Trekking in Huaraz
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2006
1
11
19
Trip End
Ongoing
Huaraz, Peru
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Huaraz is situated right in the middle of two huge mountain ranges, the Cordillera Blanco and the Cordillera Negro (in the Peruvian Andes). Apparently one of these is the second largest range in the world after the Himalayas. So there are lots of mountains and they´re pretty high! Not far from here is the area made (in)famous recently through the film, Touching the Void.
We arrived into the town very early in the morning and took it easy enough the first day in order to acclimatise to the altitude. We were definitely affected by it and neither of us was feeling the best. However, the sight of the locals walking around with their llamas raised our spirits a little!
We stayed in a really nice hostel owned by an English guy called Jo - the name is really original, ´Jo´s Place´. We had a room on the top floor looking out over the town with the snow-capped mountains behind, pretty cool. I had to buy some more long-sleeved tops to keep out the cold!
The first day here we hired some bikes and took a bus up some mountain or other for about 2 hours. Then cycled straight back down! We were chased by dogs a few times but all the people we encountered on the way were really friendly - some of the kids ran after us shouting ´dollars, dollars, gringos!´ - funny stuff. The dogs caused Gretta to approach speeds not known to man!
That evening my good buddy Cho arrived and we quickly set about organising a trek. The trek that most people do here is called the ´Santa Cruz´ trek but Jo gave us details on a better and quieter trek - which he had aptly named ´Jo´s Walk´! We decided to do this one anyway so headed in to hire the necessary equipment - tent, sleeping bags, mats, gas cooker, delph!, rain-coats etc. Plus we stocked up on grub, which of course we over-did a little. Better to have too much than too little though I say!!
We kicked off the trek at around 8am on Friday morning and got back on Sunday evening. And it was fantastic! The views were unreal, snowcapped mountains everywhere, cracks in the glaciers sounding like thunder, rivers, horses, sheep and cows (some not too happy with our appearance on their turf and a little inquisitive about our tent!). We didn´t see another person for over 2 days! But I won´t lie, it wasn´t all rosy! Our ´3 man´ tent turned out to be a 2 man - obviously we were none too pleased with this development and I ended up having to open the door to stick my feet out! Which led to Cho having the shivers in his sleep which was funny enough. Not for Cho obviously. Some of the climbs were really tough and we´d have to stop every couple of minutes, sometimes seconds!, to catch our breaths. In fairness to Cho, he was like a mountain goat most of the time - must be his ´short legs´ (quote attributed to Chunky I believe!). On the second day we had to cross what is called the ´Huapi Pass´. Unfortunately our map was fairly sketchy on the exact location of the pass so we more-or-less had to find it ourselves. We did find it, but only after being headed in the wrong direction for a couple of hours! Gretta was not at all happy with this development but she soldiered on! This was the toughest part of the trek, having to turn around and climb ground which we´d just come down. Cho was a good bit ahead of me and I could hear him cursing away to himself in the distance, very funny! The descent to the river where we camped on the second night was pretty vertical and we spent quite a lot of time on our asses! But we made it eventually, just as it was starting to get dark.
The final day was straight-forward enough, walking through a valley and some villages, and we were glad to make it back to civilisation!
We are heading to Lima tomorrow where we hook up with Gleese and Chunky. Gleese has been cultivating a most impressive Scouser-type moustache since the Carnival so I look forward to seeing that in person!
So there you have it, I´ll be in touch again soon!! Photos for this entry to follow.
