Santa Cruz is one of the more popular trekking circuits in the Huascaran National Park.
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Danny and I decided to do the Santa Cruz trek during rainy season... although it is rainy (duh) the nights were warmer since it is summer in the southern hemisphere. Even though it is rainy season, there are still plenty of people trekking, ranging from solo to guided trekkers with mule trains carrying their packs.
Day 1:
Our adventure began at 5am on a collectivo from Huaraz to Caraz which took an hour and a half and 2 dollars each. When we arrived at Caraz, we took another collectivo to Cashapamapa...which was far more uncomfortable since it is a station wagon taxi crammed with 8 or so passengers for 40 minutes up the mountain on dirt road. We started the trek at Cashapampa, Quebrada Santa Cruz and hiked for 20 KM, with an elevation increase of 1000M over 8 hours. We ended up camping at Hatun Ocha (Big Lake), near the site of a landslide/avalanche in 2012.
Day 2:
Started our hike early in order to view Laguna Arhuaycocha... a glacial lake at the base of Alpamayo, where we had lunch. The second day was tough... after the lake, we camped at the base of the Punta Union summit pass at Taullipampa which sits at 4200M. We had hiked for 9 KM with an elevation increase of only 300M but it was exhausting. Our camp site had amazing views, we were pretty much isolated even though there was a group camping in the same vicinity.
Day 3:
Sucked. We started really early at 7am crawling slowly up the summit to Punta Union sitting at 4750M. It took us 3 hours due to the intense incline, slippery rocks from the previous nights' showers and obviously the lack of oxygen at that altitude. After reaching Punta Union, I couldn't help but hear Eye of the Tiger in my life's soundtrack... we took a few snapshots, took a few deep breaths, ate some trail mix and started our descend when it started to snowing. Climbing down the other side, Quebrada Huaripampa, the views of the snow covered mountainside, the marshes, the lakes and the steep rocky trail down were both magnificent and scary. We were literally climbing downward the entire way which hurt my knees and my joints. Also in the afternoon it started raining...heavily. As if that wasn't scary enough, there was thunder and lightning....not to mention really hardcore hailing. that shit was cray. We finally reached camp before sundown which was part of a compound that had a church/lodge/toilets which was enclosed so the other tents were kinda close. We ended up hiking for 10 hours and 21 KM....it was insane.
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Day 4:
Another early and sucky day... our final hike out of the valley to Vaqueria took 2.5 hours of terrible 4.7KM of steep up hill and down hill through villages that had cuy farms... we wanted to save a guinea pig but didn't have any place to keep it. We finally reached the end of our trek and had a celebratory bottle of cold water on a bench at a local store front. After 30 minutes a collectivo rolled by going the opposite way towards Yamana, but we were told that they will be quickly returning the other way and to hop on now so that we have seats. After 2 hours on a collectivo that made me super car sick, with 20 other old men and women locals crammed into a 15 seater van, we finally left Vaqueria heading towards Yungay (Yungay was covered by a landslide during an earthquake in the 70's). Even though it was the most terrible, cramped, rocky, smelly (I feel terrible for stating this) 3.5 hour ride ever, the views of Llanganuco, Huascaran & Huandoy made it worth it. Getting a collectivo from Yungay to Huaraz was pretty easy and walking from the collectivo stop to Rosso Nero for our pasta and milanesa with fresa frozen binge was also pretty easy.
