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HUARAZ & LAGUNA 69 TREK, PERU - OCTOBER 12 TO 14

Local Woman Selling Vegetables

After a 8 hour trip from Trujillo, our bus finally arrives in Huaraz around 6:00AM. Shane, Seleka and I are all exhausted and arriving so early in a new city without a hostel reservations sucks. It is too early to start going to hostels so we walk about a kilometer to the Plaza Armas and sit on a park bench. At about 7:30AM, a young guy named Esteban comes up to us and asks if we are looking for a hostel. He owns a hostel called Backpackers with his 2 brothers so Shane and Seleka go with him to take a look while I stay in the plaza with our backpacks. They bring a map with a bunch of other nearby hostels marked on it and will see what our options are. A little over an hour later, they come back and the best deal is the Backpackers Hostel they went to first. I get a nice private room there for $16US including a private bathroom.

Huaraz is famous for the trekking and mountain climbing in the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negro mountain ranges. The mountains here are the tallest in South America except for a couple peaks in Patagonia in the southern Andes and many are topped with glaciers. There are supposed to be numerous beautiful peaks and mountain lakes. Shane and I investigate options for trekking with Esteban who also runs a tour company. He suggests a day hike to Laguna 69. Get that thought out of your mind as the name has no special meaning other than it is the 69th lake out of many numbered small lakes. This lake is a good test before doing a multi day trek as it

is located at over 4600m with an ascent of over 800m from the starting point and if you can handle the altitude on this hike, you should be fine on any of the local treks. It should take about 3 hours to get there and about 2.5 hours to return. We only need to pay $10US each for transportation because there is only a single trail so it is hard to get lost and we book spots for the following morning. 

Seleka is tired and has a nap while Shane and I go explore Huaraz. Huaraz population is over 80,000 and most people work in tourism, mining or farming. There is a food market across the street that we decide to check out and it has all sorts of unusual things for sale like Guinea Pigs, sheep's heads, pig snouts among others. On the floor above the market we find all kinds of small food counters. One women who has a stall speaks English and soon charms us so we sit down for a meal. It cost about $1.70US and includes a big bowl of soup, a main course of lamb and rice, a peach jelly like desert and juice made from black corn. It tastes great and is the cheapest sit down meal I've had yet. We then

wonder around the streets which are just bustling. Almost no one owns a fridge so grocery shopping is done almost everyday. Shane and I stop at a market and pickup lunch, snacks and water for the morning trek.

As we walk by the local soccer stadium, we notice that there is a game going on. It looks like an amateur game with players in their mid 30s and we see that the stadium gates are unlocked so we wonder in. We end up sitting in the upper bowl and watch the game for about 20 minutes until there is a halt in the play for half time. When we try and leave, we find that the gates have been chained. Because of soccer violence between fans, the upper bowl is completely cutoff from the rest


Lake Near Start of Laguna 69 Trail

 of the stadium, the only way down is a 3 - 4m drop to the lower level. A construction worker notices that we are locked in and a few minutes later the custodian of the stadium comes and lets us out but not before having a good laugh at 2 dumb gringos.

The next morning we are up before 5:30AM to catch our bus. There is 15 of us on the bus, there are 3 Israeli couples, 2 young Israeli guys, a Dutch couple, 2 girls from Japan and us. Everyone else is in their 20s and we are already worried that we will be slowing them up on the hike. Including a stop for breakfast, it takes almost 3.5 hours to get to the starting

Shane & Seleka at Start of Laguna 69 Trail

point. There are a couple beautiful greenish blue lakes that we passed just before stopping and we all take some time to take some photograph. After a few minutes, Shane, Seleka and I decide to get started and we have a couple minutes head start on everyone but we assume they will soon catch up. It is just after 9:00AM and our driver asks us all to try and be back by 3:00PM.

The trek starts at 3800m and winds it way up a gently sloped valley for the first few kilometers. There are beautiful glacier capped peaks in almost every direction trying to poke through the clouds that surround the mountains. The temperature is warm, probably in the high teens and it is a perfect day for hiking with no rain clouds in site.

After more than an hour of slow steady climbing, we are reaching the first hard climb and I'm surprised to see that we have pulled away from everyone behind us. This climb winds its way up a steep embankment with a beautiful waterfall on one side. We can see a glacier above the climb that looks like it is getting quite close to us. We gain a good 150 to 200m over the next 20 minutes of climbing. At the top of the climb, we drop down about 10m into a valley with a small clear lake. This is not Laguna 69 but one of many small unnamed lakes in the area. The valley continues a steady gradual climb for a couple of kilometers and we are surprised to find lots of

cattle grazing on the grass. Then, a second steep climb much bigger than the first starts, it is probably more than 300m high. As we get to this climb, we are surprised to see only a couple of hikers behind us and they have dropped back even further.

This climb is steep and difficult and my heart and breathing rate are soon climbing just like the slope. We stop for 30 seconds or so every couple of minutes to let our respiration and heart rate slow down It takes about 40 minutes to reach the top of the climb and we know the lake

must be just ahead because there is a huge glacier a couple of hundred metres above us.

We walk a couple of hundred metres and suddenly see the prettiest light blue lake appear just in front of us. We made it in just under 3 hours and it is gorgeous. We take a whole lot of pictures and then sit down for our lunch which is tuna fish sandwiches. About 20 minutes after arriving, the Japanese girls arrive followed a few minutes later by the Dutch couple.

We stay at the lake for about 40 minutes and it is now about 12:40PM, so we start back to the van. We get about half way down the first steep part when we come across one of the Israeli couples. They are struggling with the altitude so we give them some encouragement before continuing. A couple of hundred metres down the trail we come across the 2 Israeli guys and they also are struggling but we tell them it is not too much farther and the view of the lake is worth it. Just as we get

to the bottom of the steep climb, we come across the other 2 couples. They do not look like they are doing very well and one of the guys looks pale and sick. They have a long way to go and at the pace they are moving, they will be hours behind us. We warn them that it is still quite a long ascent to get to the lake but they say they will continue.

It is nice to be going down a gentle slope now as the steep descents are hard on the knees and calfs. We soon get to the small lake at the top of the next steep section and start down the last steep section. My knee I hurt playing soccer starts acting up as we descend but we are soon at the bottom of the steep slope so it does not get too

sore. About half way down the last valley, we stop near a river for a snack and to enjoy the view. We know there is no rush because the van can't leave until everyone is back. About 10 minutes later, we see the Japanese girls and the Dutch couple so we join them for the last couple of kilometers on the trail.

We arrive back at the van a couple of minutes after 3:00PM but we are thinking it might be quite a wait before everyone else is back. About an hour later one of the Israeli couples who we last saw at the bottom of the upper steep climb arrives back at the van, their names are Rachel

and Itamar. Itamar is the guy who looked so sick and now he even looks worse. They decided to turn back shortly after we passed them on the trail and Itamar is definitely suffering from altitude sickness. About 40 minutes later, the other 6 Israelis struggle in. They all made it to the lake but are also suffering from the altitude. Our driver is like a man possessed on the way back and we get to Huaraz in less than 2.5 hours and arrive just before 7:00PM.

We are very pleased with how the hike went so we book another trek, this time a 4 day, 3 night hike on the Santa Cruz Trail. We decide to take

the Sunday off to get ready for the trek and book our spots for Monday morning for about $117US each. The trip includes meals, tents, sleeping bag, guide, cook, mules and everything we need except our personal gear. The next day is a lazy day spent getting ready for the trip. We buy water and snacks. We each will need at least 2 litres of water per day while hiking. The altitude is very dry and you get dehydrated very easily. I am bring my small 29 litre day pack and fanny pack. I need warm clothing for the nights and lighter stuff for the hiking. It also need my wet weather cloths as we are on the edge of rainy season so will likely get some rain. Maybe I'll actually where my Gortex jacket for the first time since I left Vancouver 7 months ago.

Shane decides to do some cooking that evening. He had been eyeing the meats in the market the other day and when he saw that there was an oven in the hostel kitchen, he decided to cook a leg of lamb with roasted potatoes, gravy, veggies and an apple crumble for desert. I've eaten some of his cuisine in Columbia when I met him and he's a great cook so I can't wait for dinner. He slow cooks the leg of lamb for over 7 hours and we have so much food that he invites Esteban and his 2 brothers who own the hostel to join us. Dinner is fantastic and the brothers really enjoyed the meal especially the lamb and gravy. I think

the meal was quite different from what they are used to and it was awesome to have such a good meal before leaving on the trek.

I'm excited about the Santa Cruz trek as I go to bed. The Laguna 69 trek was so awesome so I now have such high expectations for the Santa Cruz trek but more on that next time. 

Adios amigos.