Cordillera Blanca, Let’s Walk
The Cordillera blanca 🏔. It’s a section of the Andes where you find snowy peaks. The town of Huaraz is the usual base camp for any trekking in the area. We spent a week exploring around.
Laguna Wilcacocha
Our first hike is not really in the Cordillera, but it offers a great panorama onto it! It’s a short 1 hours 30 to the Laguna, hence good for a first hike. As we left Cusco not so long ago, we were not really troubled with the altitude. About that, go read about acclimatization and hypoxia. It’s impressive to see the lack of scientific evidence vs the practice of hikers…
It was a long day as we arrived in Huaraz at 6 am and dropped the backpacks at the hostel before. Shout out to our host Scheler from the Artesonraju hostel. He helped us prepare our stay in Huaraz and the hostel is a great value ($8 per night for a double room with breakfast).
Laguna Churup
Second day, second Laguna with Churup. This Laguna is really worth the hike. There is an entry fee of $8 and the colectivo costs $2.5 (a bit expensive because they come back for you).
Again, it’s a small hike of 2 hours. Still, it takes you up to 4600 m, so maybe wait a bit if you come straight from Lima. On the way, there are two routes. On the left, it’s longer but easier and you get to a mirador to have a beautiful view on the Laguna and the valley. On the right, the trek is steep and there is a climbing section with chains. No worries it’s quite easy. There is an option to camp just before the final ascent. We did not do it but the place looked 👍.
The Laguna is definitely worth it! The color of the water is intense and when the sun is there it’s great. I did jump into the water… Just for the fun 🥶.
Santa Cruz Trail
How to better appreciate the Cordillera? By doing a trail. We did the Santa Cruz trail. It’s a 4 days hike that makes you cross the mountain range. The trail can be hiked from both directions. We choose the “usual” route, from Vaqueria to Cashapampa — or East to West. It has a few advantages: hard on the first two days as going up then easy as going down peacefully the last 2 days; sun is in your back if you hike in the morning; and easier to get transport back from Cashapampa. You don’t need a guide as the trail is well marked. Also, do you need to buy a map? Not really. Just a phone/gps to know where to stop each day. Daniela’s iPhone still had battery after 3 days. The only thing is that it’s not like with the Inca trails, there is no accommodation nor food on the way. So it’s a very affordable trail as you just have to pay for the park fee, $15.
Vaqueria 👉 Paria
The first day is long. If you don’t sleep at Vaqueria the night before, you have to start quite early. From Huaraz, alarm clock at 4 am. Direction Yungay (1h15, $2) and then Vaqueria (3h, $6).
We started to hike at 10 am. It’s a smooth going up — from 3400 m — until the official camp Paria — at 3900 m. But we decided to continue 3 km more to camp close to the Laguna Huiscash — at 4200 m. Why? Because we still had time and we where not down yet 💪. No, the real reason was that this allowed us to have an easier second day and an incredible spot to camp! Total, 6h of hiking for 14 km.
Paria 👉 Taullipampa
We where already at 4200 m, so we quickly reached the pass at 4750 m. As usual, we reached with a terrible weather (snow this time). But soon the clouds left us with a view.
The camping ground is just down the pass. As we did all the work the previous day, we could push it further to get to the Laguna Jatuncocha. Again 14 km here. On top of which, we did a detour (+2 km) to get to the viewpoint of the Alpamayo. Roughly 7 hours of walking. The vegetation is quite different on this side, as well as the track. It features beautiful plains.
We pitched the tent at the lake. Very scenic and calm. We got lucky as we did not have wind nor rain, as opposed to the previous night. By the way, the tent is surprisingly still holding good!
To the End
For the third day, we just had 16 km to go. We asked ourself about camping an extra day as it was really beautiful. But there was way too much flies!
It took us around 6 hours to reach the end of the trail. We were quite happy to see a shop and buy a refreshing coke — although twice the price.
Overall, it was a nice trail to hike. The route is fairly easy and there are tons of options to camp. In the end, we just felt afraid about the weather. It’s was super hot up there and we could clearly see that snow is recessing… 😥.
Following the Andes up North
It’s already time for us to move to Ecuador 🇪🇨… I feel like we did a marathon here. There is so much things to do in Peru. We traveled from the mountains to the sea, we are just missing the jungle and the south.
Peru is super easy to explore and is backpacker friendly. It’s never a trouble to take a bus or any other transport. People don’t crazily overcharge us, it’s easy to bargain to get the correct fare and information is available. They have lots of options for tourists with tours. These are really a good deal and you usually cannot beat their price by doing the things by yourself.
But yeah, we are coming from Africa, so everything is simple now 😜. Let’s see if it continues like this with Ecuador!
