Day 379 – Santa Cruz Hike to Huaraz
On the fourth day
Today was a super chilled day. We woke up at 8am, had breakfast and packed our bags. I was shattered that we didn’t get cocoa tea delivered to the tent. One thing I forgot to mention was that the toilet here is horrible. I honestly prefer the toilet tent, due to the bad smell from this one.
Sunrise at the camp site Camp site is a farm for fish Drinks from last night
We then had to hang around until 10 am for our pick up to arrive. The roads back to Huaraz were winding down the mountains. We could see nice views of the valley and towns below. They looked really far below. Our driver was driving relatively safely. We even picked up a hitch hiker on the way down.
At 12.30pm we arrived in Huaraz, outside a square where we later found out is near Galaxia Expedition’s office. Here we picked up our luggage from the van. To our surprise, the guide just left without a good bye or even asking for a tip. Technically, the forth day’s lunch was included with the tour, but nothing was mentioned of this.
Back in Huaraz
We walked back to Akilpo Hostel, dropped off our backs and went straight to find some lunch, afraid that if we sat down we wouldn’t leave. Since it was my birthday, we went for burgers. Most restaurants looked empty, so that we had no choice but to go to the empty, Donker Burger. We were really glad we went, since the burgers were delicious.
Donker Burger
The group from the Santa Cruz trek had agreed to meet up for dinner. The native Spanish speaking couple in the group had booked a table at the Argentinean Pizza place, La Pizza del Abuelo. It was another cool way to end the trek and celebrate my birthday. We had cake and my wife got a guitar playing busker to play Happy Birthday in Spanish.
Click here for our quick guide to the Santa Cruz Hike (https://travelthegap.com/quick-guide-to-santa-cruz-trek/)