Trek in the Cordillera Blanca

The Paramount Pictures Peak.

Sunday the 26th of July was an early start. Up at 5:30 and at the MontTrek tour agency at 6am to meet with the trek group, which I thought was only going to be 5 people but ended up being 12! There were 4 couples, one from Eastern Canada, one from Belgium, one from Lima and one from Ireland (who were initially from Italy and Spain). The other 4 included some girls from California doing a documentary on South American women, Thomas from France, and myself. Most of us piled into a big van, but we could not all fit so another vehicle was taken too. We drove for 6 hours deep into the Andes, stopping at certain spots along the way for photos of the incredible views. Between Huaraz (3000m) and Portachuelo (4770m), we observed mountain farmlands, glaciers and glacier fed lakes, and snow!

Mules--these ones without massive loads.

We arrived the small mountain village of Vaqueria at noon, had a small lunch and began our first day of hiking by 1pm. The climb was only a few hundred meters within 4 hours. In that time we had it all from sunshine, to overcast, to drizzle and at the time we reached our first camp it was torrential down pour. We were assured that rain wouldn´t be encountered, but luckily most of us were prepared fo it all anyway. The unfortunate part is that our guide and assistants set the tents up during the rain so everything was soaking wet for our first night. Needless to say, we were a little cold and quite miserable. To add to our misery, our guide was being lazy and didn´t have our dinner ready until nearly 10pm! Some of the group memebers gave up waiting because they were cold and tired, but those of us who waited were treated to a delicious dinner consisting of soup, chicken, potatoes and of course rice. Immediately following the meal, bed was in order.

Our first camp, which was very wet.

The night of rest was a bit wet but more or less warm and day 2 started at 7am. Breakfast was a classic Peruvian one with coca tea, bread with jam and aveena. Perhaps not quite the fuel we needed for our big day; 6 hours of hiking with a the Punta Union pass. The weather was similar to the first day, with mostly overcast skies. However, because of the altiude we were gaining, the precipitation we got was in form of snow! Very neat, and made me miss snowboarding a bit. Anyway, it was cold and though the view from the pass was amazing, it was too cold to stay for much longer than 15 minutes. Furthermore, the next valley we were meant to descend into was sunny and not the gloomy like the one we spent our first night in.

Ascending on the second day from the dark and wet valley.

The pass.

The otherside of the pass.

Thomas and I were the first to reach our second camp of Taullipampa which was situated at just over 4000m. We were able to enjoy a couple ours of sunshine while we set up camp, before the sun went down and the cold wind picked up. As the sky cleared, we were able to enjoy a very starry sky accented with a half full moon. Dinner was an hour earlier this night, and we were able to crawl into our warm sleeping bags earlier to escape the 2ºC air.

A horse that didn´t quite make it to the second camp...

For the third day, the sky remained clear which enabled us to enjoy the views of severs magnificent peaks, including the Paramount pictures peak (though it was hard to recognize without the stars around it). After a 3 hour detour to visit Laguna Arhuaycocha, we descended for another 3 hours to our third camp. It was also convienently located by some high altitude shops which sold beer so we could celebrate a few things. It was our last night in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru´s independance day and also our guides birthday (which we later found out to be a lie so he could get free drinks from us...tsk tsk). So at 3800m, we drank, sang and danced (mostly to keep warm) under the starry sky.

Laguna Arhuaycocha.

With some fuzzy heads, we were up at 7:30 and on our way down to Cashapampa (2900m) by 8:30am. It was only a 4 hour descent and with the sky still clear and altitude much lower, it was toasty warm. We waited an hour for the mules to arrive with our supplies, crammed into a smaller van than we had the first day (this time ALL of us too), and drove for 2 hours back to Huaraz.

Laguna Jatuncocha.

Getting ready to leave our final camps view.

Apart from some problems with the company and our guide, it was a wonderful trek with awesome scenery. The night we returned e went to a grill house to get a good fix of meat, said good-byes (or see ya laters) and returned to our hostels for a good night sleep in a bed.

The End