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When initially planning my route, I hadn´t thought of going to Huaraz, I didn´t really know what it was about. I´m glad I did change as the trek I did was really good.
The girls had sent me an email telling me where they were staying, so we went to that hostel, arriving around 6am. Tom, Russ and I crashed out for a few more hours sleep before going for breakfast at the ideally situated Café Andino next door. The portions there were massive and it was reasonably priced too, which is probably why we had most of our meals there! So after meeting the girls for lunch, we decided on our plan of action. We would leave the next day, possibly with a girl Russ was meeting via the message board at the café, to do the Santa Cruz trek. The girls had booked one with a guide, that would use horses, and although go higher than our trek, wouldn´t last as long. Our trek would be independent, using only the Andean breeze and the sun as our guide, well, and Russ´ trekking guide book.
After meeting Vicky, we decided to get hire our equipment and leave the day after. We had some time int he afternoon, so Russ, Tom, Bron, Mal and I went to some nearby ´hot springs´ to relax. When we got there, it was full of young Peruvian lads, and it would seem excited at the prospect of seeing two white girls in bikinis. The ´hot´ pool, was actually quite cold, unless you found one of the vents, which we did and all five of us huddled around it for the duration, keeping any pool warmth to ourselves. The pool itself was full of ´natural´ volcanic liquid and was completely brown. It was by far the worst one I´ve been in, but the company I was with made it a fun time. We had to flag down a ´collectivo´ from the road side to get back to Huaraz. A collectivo is a type of local taxi mini-bus. It´s cheap and usually takes as many passengers as possible, so is always crowded!
The next day the girls left on their trek, and the rest of us prepared for our 4 day trek the next day. It worked out far cheaper than going through a company to do it, and there´s something more liberating about doing it all yourself than relying on a guide. So, after hiring our stuff, and more food from the cool Café Andino, we were ready for the following day to set off at 5am.
Santa Cruz Trek - Day 1
Although I had completed the Inca Trail, which was of similar difficulty level to this trek, I had done it with only a day pack, while the porters carried our tents, food clothes. This time it was down to the four of us to share two tents, the food, stove, and our clothes for the 4 day journey. Believe me, trekking with all your equipment up hundreds of metres of mountain ascent is difficult. I don´t think I realised just how difficult it was going to be and it was a bit of a shock to my body. The others had at least some mountaineering / trekking experience, whereas this traveller had done only the touristic Inca Trail. The others pressed on, to me, effortlessly, while I became more and more tired, lagging behind but determined to get there.
It´s funny when you´re put into a situation like that. Your mind goes through so much: shall I turn back? No, I can´t let the others, or myself down! But how am I ever going to finish if I´m like this after only a few hours? Your mind turns to thoughts of friends and family back home. There´s nothing else but you and the Andean environment for company, the others are minutes ahead, probably resting and having fun.
"Small steps, small steps", I think to myself. "It´s important to keep moving", Russ´words becoming my mantra. The path was becoming a blurry white of stone and dust. Each step was as insignificant as the last, my heels dragging, stopping every now and then to let the parade of horses past, coming the other way. The river to my left, it was always refreshing to hear. Thoughts of home quickly return: "I wonder what people are doing back at home? I bet they´re sitting down, probably sipping on some coffee. Wish I was sitting down. Not quite noon yet, back home they´ll be having dinner. I´m hungry. Mmm, I´m looking forward to our pasta and tuna tonight". And so my thoughts continued, soon vocalising into song form, anything to keep me sane, probably sounded the opposite to any who cared to listen. Songs from the 50s and 60s for some reason, ´Teenager In Love´, ´Come, Go With Me", various Billy Fury tracks, ´The Great Pretender´. It was only after a nice cuppa and a sandwich at the roadside in the company of the others, fending off the many flies, did I become aquainted once again with the real world.
Energised from the knowledge we were about 30 minutes walking time from our camp for the 1st night, the four of us pressed on, eager to get there and set up camp. The afternoon session wasn´t nearly as gruelling as the morning 3 or 4 hours, but by the time we reached camp, my back and shoulders were glad of the rest.
After recharging for a while, we were able to use the nearby river as a source of water for some tea, then to prepare dinner. After eating a plentiful pasta with tuna and tomato sauce, we gathered inside an old hut, we assumed used to be used by farmers to sleep in when on the cattle trail. Whether it was still used or not we didn´t know but it provided some extra shelter from the chill, once the sun had descended over the mountains. For a while after, we played cards until we got tired, which was only around 8pm. I´m not sure whether it was so much walking or getting up early but I got to sleep relatively easily.
Santa Cruz Trek - Day 2
It obviously wasn´t the most comfy sleep I´ve ever had, but we woke up around 7am the next morning, prepared some morning tea after boiling some more river water and set off ready for a long day´s walk.
The vast majority of the day was flat walking, past a couple of lakes and large fields where horses and cattle were grazing, all the while the sides of the valleys looming above us on either side. On the far side of the meadows, cascading down against the rocks, waterfalls would provide the land with plenty of water. The lakes were different throughout, some parts had masses of reeds, others contained algae to form a green texture to the water. On walking through the middle of the meadows, it´s understandable why the Incas believed the mountains were the homes of the gods. The sheer scale and beauty of the place is something to behold. You can walk for ten minutes and still seem no closer to where you´re walking to.
We eventually stopped at the end of the meadow for lunch. Once again, tea or coffee with a sandwich was the order of the day. Removing the backpack, getting something to eat and resting for a while really does the trick. Soon, we were marching onwards, this session would include another ascent though. I was ready for it this time and handled it better than before. As we continued upwards, the views of the valley and the preceeding 15Km or so, became more impressive. It wasn´t long before we´d reached our next campsite and after deciding on a pitch, crashed down and took a deserved rest. Dinner was the same as the night before, but it didn´t matter, it was food and we were glad of it.
The cows and donkeys we were sharing the camp site with were not too shy. Once they smelled food, they dug in like an Alabama tick and wouldn´t leave. One cow even trying the tuna-flavoured hot water we´d poured away! After eating and playing some more cards, we hit the sack, knowing from Russ´guide book, that the next day would be the most difficult. I knew I´d need a good night´s sleep if I was to tackle the constant walking ascent of 550 metres all in go!
Before going to bed, we took our usual look at the stars, which were plentiful in the night´s sky but the brightness of the moon was such that it obscurred so many more. It was biting cold, but my long-johns and trousers, four upper-body layers, two pairs of socks and two hats went some way to helping. All of us at some point had been to an observatory, either in Chile or Peru, so could quickly identify Jupiter between the mountain peaks. Around this camp site we could see the peaks of 6 mountains, all around the 6,000 metre mark. We were at nearly 4,200 metres and the next day´s climb would take us to the highest point of our walk.
Santa Cruz Trek - Day 3
We woke up earlier than the last day, since we´d need a good start if we were to stay ahead of the weather. If you leave it too long to get going in the morning, the sun can really sap your energy.
We hoped to complete the 550 metres within the 2-3 hours the book suggested, so set off at a steady pace. It wasn´t long before I felt my heart pounding harder once again. At this altitude, there isn´t as much oxygen, so your heart works harder to pump what it needs through the body. It was after about an hour I could start to feel the recurrence of an old knee injury, but I pressed on. It would continue to affect the rest of my journey, forcing me to stop a couple of times on the way up. We´d all separated by this point, chatting to each other along the way would waste the breath we so much needed now. As Russ had previously mentioned to me, you get into a rhythm, and just keep going. It was true, and with my iPod playing away, I battled onwards, each switch back along the mountainside providing the next goal to aim for. "If I can just reach that turn up there, I can have a rest", we´d think to ourselves. After around an hour and a half, the donkeys belonging to another group on our camp site, and carrying their tents and possessions, passed us. We knew the highest point was within our grasp and soon we´d found our own pace and rhythm again. With every few metres of ascent, the beauty of the scene behind us continued to induce moments of awe. We could see for miles, as we ascended above the level of permafrost on the snow-capped mountain adjacent to us. A serene lake a few hundrer metres away on that same mountain, now in view. With only several switchback paths left, my heart was pumping hard. I had long since removed my jacket, and placed my sweater about my waist. The highest point was in sight and for all the want of trying to keep going, a ´quick breather´ was needed every 20 metres of travel. I arrived at the top, to the congratulations of Tom and Russ who had already arrived. "Put your bag down and take a look at the view over the other side", said Russ. I did so and reached the top of the pass, taking my first glimpse of what lay ahead for the next few hours of travel. It was an awesome sight. Standing with my back against the wall of the pass, I could see along the valley we´d just walked, and for miles over the new side, to the mountains in the distance. We stayed there for about an hour, just sitting and looking. All the hard work seemed worth it, and it´s a view I´ll never forget. It´s hard to describe now, and like I´ve said before for other events, the pictures just won´t do it justice. We rested for about an hour before we attempted the large descent of the afternoon session. Stopping abruptly with each step hurt my knee that little bit more. I quickly began to lag behind the others as the pain became quite intense at times. After an hour or so, the gradient became easier to deal with, and we were back to grassland about the rocky path.
When we stopped for lunch, once again we had only around an hour or so until the camp site. When we arrived, we decided to keep going to the next camp site, as there was plenty of time left in the day. My knee troubles had eased, as we were back to flat land once again. With around 30 minutes left until the next camp, another group of trekkers, coming the other way, walked past. The lead of the group just so happened to be Matt from Huacachina! We stopped and chatted for a while. We knew he´d be in Huaraz but hadn´t managed to time it quite right. He booked himself on a tour and had started out that day. We all agreed to keep in touch, as we´d all be heading further north along the coast, so we might be able to meet up. We said goodbye as he left to catch up to the rest of his group, and within no time, we´d arrived at the next available camp site.
This time, there were sheep and pigs to contend with, but they were herded away by the locals, who seemed to take great interest in how we cooked our dinner! They also kept a close eye on our card game, which became a bit strange to us after about an hour of them watching. Most were kids, but it was particularly strange as one of the locals was a lad of about 16, but we later found out he was a bit simple. We knew we´d be able to lie in a bit longer the next day, as we covered 3km more than plan, and the next day we hoped to be finished within a couple of hours anyway.
Santa Cruz Trek - Day 4
We packed up camp and set off a bit later than otherr trekkers, but we didn´t mind as we were on schedule to get to the finish in time for a collectivo to take us back to Huaraz.
We set off at a decent pace, passing through various villages on the way. The clusters of farm houses would have children playing outside, and as soon as they saw you, they would all run up the hill from their houses to the path and ask for sweets. We didn´t have any and if we did, we´d have eaten them ourselves anyway...in front of them, ha ha! Only joking...
It took two hours walking alongside the river, then to cross it and make our way up some steep paths before we reached what we thought was the end. The book´s description lacked a final pointer, but we eventually found that the main road was 20 minutes away, up lots more switch-backs. When my iPod ran out, I was nearly out of gas too, and on arrival at the collectivo stop, went into a shop and bought several drinks and a couple of chocolate bars.
Two collectivos and many hours later, we arrived back in Huaraz. After giving our borrowed stuff back to the hire shop, we went straight to Café Andino for a well deserved cupa and some dinner. I had been thinking about taking the night bus straight to Mancora but decided on taking it easy that night, chilling out with the guys and leaving the next day.
After mooching about the next day and several Andino meals later, I said goodbye to the Tom and Russ and got on the night bus that would take me to Trujillo. I arrived there at 7am, just in time to catch another bus to Chiclayo, then to change and take another to Piura, and finally another to Mancora.
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