Contrary to the majority of hikers and all guided tours, we had planned to hike the Santa Cruz Trek from Cashapampa to Vaquería. This meant that we had to climb slightly more - which suited us just well because we prefer hiking uphill - but also allowed us to add the trek to Laguna 69 on our way back to Caraz. Early on the first day a colectivo taxi drove us from Caraz to Cashapampa in record time of less than an hour. We tried filming the bumpy ride, but it doesn't look half as spectacular as it was. By any means, we would recommend all automobile companies to testdrive their newest model five times on this lap with this driver and we would guarantee that it passes all durability tests... Good for us, we arrived safe and sound at the trailhead and set off from the village around 7 am. For the morning, the trail led fairly steep up a gorge, along a river of crystal clear water and past various cow pastures spotted by red-blossoming cacti until we reached the first camp on the highland around midday. However, we followed the Santa Cruz valley while several donkeys kept us company. In the late afternoon we reached Jatuncocha lagoon and decided to call it a day; after all, night would fall shortly after 6 pm. We set our tent up next to a bubbling mountain river and with a vista to one of the phenomenal glaciers around us. What a great setting to enjoy our spaghetti after a day of hiking! And believe it or not, we were sleeping by 7:30 pm. Day two promised to be an intense day, there was the pass of Punta Union to climb. We set off early in full sunshine to the end of the Santa Cruz valley. There we climbed up towards the Alpamayo base camp; a detour well worth it as we could see over the entire valley and had great views on peak Alpamayo and the well-known peak of the "Paramount Pictures" logo, actually called Artesonraju. Several guided tours and their donkey caravans crossed us around the last camp before the climb to Punta Union. The loaded donkeys looked very pretty and colorful in the midst of the landscape! We were amazed, though, by the equipment they were carrying: cooking tent, dining tent, restroom tent... If one can live without these amenities, we think it is very well possible to hike this trek independently. We had no issues at all finding the tracks; however, the weight on our shoulders was admittedly a challenge, especially in the heights. Despite being used to hiking, climbing the last few meters up to Punta Union on 4750 m was strenuous. Walking down to an appropriate height for a campsite felt like a walk in the park! Just before dusk we found another beautiful spot next to a river and set up camp. Dinner however was served inside the tent (still an unusual thing for us, as this would never have been wise to do in North America because of the bears), since this valley had a nasty plague of little biting flies. The third day was mostly about descending to Vaquería. After leaving the Huascarán National Park we walked through the picturesque peasant village of Huaripampa. Eco-tourism starts to flourish there, we saw cuy production farms that could be visited and indigenous women were selling their alpaca knit-work along the path. Happy, but exhausted from the final climb through terraces of potato fields and eucalyptus groves, we arrived in Vaquería in the early afternoon. We had made it: roughly 50km in three days :-)! The adventure though was not yet over: after refreshing ourselves with some sugary softdrinks and a banana from the food stalls around, a camion driver offered us a reasonably priced ride to Cebollapampa, the trailhead of the trek for Laguna 69, where we planned to spend the night. Instead of waiting for the next colectivo bus, of which no one knew when it will arrive, we gladly accepted the offer. What followed even excelled the initial taxi ride... For more than two hours (for only 24 km) we jolted on a winding "road" surrounded by some of the most impressive mountains of the Cordillera Blanca: Mount Huascarán and Pisco. Evidently it followed what could not be avoided: a flat tire. The driver and his teeny son changed it fairly quickly and with a sporty run down to the trailhead from the mountain road, we just managed to set up our tent before it was pitch-dark night. Cooking with our headlights on, though, was fun and the campground was unusually beautiful - we were glad to be here! The trek to Laguna 69 is said to be the jewel of the Huascarán National Park. We set off only with a daypack right after dawn and could enjoy the hike and the pretty laguna before the masses arrived. On a plain with grassland we also saw our first viscachas, an animal looking like a rabbit but with a long tail like a squirrel. They seem to be present in Peru's highlands as are the marmots in Switzerland. At midday we were back from the hike, put together our tent and waited along the mountain road for a ride back to Caraz. While waiting, we met a small group of French backpackers and together we were lucky to pin-down a tour bus that took us to Yungay. What a comfortable ride this was compared to the camion the day before! However, we have to admit, that it is always the unexpected and (at-first-sight) awkward situations that make for the best and unforgettable stories.
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