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Day one
We were picked up outside Churrup hostel just after 6:30am and after a couple more stops around town we we were on our way into the mountains to start the 4 day Santa Cruz trek with Quehuandes. Our group consisted of 8 hikers; Andrew and I, Dave (UK) and Jana (Germany), Frank and Frank (France) and Tony and Natalie (Germany). We also had our guide, Carlos, and our cook, Pancha.
We drove out of Huaraz towards the town of Yungay. After a couple of hours we pulled in for a quick breakfast in a roadside restaurant. After that, our next stop was the Llanganuco lakes, beautiful turquoise lakes, surrounded by high cliffs and snow capped mountains, including Peru's highest mountain, Huascaran. After the lake it was time to ascend up and over the mountain pass in front of us, the Portachuelo pass (4767m altitude). This consisted of 40 minutes driving, zigzagging up the mountainside on an unsealed road. I'm not quite sure how our minibus made it - the road would have been a 4x4 road in Aus! One of the Franks on our bus was suffering from vertigo and after letting out quite a few whimpers Andrew ending up swapping his middle seat for Franks window seat. We stopped at the top of the pass and got a wonderful view of the valley and lakes below and snow capped mountains above - these included Huascaran (6768m), Huandoy (6395m), Chopicalqui (6354m), Chacraraju (6112m) and Pisco (5752m). Our guide also informed us that the pass we were driving over was the same altitude as the one we were walking over on day 2 - eeeek. As we descended on the other side of the pass we were blessed with yet more stunning views of the Cordillera Blanca, the mountain range with the most peaks over 6000m after the Himalayas.
Before long we arrived in the small village of Vaqueria. Here we met our mule driver, Richard, and his faithful steeds - 1 horse and 6 donkeys - that would help transport our luggage during the trek. After a packed lunch it was time to set off. We descended from Vaqueria and followed an easy trail through the valley towards the small village of Huaripampa. Along the way we saw lots of traditional houses, men and women working with donkeys in the field, cuyes (guinea pigs) for sale and numerous children asking us for cookies. We stopped just outside the village for a rest where the valley forked in two. We followed the right hand valley along a flat track for another 2 hours, jumping across small rivers and bogs (one of which Jana lost her shoe in) before reaching our campsite at Paria. We camped in a slightly different area to all the other campers as our guide said we got better views of the mountains and he wasn't lying. Behind our tents was a high snow covered ridge - quite a sight to wake up to.
We relaxed with a cup of hot chocolate and at about 8pm were treated to a lovely 3 course dinner of soup, fried trout and mashed potato and caramel dessert. First day done, three to go.
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