Santa Cruz Trek (July 11-14, 2006)

Sorry for the delay...the entry about our Santa Cruz Trek is now here!

:: July 11 - Day One ::

There are collectivos that go from Caraz to Cashapampa, which is the beginning of the Santa Cruz trek. The ride takes around two hours and goes through some winding switchbacks over bumpy dirt roads. The collectivos try to cram in as many people as possible, and for the first half of the ride we had eight adults in a station wagon, with Deb sitting half on top of another woman. We dropped off and picked up passengers on the way, and eventually we were able to sit with both our butt cheeks on the seat for the last bit of the ride. We arrived at Cashapampa (2900m) around 11:30am at which point we started our hike up the Santa Cruz valley.

The first day was a five hour hike (11 km), with the first 2 ½ hours being up a fairly steep incline. The path went steadily up, and it was also a hot and sunny day, which meant we were sweating like crazy and had to stop every few minutes to rest because of the altitude. A couple of other groups passed us, but they had hired donkeys to carry their packs. Most people seemed to be heading to Alpamayo to climb to its peak, which means they would need ice climbing gear and several days’ worth of food. Eventually the trail flattened out and we reached Llamacorral, our first campsite at 3600m, just as the sun started to sink behind the mountains. We caught our fist glimpse of the snow-capped peaks that are further down the valley and set up camp in what was basically a cow/horse/donkey pasture. We were quite exhausted after the day’s hike so we went to bed after eating dinner and cleaning up – which was around 7:30!

:: July 12 - Day Two ::

We hit the trail around 8:30 this morning for today’s 13km hike. The trail was much easier today and mostly flat with a gradual incline as we walked alongside the river and past a couple of lakes (Laguna Ichicocha and Laguna Jatunchocha). At one of our rest stops another Canadian couple caught up with us – Dave and Haley from Victoria. They were also carrying their own packs, and as it turned out us crazy Canadians were the only ones who hadn’t hired donkeys in all the groups that were hiking the trail at the same time. We all hooked up and hiked together for the rest of the trek. Today was filled with gorgeous views of Alpamayo (5947m) and Nevados Pucajirca (6046m), Taurillaju (5830), Artesonraju (6025) and Paron (5600m). We hit a steep section just before arriving at the campsite at Taullipampa (4250m), but we still managed to arrive at camp around 1:30pm. The guide book had said today’s hike would take 7 hours but we did it in only 5, which meant we had lots of free time at camp to enjoy the sunshine and the surrounding peaks. Because of the altitude, we didn’t have much energy to do much other than sit around talking and relaxing. We couldn’t get over the beautiful mountains, they seemed like a fake backdrop. It got cold after the sun went down, so we had to crawl into our sleeping bags to keep warm. The temperature didn’t quite drop below zero during the night, and the stars were fantastic when we got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. It was a full moon as well, which meant we didn’t even need our flashlights.

:: July 13 - Day Three ::

We were dreading the climb today – we could see the point we had to climb to from our campsite and it looked daunting, at another 500m higher. At a slow and steady pace up the well-maintained trail, with a few rest stops, we made it to the Punta Union pass (4750m) after around 2 ½ hours. The views were stunning and well worth the effort! After revelling in our achievement for a few minutes and taking several photos, we crossed through the little notch in the pass that took us to more breathtaking views from the other side. Quebrada Santa Cruz spread out to the west, and to the southeast Quebrada Huaripampa plunged steeply down to some small lakes. (Quebrada means “valley” in Spanish). Our route took us down the very steep descent to the lakes, where we stopped for lunch, and continued down the Huaripampa valley for what seemed like forever. In the previous days we had been dreaming of going downhill instead of uphill, but now that we were going down our legs were getting sore and blisters were forming on the bottoms of our toes. We were exhausted by the time we reached the campsite at the junction of Quebrada Paria, after descending a 1000m from the pass (8 hours of hiking for 13km), and it was difficult to muster up the energy to set up camp beside the stream and to make dinner. We were the only people camping at this site – the donkey groups had continued to another campsite a further ½ hour down the trail and one other group was camping a bit further up the trail. There were fire pits set up around the site, so we had a little fire to burn our garbage. One thing we have noticed on this hike, and in particular at this campsite, is that many people have some sort of aversion to carrying out all their garbage – and toilet paper in particular. It is quite gross to see the toilet paper spread out all over the place, stuck in trees and blowing in the wind. A word of advice to any other hikers: please carry out your all your garbage!

:: July 14 - Day Four ::

Last night the temperature dropped below zero and we woke to frost on the ground and on our tents. We tried to wait until the sun came around to dry off our tents, but it was going to take too long to come over the surrounding peaks so we packed up the tents wet and headed out. We thought today was going to be an easy day (4 hours, 13km), and it was for the first part. We walked down a beautiful valley and gradually started to pass little villages and herds of sheep and goats. After we crossed the bridge over the Rio Huaripampa, the trail started going up again and we ended up ascending another steep 400m before reaching the road at Vaqueria, the end of the trek, sweaty and happy to take our packs off our backs.

We had to wait for around two hours before a combi came along (played Frisbee for a while – Dave and Haley had one), and it seemed to be quite full. The driver assured us we could all fit if two people rode on the roof (there turned out to be 23 people in this small minivan – 22 adults and 1 baby). We knew the ride was supposed to take 2 ½ hours to get back down to Yungay, where we had to transfer to a collective for Caraz, but what we didn’t realize was how crazy the road was going to be. Deb and Dave volunteered to ride on top, along with an Italian climber that was going as far as Nevado Pisco. Little did we know that this would turn out to be the craziest ride of our lives, and we had to hang on tightly at all times. The road climbed to 5000m to cross a pass before plunging steeply into the valley below, via some very narrow switchbacks with hairpin turns. From below, you can’t even see that there is a road going up the mountainside. The Italian guy told me that a couple of months ago a bus had gone off the road and 40 people had died, but it was okay now because they had done many repairs to the road since then. Yikes! I decided that it was actually safer to be riding on top because it meant that I could just jump off the roof if the van went over the edge – and then I worried about Lincoln being stuck inside. Lincoln was of course worried about me being on the roof, and worried even more about what Mom would say to him after letting me ride up there! Some consolation was that the mountain scenery was absolutely spectacular – the best scenery of any road that I have ever been on that is for sure. I even tried to snap some pictures along the way...much to Lincoln’s chagrin because it meant I wasn’t hanging on with two hands.

Safely back at the bottom we breathed a sigh of relief, although there was still a ways to go before we reached Yungay. The views continued to amaze us, and we passed by some beautiful turquoise lakes. In Yungay, we caught a taxi to Caraz, which was only another 15 minutes away. We said goodbye to Dave and Haley who were heading to Huaraz. We returned to our hostel and tried to get the same room again but it wasn’t available. After some confusion (the owners were away at a party and the staff were a bit clueless) we managed to get a room with a shower that worked so we could get clean again…hot showers after a few days of hiking are the best!