Day 374 – Huaraz
Tour to Glacier Pastoruri
Today we were going on a cheap tour to Glacier Pastoruri, which was organised through Akilpo Hostel. The tour costs 35 PEN ($15.40 AUD) per person (p/p), but doesn’t include the Huascaran National Park entrance fee (30 PEN / $13.19 AUD p/p). At 9am, we were waiting in the lobby for our pick up. As the minutes went on, everyone who was waiting for the tour with us were getting nervous. Finally, at 9.46am someone came to pick us up.
We had to walk the streets of Huaraz to the main street. Here, we were once again left alone for several minutes. Then we were ushered onto a side street and into a minibus. In total there was around 20 people in the tour. Besides the handful of people from our hostel, everyone else was from Peru.
Some cool three wheelers in Huaraz
We stopped around 10.30am for some Coco tea (Mate de coca) which cost 2 PEN ($0.88 AUD). The guide told us that we would return here for lunch, so we could order lunch now if we wanted. We only ordered one meal, as the place was a little pricey.
The tour guide was supposed to only be in Spanish, but the guide Richard, was happy to first do all the explanations in Spanish and then switch to English. The Spanish explanations always felt longer. But since we were not expecting any English, we were happy.
Huascaran National Park
As we were driving towards Huascaran National Park, the road becomes a dirt road. This road was super bumpy and dusty. After around an hour down this road, we arrived at the ticket counter. The guide took our money for the entrance fee. It was just before 1.30pm when we arrived.
Our first stop was an awesome view point, which also had a pool of Agua Gasificada (translates to Gasified Water).
Our next stop was close to the amazing cactus plants in the area. The plants flower once, in a very epic way with a massive stem, before dying. The plants can live for up to 100 years. At this stop, there is another viewpoint to see some super clear water. For some reason, the pool kept reminding me of the marshlands in Lord of the Rings.
Glacier Pastoruri
We then arrived at the main event. From the carpark, there is around 2km of walking to the glacier, but it’s a tough 180m incline. We are also 5,000 meters above sea level, which makes breathing difficult. Even after our days of acclimatisation, we could still feel the lack of oxygen. There are also horses that will take you 75% of the way for 20 PEN if that’s your thing.
However, the hike, is well worth the effort. The glacier has apparently lost almost one fifth of its size in the last 30 years and is definitely melting away. However, the ice wall is still massive. There are two lakes in front of the glacier, which have been formed by the glacier melting. We enjoyed the site for around 1 hour before the guide told us to walk back down.
Walking down the path was a breeze as it was all downhill. At the bottom, all the foreigners were waiting. We ended up waiting for at least another 30 minutes until all the locals arrived.
We left the car park at around 3.30pm down the dusty and bumpy road again.
After several hours, we arrived to have lunch, which was bordering on dinner time. Since we had ordered the food so long ago we hoped it would be ready. However, we had to wait some time for the food to arrive. After dinner, we drove straight back to the city centre. We walked back to the hostel at 7pm.
At Akilpo Hostel, we left the dorms and moved into a new room. The new room was a triple room so it was large. We didn’t notice it at first, but after some time there was a bad odour in the room. Possibly from the dorm showers just outside.