Huaraz is the kind of place that was made for me, a small-ish town nestled in between the mountain ranges of the Cordilleras Blanca, Negra and the Huayhuash. You can see snow-capped peaks everywhere you look and there is climbing and trekking galore. It's not surprising considering that, other than the Himalayas, the region contains more peaks over 5,000m than anywhere else in the world.
I haven't had the chance to do much proper climbing since I left home, mainly due to lack of climbers and/or gear rental shops, so first on my list was to find a climbing partner. I toured the climbing walls and met a Peruvian called Rodrigo who wanted to climb the next day. Between us we had pretty much everything we needed except a rope, so hired one from a climbing shop and headed off to the mountains. We arrived at a small town in the countryside and I could see the crag from the road. It looked great but there was just one problem - it was on the other side of a large fast-flowing stream. Rodrigo explained that this was usually a trickle of a stream but that there had been a large amount of rain the previous night. We spent 10 minutes walking up and down looking for a place to cross. The only possibility was a large boulder in the middle of the stream with a good jump on each side!
Our method for crossing was as follows - Rodrigo ran and jumped onto the boulder, I threw him our backpacks and he jumped to the other side. I then jumped onto the boulder (I almost fell in), threw our bags to Rodrigo on the other side and then jumped over myself. It is the most ridiculous approach to a climbing route I've ever taken!
This wasn't the end of the excitement... Rodrigo had quite a big fall on one of the routes and was caught by the rope. When I was about to climb the next route I noticed that the outer casing of the rope had snapped, along with a couple of strands of the core! I've never seen a rope snap like this in all the time I've been climbing - it was either really old or rubbish quality... Luckily it was near one of the ends so we cut off the broken part and carried on climbing.
Climbing at 3,400m is really hard! I was knackered after only a couple of hours. Another fairly unlucky thing happened as I was climbing the hardest route of the day - I reached up a long way to grab a hand-hold, hanging off it while adjusting my feet, when two wasps crawled out and sunk their stingers into my wrist. This was the only hand I was holding on with so I just had to hang there and watch - ouch! Well, all of these things made the day more exciting and I went home with a big smile on my face!
I was really looking forward to trekking in the mountains. The most famous trek here is the Santa Cruz trek, four days in the Cordillera Blanca. Unfortunately, there was recently a big avalanche which has wiped out the last day's trail so I opted for the Quilcayhuanca trek (not because of the ridiculous name, that was just a bonus). I wanted to rent a tent and do the trek independently but I didn't manage to find anyone to join me and joined a guided expedition.
This did not end up being a wise choice. When I arrived at the office to collect the camping gear I was told that the group of six people (including guide) was now a group of four, as two people were sick. We ditched a tent and two sleeping bags but there was no time to take out two-people's worth of food. Myself and the guide then picked up the other two trekkers - a 57 year-old Australian woman and a Canadian girl. They immediately informed us that they weren't feeling too good and couldn't carry much stuff.... Myself and the guide each found ourselves carrying a tent, two sleeping bags, food for 3 people and 3kgs worth of water - about 10kg. This meant that I had to borrow a bigger backpack from the trekking agency. It was about 60 years old. And pink.
We arrived at the national park and were greeted by the park ranger. Entrance was 65 Soles (about 15 quid) but we could pay 50 Soles "if you don't want the hassle of carrying the ticket". In other words, you could pay 50 Soles and the money would go in the back pocket of the ranger. This is typical Peru. The route follows a large valley on the first day, camping at a glacial lake the first night. The second day you walk over a mountain pass 5,300m above sea level and down the other side (camping near another glacial lake). The third day is spent walking down another beautiful valley. As we set off I was in awe at how magnificent the first valley was, with glistening streams snaking down from the snow-capped mountains that flanked each side.
The only non-ideal thing that happened was that, while admiring the stunning scenery, I veered off the trail and walked straight into a marsh, sinking down to my thighs in sticky mud. The fact that I was wearing a 15kg backpack made it even more difficult to get out and by the time I was on dry land I was wet and very muddy! We arrived at the camping spot too late to see the lake, as the girls had to keep stopping to rest, so pitched up the tents, lit a fire and had some dinner. We camped at about 4,200m and it was freezing! In fact, it dropped to -10 degrees at one point, so I was glad when the sun came up the next day.
Day two started with a quick trip to the glacial lake. I was slightly dismayed to see that the stream running off it had been converted into a hydro-electric dam, and even more dismayed when our guide told us that the electricity goes straight to Ecuador instead of Peru! The lake was enchanting though - the sun was shining down on the glaciers that feed it and the water was a glistening turquoise-blue.
After taking a few snaps, we started to climb towards the pass. We would climb about 1,100 vertical meters, across rock and snow, before heading down the other side. The girls were really feeling the altitude so we needed to stop every 20 minutes for a breather. This might sounds good but it was so cold that every time I stopped I started shivering. I ended up heading off on my own for large parts of the trek in order to find a warm stopping place to wait for the others.
Unfortunately it had snowed the night before so there was lots of deep snow to navigate at the top of the pass. Due to the weight I was carrying, it was impossible to walk on the snow and I kept falling through it down to my waist. This was not good for warmth or dryness but it was kinda fun!
The girls were having a tough time in the snow but this meant that I had time to hike up an extra 150m climb to the peak of Mt. Andivate (5,446m).
By the time I got back I was worried I'd have to carry one of them over the top but we finally made it over and down the other side. My shoulders were killing me (the pink bag had no padding) and I now have sympathy for mules everywhere!
The next day myself and the guide legged it up a hill to see another glacial lake while the girls started walking back down the valley. This lake would have been even more beautiful than the last, had it not been for another hydro-electric dam which was under construction!
We came across three workers who didn't seem to be doing much work (I saw one make a token effort to screw in a bolt but he gave up halfway through). They were meant to be securing large water pipes to a concrete surface with big metal horseshoe clips. They were supposed to place some rubber between the metal clip and plastic tube in order to protect the tube, but had run out of rubber. Rather than bother to get some more they substituted old gloves for the rubber!
We caught up with the girls and spent the rest of the day wandering along in the balmy sunshine. It was the perfect end to a wonderful trek.
That's not quite the end of the story. I had actually paid for a four-day trek through another company (let's call them 'Booking Company') but they didn't get the numbers to run the trek themselves. I was passed to another company (we'll call them 'Trekking Company') and told that the trek would be the same. It turned out that the trek was only three days so I went back to Booking Company for a partial refund. Booking Company said that they'd given all the money to Trekking Company and to come back tomorrow for my refund. I didn't believe them and was quite impressed with my Spanish arguing skills - I got half back right then and was told to come back the next day for the rest. Surprise surprise, the next day the shop was closed so I went to Trekking Company who told me that Booking Company had only given them money for a three-day trek, and that they'd done this before.
I was not giving up that easily - the guy at Trekking Company gave me the number of Booking Company guy's girlfriend. I gave it to the tourist police (who are all hot Peruvian women, by the way) who tracked the guy down and made him give me the rest of the refund. Simon 1 - 0 Claudio Expeditions. That was about 30 minutes ago and I have a bus out of the town in an hour. As long as I don't get stabbed by an angry Peruvian I will have been victorious! I'll let you know how it goes next time. Here are some more pics of the trek:
As I was so far ahead, I had lots of time to take timer-pictures of me looking at stuff.
Snow-capped peaks everywhere!
As we descended from the pass the climate got hotter and greener.
...and it looks like the sky is on fire.
The view from inside the tent when I woke up on day three. The pink bag doesn't look pink here.
Haha. My taxes are going to pay for that road in the last picture
ReplyDeleteGood work. Are you a Peruvian citizen now? You will have to work 17 hours per day instead of 16 to pay for that.
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