The mountains were calling again. After my last salteñas in Bolivia, I took bus after bus until I reached the glacial lakes and shaggy peaks of Huascarán National Park in northern Peru. I guess I’m pretty decent at showing up to hostel breakfast and meeting boys with a sweet plan that I can hop on. This time it was Mark, a half-Peruvian, half-German medical student from Switzerland, who also happened to be in the army. Yeah, the same army that popularized our favorite pocket knives. He had figured out a schedule for combining the famous Laguna 69 day hike and the Santa Cruz Trek into four days total, the latter of which is usually done with a guide over four days alone.

 

 

Getting There and The Route

From Lima, it was eight hours and $27 by bus to Huaraz, a great base for realizing your wildest trekking fantasies.  After stocking up on supplies, we took a morning micro van to Yungay, $1.50. From there, another micro brought us to Cebollapampa, the trailhead to go to Laguna 69, $4.50. The first night we camped on the lake shore.

We returned to Cebollapampa the following morning and hitchhiked to Vaquería, paying our drivers $3. The Santa Cruz trailhead was located in this village.

The second night we camped at Paria. The following day the path took us through Punto Union, the high point of the adventure at 4,750 meters. That night, we stayed at Alpamayo Base Camp. The final day was spent hiking to Cashapampa, a small village at the edge of the national park. From there, we hitchhiked to Caraz, a town on the main highway. A micro took us past Yungay, back to Huaraz, completing the loop. Hiking the route in the opposite direction was more common since it’s better for the mules that were carrying tourists’ gear, but this would have involved more ascent.

 

 

To leave Huaraz, we caught a night bus to Trujillo. Located further north, everyone had been telling us the regional food was some of the best in the country. I nose-bled my way there, I guess from the change in elevation, and because I’m that classy.

The hike to and from Laguna 69 was 13 kilometers round trip. The Santa Cruz trail was 45 kilometers. On average, we were hiking eight hours per day.

 

 

Tickets to Huascaran National Park

Be sure to have a passport handy during the ride to Cebollapampa. At the entrance to the park, everyone got out and paid the $20 fee. Most people were part of a tour agency and got checked in by their guides, and the office staff liked to ignore free-lancing bums like us, so we had to politely get in their faces to get noticed. But just a bit.

 

 

Food and Gear

My hostel in Huaraz was the lovely Caroline Lodging, $4.50. I was impressed with their cozy beds, super hot showers, and fast wifi. Caroline and her family were very kind to their guests. Also notable is the included breakfasts, which is homemade each morning and varies from pancakes to guacamole toast and more. A $.60 tuk-tuk trip from the city center, we stored our luggage here (in a trash bag, as we needed our backpacks for the actual trek). Renting gear from Caroline was very affordable, and convenient because we could return it without having the pressure to make it back by a certain hour, get our bags, and immediately shower. They had everything we needed:

• Tent- $5/day
• Sleeping bag- $2/day
• Sleeping pad- $1/day
• Stove, pot, plates, bowls, mugs, utensils- $10

Mark and I spent a day gathering food from the markets and shops. A small fuel canister, $6, was enough to last our meals on the trail. A lady on the street sold us some blue rope. Each morning we had oatmeal—Mark always added honey and Milo chocolate powder. I preferred honey, cinnamon, and raisins or apricots. Snacks included dried fruit and hard boiled eggs. In the central market I even found perfectly roasted camote, or sweet potato, for just cents. We also took mandarins and avos, although some exploded so don’t bring too many. Lunch and dinner were various combinations of tuna,  ramen, soup mixes, salami, peas, choclo… we got creative.

We always stopped, cooked, and did dishes for lunch. Mark insisted he “needed hot, real meals,” but if it were just me I would eat dry snacks until I reached each campsite in order to enjoy more daylight to relax and make dinner in.

A French couple at the hostel had gifted us pills for disinfecting river water.

As for altitude, I had medication from an earlier trip, but I didn’t really use it. Each of us were armed with a bag of coca leaves to munch on. The warmth and extra hydration from drinking hot tea and soup at night definitely helped.

 

 

Mountains, Meadows, and Glaciers

Day 96

Shopping and Eating

At breakfast a guy was silently staring at his tea so I naturally decided to ask him what his plans were. He unfolded what sounded like the dream trek. After warning him I was slow and he would be far ahead of me on the trails, I asked if I could join. He said yes!

Almost as exciting was finding out that he had just finished his third year of medical school. I suddenly had so many questions to ask him.

We went around town collecting food and snacks, mainly at the market.

For lunch we went to a tourist restaurant recommended by his guide book. I ordered trout which came with soup, veggies, star fruit juice, and arroz con leche, $3.30.

At night we threw the contents of our luggage on the floor and created a chaos of plastic bags and food in the common kitchen. Mark chattered in rapid French as stereotypical French hikers began surrounding us, offering input and giving us their leftover food. In the end, everything fit, just very bulkily and heavily.

 

Day 97

Huaraz → Yungay → Cebollapampa → Laguna 69

We kept getting pointed to the next block for the micro station we needed, but eventually got boarded the correct vehicle for Yungay/Caraz at 6am.

The bumpy ride smashed our avocados into guacamole. At the entrance, the workers ignored us and gave preference to guided groups when we purchased tickets. We leaned over the desk until we were attended, jumped back in the van, and got off at Cebollapampa.

Sitting at 3900m, this was the starting point for journeying to Laguna 69, a Mecca for lovers of the outdoors at 4,650 meters.

Rather than set up camp, Mark and I took our bags up to practice and acclimate. What took everyone else with day packs three hours  took me five. I was liberal with resting because I’ve been sick from altitude in the past and once your body starts, there’s no return.

Taking an eternity rewarded us in that everyone else had left by the time we arrived.

Stunning. Purity. Every hour the lake turned a different shade of blue. Despite the heavy tourism, the waters were pollution-free.

Cows would not stop coming at our food. Do they not have a home to go back to?

Once we each had a bowl of ramen inside of us, we didn’t want to leave. We decided to risk it and camp then and there.

But not before almost losing all neurological functioning as I jumped in the wintery lake!

A cotton pink sunset had us speculating whether or not we were in view of the peak featured in the Paramount Pictures logo.

Lucky enough to only have mild headaches, we took medication and fell asleep to the sound of breaking glaciers.

 

 

Day 98

Laguna 69 → Cebollapampa → Vaquería → Paria Camp

First we had to get back to the main road, two hours of easy downhill. We missed the chicken bus, so I waved down an actual chicken bus. Two men were transporting hundreds of terrified birds to the slaughterhouse. The smell was far from appetizing.

We disembarked close to Vaquería, where a series of left turns in the downwards direction got us officially onto the Santa Cruz path.

The afternoon was one of excessive sweating in the relatively low-altitude areas cutting through farms. A few had signs outside inviting tourists to learn about bee farming, or cuy production.

Warm enough in our sleeping bags and alpaca hats after dinner, my bedtime story was about the crucial importance of the annual winter party to the Geneva Medical School.

 

Day 99

Paria Camp → Punto Union → Alpamayo Base Camp

“Tea is ready!”

“Okay I’m coming!”

I was getting used to starting my days like this. Painfully removing myself from my warm cocoon. Mark always cooked, which meant I washed the dishes in the creeks. Once, the water at the bottom of the pot froze seconds after I lifted it out. I wondered if the capillaries in my fingertips were doing the same.

Today became exponentially beautiful, peaking at Punto Union.

En route occurred what might have been the funniest moment of the trek. I came across an Israeli boy saying to himself “that was so good” as he violently shoved the last of an exploded roll of cookies into his mouth. He saw me and said welcomed me to eat the approximately two cookies worth of crumbs that had spilled on his pants (I didn’t).

Lunch was taken at a humble mirador; fetching water had me out of breath.

So did the stunning Punto Union. After slugging uphill and emerging from behind a wall of rocks, I beheld a very glacier-drenched set of peaks towered over crystal waters. Hardly. Real.

The rest of the day would not end. Walking, walking, but kilometers remaining was never zero. Why are the cows still out? In the winter darkness, we were slowly dying of cold before we finally got to camp. Doing the dishes after soup-y potato purée and tuna was no joke.

 

 

Day 100(!)

Alpamayo Base Camp → Laguna Arhuaycocha → Laguna Jatuncocha → Cashapampa → Caraz → Huaraz

The first thing was to go check out another lake with another glacier melting into it.

Then began the 20km descent on those classic irregular rocks of third-world trails, interrupted by a section of sand.

I was in hard core get-me-off-this-mountain mode. Also classic.

By the emerald Laguna Jatuncocha, the cutest older couple held hands through the windy, dusty, boring valley. I was their secret fan from behind.

The final sprint at the end of the day got me to Cashapampa and a faithfully waiting Mark. Perhaps one of my most American moments was when I threw my stuff down at the first shop I saw and blurted, “Cuanto cuesta una cerveza?’