Day 376 – Santa Cruz Hike
Santa Cruz Hike Begins
At 4am, our alarms woke us up! We reluctantly got out of bed and prepared for the 5am pick up from Akilpo Hostel. Besides some dry food and a 60L backpack we were taking everything else. Unfortunately all the lockers were full, so we left the backpack in the storage racks.
The pick up van arrived at 5.10am with 5 others on board. There seemed to be an issue with the number of people they were picking up. A similar thing happened at the next pick up point. After picking up two people we left Huaraz.
Despite booking the tour with Ganesa Explorer (Day 375), the company that took us was Galaxia Expeditions. The reviews of Ganesa were okay, but Galaxia didn’t have a good reputation on Trip Advisor, so let’s see what happens!
We drove for ages as the sun rose. We ended up at a very busy restaurant close to 9am in the town of Yungay. The average cost of the meals were between 10-12 PEN ($4.40-5.28 AUD). The food was basic though. We knew other people who had taken other tours, with more expensive companies. They also ended up at the same restaurant as us.
Huascaran National Park
After breakfast, there was a relatively short drive to the Huascaran National Park entrance. Here we had to pay for the entrance ticket, which was 60 PEN ($26.40 AUD) p/p. The breakfast and the entrance tickets were, the only items not included with the tour.
We then drove up a super winding road to the peak of a mountain (We later found out that the Laguna 69 hike starts from lower down on this mountain). Here we stopped for some epic views of a blue lake and the valley.
I thought that we would be close to the starting point. The van continued up and then went through a small valley to appear on the other side of the mountain, with more epic views. We were then driving down hill for an hour before we arrived at a small town called Vaqueria.
Vaqueria
We arrived here around 11.30am. The guide who was very silent gave us small reusable bags that contained our lunches. There was an avocado sandwich, biscuits, a banana and chocolate. There was a small bathroom here that cost 0.50 PEN ($0.22 AUD). Our bags and supplies were unloaded. Another two tourist groups arrived, and after a short time period, they started hiking. We were just sitting around for half an hour as there appeared to be an issue with the donkeys. Since it was all in Spanish, we had no idea what was happening.
Turns out that our tour was meant to have 2 extra people, who didn’t appear. Therefore, the guide was trying to cancel an extra donkey. Typically there is one donkey for 2 hikers. We would only be carrying our day packs, with warm clothing, water and cameras.
Our group size was 8 tourist, a guide and a cook.
Let the hiking begin…
Around midday, the guide and the donkey operators had come to an agreement. The gear was put on 3 donkeys and 1 horse (with a rider). Therefore, we started our hike!
The beginning of the hike was surprisingly downhill through a small town. We were hiking between, houses, fields of vegetables and animals. We saw one Bed and Breakfast in the town.
To leave the town, we had to go back uphill. It was luckily a short walk before the ground flattened again. During this time, our donkeys overtook us and disappeared around a bend. We noticed, two groups forming from our tour. Some very fast people, and some slower people (including us). The guide was with the fast people at the start, but as the day was ending, he was with us more.
The scenery was very beautiful. There was a slight incline to most of the day, but near the end, it was mainly flat. The 12 km hike to our camp site at Huaripampa took us around 5 hours. As the day got along, the weather got colder. We didn’t feel it until we stopped walking.
Near Paria campsite
Huaripampa Campsite
The location was nice, near a freshwater stream. When we arrived, the donkey driver and the cook, had already set up the toilet tent, cooking tent and eating tent. We assisted in setting up the personal tents for us. It was actually good, that 2 people didn’t show us. A tent was out of commission as the interconnecting poles were broken. We got the small orange tent. It was very cosy. Probably meant to be a one person tent, but due to the cold, it was perfect.
Our tent was to the right in the photo
We had a nice meal of chicken and rice. Our water bottles would be refilled during the night with boiled water. As we left the eating tent, the sky was amazing. There is no light pollution. The stars looked marvellous. My photo attempts to capture it came out very poorly. Another hiker took the really nice photo.
My photo Not my photo
During dinner, the guide told us that one of the hikers, was going to do the hike in 3 days. He gave us 2 options. To either let this guy finish the last day alone, or for us all to do it with him, and go to some hot springs on the last day. Since it would be horrible for this guy to go alone, we all agreed to finish the hike in 3 days. When he had booked the hike at his hostel, he was told that there would be two guides, and the second guide would take him on the 3rd day. He was clearly lied to, as we only had one guide.
With not much else to do, we got into bed very early (before 8pm). This was the first time that we were using our sleeping bags during the entire trip. I’m happy to say they were nice and kept us warm. We were wearing thermals and multiple layers of clothing too.
Click here for our quick guide to the Santa Cruz Hike.