This post will be chronicling my trip to South America (Peru). This is long overdue, and I hope this information helps someone else looking to plan a similar trip.
Initally we wanted to attempt the Alpamayo Circuit trek (~70 miles, 24k’ Gain) but opted for the Santa Cruz Trek and this was a great decision as our timeline did not suit a trek that long. We had 4-5 days to hike and a trek that long and at such a high altitude would take much longer.
Our trip timeframe was May 24th-June 2nd. This is near the beginning of what is considered the dry season in Peru and the weather ended up being perfect during the entire trip. The four of us met in Lima on Sunday and then chose to fly to Huaraz the next morning. It cost us ~$100 for a round trip ticket to Huaraz and in my opinion is the way to go. Its a 30 minute flight as opposed to an over 8 hour bus ride. You will be treated to amazing views of the Cordilla Blanca peaks along the way.
Once we arrived in Huaraz and took the taxi into the city (there will be taxi’s at the airport vying for your business. You can certainly negotiate price but it should be relatively inexpensive, I think we paid 8 soles/person) we spent the day wandering the city and exploring. The next day was our true acclimatization day.
We hiked to Laguna Llaca the next day. It is a lake at 14,500′ and we figured it would be a good way to test our lungs. We took the collectivo 15 to Marian and it cost 3.00 soles each. Ideally you would take the collectivo all the way to Cachipampa but this route is run less often so its harder to catch. The collectivos will pick up from the corner of Antonio Raymondi and jr San Martin near the Repsol. The collectivos are a wild and chaotic experience if you have never taken public transit in South America. We were jammed into a small van not really knowing when to exactly get off. We eventually made it to the Marian stop and continued on the road up towards the lake. The trail officially starts right after the Lazy Dog Inn.
The lake way amazing and the climbing was very gradual the whole day. I unfortunately developed mild altitude sickness symptoms (dull headache) and tried drinking as much water as possible to combat the ongoing headaches. Overall this was a great day and I was able to catch up on my water intake and clear up my headache by the next day.
The next day was the first day of the Santa Cruz trek although most of the day was just getting to the starting point! Our first leg was an uber to Yungay. It is possible to take a collectivo to this town but we opted for a little more comfort in an uber. It is not possible to get an uber to take you all the way to Vaqueria. From Yungay there are taxi services that will transport you to Vaqueria to start the hike. We eventually made it over the mountain pass and to the start of the trail by around 2pm so we opted for a short day (6 miles). Looking back we probably should have made it a bit further this day to offload the middle day which has the highest pass (Punta Union). We camped at Paria.
The next two days of hiking were stunning. Lots of beautiful glacier carved peaks in every direction. Punta Union was the highlight of the trek as it has the best views of both sides of the valley. The altitude got to us and definitely slowed us down on the second day, ascending to well over 15k’. We added on a detour to the Alpamayo base camp which made our second day total milage around 15 miles. I dont really think the alpamayo base camp is worth it if you’re tight on time but was a nice long valley to head up in the afternoon. Our second camp was near Laguna Jatuncocha and was perfect since it was near a stream. We had some donkeys join us right before bed from what must’ve been a nearby guide and they refused to go to leave. We eventually shooed them away.
We ended our trip with a 10 mile descent out of the valley. This day got very hot as we descended well below our average nightly elevation of 12K’ +. The last few miles were a slog but we made it to the trailhead and there was a collectivo waiting for us there. They also checked our permits that we had bought on our way in to the park (the taxi that takes you to Vaqueria will make you buy this on the way in). Our journey back to Huaraz was quite similar, 2 more ubers/collectivos and several hours of travel and you will make it back into town.
We had an extra day in town so Ben and I decided to get a guided summit of San Mateo. This was a fun little side trip and was an easy hike for us. The summit was socked in so we didn’t get many views but I hit a new lifetime highpoint of 16896′. We headed back to Lima the next day.
Ending our trip in Lima was a nice refresh from the adventure we had just had in the mountains. I got in a few runs by the ocean and we tried some local cerviche and pisco sours. We took a tour of downtown lima and visited the Huaca Pulcana site. The last cherry on top of this trip was an hour+ backup right outside the airport entrance that made me panic about missing my flight back home.
This was an amazing experience and hike. Im forever grateful to have a group of friends willing to go on such fun trips and push me to experience more of the world. I hope to continue trips like these with Ben, Drew, and Bdon in the future.
If you have any questions on details of this trip please reach out to me or leave a comment and I will try my best to help!
-Noah
I wore my Injinji toesocks throughout this trip and they held up great! I stayed blister free throughout the hike
