One overnight bus from our afternoon on the beach delivered us to the mountain town of Huaraz, at about 10,000ft, and we were already working to breath deeply.Arriving early on a Sunday morning, most of the tour companies were closed, so we hired a private guide to take us on a 3-day trek. We re-organized our packs, and off we went!
1.5hrs in "collectivo" (us + 20 Peruvians in a VW van), followed by another bumpy BUMPY 1.5hr taxi, and we arrived at Huascaran National Park, home of Peru´s appropriately named Cordillera Blanca. ALL of our time in the park, we were above 12,00ft. We made camp by a rushing river among grazing cowsafter a short hike into the valley, ready for a fresh, early morning start.
Day 2 blessed us with clear skies in the middle of the rainy seasonfor our hike. Ascending the valley wall switchbacks past countless waterfalls, we found ourselves eye-to-eye with the stunning range of 22 white Andean peaks, each over 18,000ft - the highest mountain range in thw orld outside of the Himalayas, and truly on of our planet´s treasures. Each peak with it´s unique face, energy and light beamed down at us and over the lush valley and roaring waters below. Something to behold!
We felt so humbled, and a bit overwhelmed just to be there. Words do it no justice and pictures cannot capture the sensation. We arrived at our campsite, Laguna Seisenta-Nueve (turquoise Lake complete with waterfall and two glacial peaks above-NICE!), just in time to set up our tents before a heavy snowstorm hit which lasted all night.
We awoke Day 3 to a winter wonderland, again with fairly clear skies.Hanalei already had BAD altitude sickness, which made our grueling, but fantastic hike much harder. We didn´t attempt to summit any peaks, but our tour took us much higher above 14,600ft to a pass surrounded by the most spectacular mountains either of us has witnessed, down through miles of boulder field, and back down into the valley where we were relieved to be breathing easier, totally exhausted, but pround to share such an experience.
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