The santa cruz trek!

Hello all!
This is just going to be a short post about our latest adventure, the Santa Cruz trek! It was good enough to deserve its own entry. Amanda, Dave and I have been staying in Huaraz together for the past 2 and a half weeks, going on day hikes, Spending a few days at Hatun Machay, and exploring the bars and local restaurants. We also decided that we would all like to do a multi day trek in the area. Arnold, who is Amanda´s friend from when she worked in Lima, is a local mountain guide, and recommended that we hike the Alpamayo trek, an 8 day trek through the gutsiest portion of the Cordierra Blancas. The hike is bastante (intense), so you need to hire burros(donkeys) and an aradyo (the guy who owns the donkeys) to carry your stuff. Andy, our couchsurfing host, offered to set us up with his aradyo who he uses for treking with clients, but we were having a lot of trouble getting in touch with him. Apparently he lives in a little village on the outskirts of Huaraz, and he only gets cell phone reception when he hikes down the hill every morning between 9and 10 am. We tried during this time frame and got no answer. We only had a day to prepare for the trek (buying food, packing clothes, buying maps, etc.) and we were starting to get frustrated when we still couldnt contact the aradyo at 11:00. We unanimously decided to go for the Santa Cruz trek, a much shorter trek (4-5 days), which is intense as well, but it is possible to do the trek with only backpacks (sin burros) and no guide. We spent the rest of the day buying 4 days worth of food (much easier) and getting prepped for our hike.
We took a long a bumpy busride to Parque National Huacaran, where the start of our hike was located. We had needed Park passes to enter the park, which we had bought in Huaraz, but me, being the smartie pants I am, left my park pass in my backpack, which was strapped to the roof of the bus. The whole bus had to wait while I begged in broken spanish (Por favor, me bolleto es arriba, sobre el techo, no puedo entrar!!!)for the bus driver to climb up on the roof and grab my backpack. I had to whine a lot and look sad. It worked. Our bus driver also kept stopping along the winding highway through the mountains to tighten the axles of the bus, and one time to change a flat. A little jolting, but we got there in one piece.
The first day of our trek took us through a farming village where we asked the locals directions to ranger station where we offically would start the trek. Along the way, a group of children came running after us shouting ¨Dame carremellos!¨(give me candy!) and when we wouldn´t ablige, one little girl followed Amanda and grabbed her butt repeatedly. It seems as though these kids are used to begging for candy and money from tourists on the trek, and they usually get it. They eventually left us alone.
During our trek, we felt pretty tough because most other people on the trek were traveling with guides who carried all of their stuff on donkeys, set up their camp and cooked them all their meals. All they had to do was walk and carry a bottle of water. On the other hand, in our case, we carried everything ourselves; stove, tents, sleepingbags, extra clothes, and all our food...about 40-50 pounds per person...and this is not easy when hiking at altitude. A lot of the people hiking with guides had never been on a backpacking trip, let alone hiked at altitude, so when we walked by them, they looked at us like we were crazy. But we felt cool.
During the hike we were also constatly chewing coca leaves, a remedy the the locals use to combat altitude sickness. You can buy a bolsa of leaves for 1 sole (33 cents) and you basically roll up a wad, stick it against your cheek in the back of your mouth and chew. The juices from the leaves help to combat headaches, stiff muscles and other symptoms. The guides all chew the stuff, and when they smile, they have green chunks stuck in their teeth. We were part of that club as well. The donkeys along the trek were pretty funny as well, as they were all carrying 35 kilos of gear, and obviously not happy about it. The aradyos would yell curses at them and make ¨tsk tsk tsk¨ noises to get them back on the trail when they would go wander off to munch on grass. At some of our camp sites they would wander away from another camp site and come to ours in search of food. The aradyo would always be close beind cursing and apologising for his stubborn donkeys.
The second day of our trek we went over a pass that is over 16,000 feet, higher than any point in the continental US. I was definately feeling the altitude, every few steps I had to stop and catch my breath, and my walking was getting a bit sloppy, but it was worth it from the view at the top! We had brought a little whiskey with us on the trek and we shared a celebretory toast with some of the other trekkers and guides at the top of the pass.
The following day we decided to take a side trek to the base of alpamayo, a huge mountain that we could see from town that has a gorgeous laguna at the base of it. We got to the refugio, where many climbers stay before they attempt to climb the mountain, and asked some local guides at the basecamp to watch our backpacks while we hiked the last half an hour to the lake. The guides asked us where we were from, and upon telling them that we were from the US, they informed us that 2 tents over, there was a climber from Colorado who was blind. Dave almost freaked out, because about a year ago he has seen a flim about a blind climber, named Erik Weihenmayer, who had climbed Everest and various other peaks around the world. He was really inspired by the movie, and before we left for our trip to South America, Dave had told my dad about the film. Chance would have it that my dad had given this man guitar lessons when he worked at BB&N, before Erik had gone into climbing professionally. We had thought that was a coincidence back then, but this was even crazier!
We wandered over to Erik´s tent and talked with him for a while about his climbing career, and of course, asked him if he knew my dad. He remembered him and told me to send him a hello! Crazy crazy coincidental small world.
The rest of our trek passed without a hitch; good food, card games in our tents, and laughing at stubborn donkeys that would wander into our camp. We got back to Huaraz mid day on Thursday and celebrated with some expensive local beers that we promised ourselves we would splurge on after the trek.

...Tomorrow Dave and I will part ways with Amanda and head to Lima, where we will spend a few days resting, resupplying, and gearing up for Bolivia. Our next post will probably be from Bolivia....we are sad to leave Peru (Peru is so wonderful!) but excited to see a new country, learn about new customs, and meet different types of people!

Be well all.... until next time!
-Robin:)



these pictures are in reverse order...start at the bottom and scroll to the top to see the pictures in the right order!


last sign of the trek...we made it!


burros...other groups used these to carry their bags...but we carried our own stuff!


Dave, trekking beast


the view from the tent we woke up to on our last day...


storm rolling in...


other views


laguna at the base of alpamayo


the paramount pictures mountain


campsite #2


glacier spotting




celebration at the highest pass on the trek...over 16,000 feet!


Amanda, the vaca whisperer


first day treking views


setting up camp on our first night