Huaraz is a small city in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru. It is surrounded by a lot of summits, most of them of 6000m high and more! There is a famous 4-days trek called the Santa Cruz trek that I wanted to do there.

I arrived in Huaraz during the night and thought about spending 1-2 days there, getting used to the height and getting some info about the trek. I knew it could be done with an agency, but I wanted to do it on my own, although I didn’t want to do it alone as it might be difficult with the height.

As I was about to give up on doing it on my own and go for a tour, I entered an agency to get some info and saw a guy and a girl trying a tent they were about to rent. After discussing with them for about a minute, they told me they were about to leave on the following day for the Santa Cruz trek the following day and asked me if I wanted to join 🙂 So I said yes!

We spent the rest of the day preparing for the rest of the trek and on the following morning we left for the trek.
After a quite uncomfortable local bus ride we started the hike in a valley, going up next to a river and eventually reaching flat lands with a few lagoons surrounded by pretty high mountains. There was not a lot of people on the path, it was really quiet and we were really lucky with the weather!

The first day of hike was quite difficult, we walked around 16km, going up 900m and carrying heavy backpacks… We were really happy to reach our first camping spot, at 3900m high 🙂 Close to a lagoon and a river, with a great view on the cordillera blanca and the Pumapampa summit! We spent our first night there, going to sleep quite early as the night falls quickly.

The second day was supposed to be an easy day, our second camping spot was about 6km further and only 300m higher, but there was an extra hike that we wanted to do to go see a lagoon. We headed straight to the camping, again we were lucky with the weather as it was not raining and kind of sunny. We reached our second camping spot and set up the tent while the weather was dry, left our heavy backpacks there and later headed to the lagoon.

It was an extra 6km to go to the lagoon and a bit more than 300m higher. The hike there was really nice, being surrounded by the cordillera blanca! Although we kind of underestimated it, in the end it was quite difficult, even without the backpacks! Eventually we arrived at the lagoon, which is a bit less than 4500m, but unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy… We stayed at the lagoon a little moment and eventually went back down to the camping spot.

On the way down the weather cleared up and when we reached the camping site it was blue sky and we had an amazing view on the surroundings, especially the Taulliraju summit which is quite impressive! We spent the rest of the day enjoying the view and again went to bed quite early as the next day would be quite long as we had to go through a 4760m high pass (the highest point in th trek).

The third day we woke up to rain hitting our tent… We waited a bit for the rain to calm as we didn’t want the inner part of the tent to get wet. Eventually it stopped raining, we packed everything and headed to the pass. For a bit less than 4km we went uphill with quite stable weather, and eventually reached the 4760m high “Punta Union” pass. After enjoying the view on both sides of the pass we headed down as it got quite windy. The rest of the day was basically 8km going down about 900m lower, piece of cake!

We reached the third camping spot early in the afternoon and could enjoy resting time for the rest of the afternoon 🙂 Fortunately the weather stayed stable as well.

During this last night though it got really cold, freezing! The last day we woke up with a layer of ice on our tent! The sky was completely clear, we could see the moon while the sun was rising on the mountain, it was beautiful!

We packed everything, in the cold, and started walking on the last part of the trek. It was supposed to be easy, about 10km going down by 400m. But we misread the map and it was eventually 8km going down 600m and then 2km going back up 200m, which on the last day was not a nice surprise 🙂 Fortunately the weather stayed sunny and clear, so we could enjoy the view 🙂

We eventually reached the end of the trek and took a bus back to Huaraz.

After a day’s rest I went with one of my friend to Laguna 69, a one-day trek to a turquoise lagoon.

We left early in the morning with a bus, under the rain… Thankfully, after a 3 hours’ drive, when we reached the start of the hike the sky cleared up as well and kept getting sunnier!

The hike to the lagoon is about 7km, going up by more than 700m. Fortunately, this time there were no heavy backpacks 🙂 So it was really nice to enjoy this walk, under the sky that cleared up!

We walked through flat lands, surrounded by the Huascaran Sur and Norte summits, both at around 6700m, giving their names to the national park. After about 2 hours and a half we reached the lagoon, it was absolutely incredible! First as the weather was cloudy, the water looked deep blue, and when the sky cleared up and we had sun the water turned turquoise! It was magical, the lagoon was surrounded by incredible mountains, the Pisco (around 5700m) and the Chacaraju (around 6100m), with white slopes covered in snow, and a glacier with a waterfall falling in the lagoon 🙂

We spent some time there enjoying the view, and eventually headed down to return to Huaraz.

On the same night, back to Huaraz I took a night bus to go to Trujillo, on the coast of Peru, a bit in the north, where I spent 2 days before heading north to Ecuador with an 18 hours’ bus drive…