ourselves at another small pueblo where we were being picked up. There were more dogs and kittens to befriend with food before taking the van back to the hostel and to a shower! Hooray!
Another reminder mornings aren't so bad
Hiking out of the canyon
Kitteh friend.