Peru: hiking the Andes mountains from Huaraz
Thursday, August 29th, 2013A picture heavy update from the last (quite intense) days in Huaraz, Peru!
Day 3-5, Huaraz
I arrived last Tuesday by bus in Huaraz at a very convenient time; 06:00h (AM that is)…luckily the hostel I booked was open and ready to serve me banana pancake breakfast! 😉 The host Frank also talked me into a first trip to the high Andes mountains and I figured that 3 hours in Huaraz at 3052m above sea level would be enough to get used to the altitude, uhhhh maybe not?! 😉
The trip went up the the Pastoruri Glacier which tops at 5250m and we hiked from 4800m to the base of the glacier at 5000m, I believe this is the highest altitude I have ever been…within a couple of hours after coming from sea level oof! (I did have slow my pace to be able to catch enough oxygen)
It was all worth it though, as you can see in the pictures below:
Since I got into hiking at high altitudes 😉 , I booked a tour on Wednesday to the beautiful Laguna 69 (no comment on the name…in earlier days they gave every lake a number and this one just happened to get #69 😉 ). We first stopped at the two Llanganuco lakes called Laguna Chinancocha (female lake) and Laguna Orconcocha (male lake) to enjoy the crazy beautiful early morning views over these blue green lakes. The next stop was at the basecamp for the hike to Laguna 69; another fantastic hike through spectacular nature surrounded by the steep walls of the highest mountains of Peru the Huascaran (6746m) and the Huandoy! It made me completely forget the early wake-up at 05:25h! 😉
As always, pictures say it all:
First the Llanganuco lakes
Then, on to Laguna 69:
I made today a day to relax a bit after all the hiking and make bookings for the coming days; the bus to Trujillo is booked, so is the hostel there, the night bus to Lima on Saturday and the flight to Cuzco on Sunday!
My (ever-draft) travel schedule is still intact (although I might check out Chili to avoid double passings 😉 ) so upcoming highlights are: Trujillo (Chan Chan), Cuzco (Machu Picchu), Puno (Lake Titicaca) then on to Bolivia: Copacabana, La Paz, Salar de Uyuni (Salt lakes), Coroico in The Yungas. Then most likely Chili to go back to Peru: Arequipa, Nazca, and Lima once again to fly back to Europe on September 23)…verrrrrry exciting!!!
