Cordillera Blanca - Santa Cruz Trek, Peru - Day 85-89

We were finally able to do some more camping and trekking on our own in the second highest mountain range in the world, the Cordillera Blanca. We took a bus from Lima to the city of Huaraz, which is the jumping-off point to the mountains. Huaraz was hit by a devastating earthquake in 1970 which demolished 95% of the city and killed half of the population. So, although the threat of another earthquake always lingers, Huaraz continues to remain Peru's top trekking, mountaineering, and climbing destination.

Because we visited Huaraz in the middle of the rainy season, our options were limited. We chose to do the Santa Cruz Trek, which is the most popular trek in the area because of the beautiful scenery of snow-capped mountains rising up in every direction. We caught fleeting glimpses of the mountains, but most of the scenery that we saw were clouds. Normally this trek requires at least a guide and porters, but since no one wants to trek in the rain, they actually allow tourists to trek unguided in the month of January! The trek covers 30 miles in 4 days (all above 10,000 ft) and crosses over a pass that reaches 15,584 ft!

The first hour of the trek was through a beautiful village.

Campsite Night 1: 12,600 ft. A rare glimpse of blue sky can be seen here; it rained ALL night.

Typical scenery of our trek. Although the clouds threatened to rain the whole time, we never got rained on while we were hiking.

Here we are at the highest point of the trek (15,584 ft). It is extremely hard to hike up that high with a pack on; it felt good to take them off for the picture!

Stunning blue glacier lake.

Campsite Night 2: 13,700 ft, with mountains still towering far above us. Alpamayo Mountain can be seen in the background. It has been named the most beautiful mountain in the world.

Taking a well-deserved break and enjoying the rare sunshine after setting up camp.

Pretty view of the Santa Cruz Valley with lots of cows. We joked that it should be called Cow Shit Trek because there was more shit than dirt on the trails.

Campsite Night 3: 11,800 ft. We had it all to ourselves!...minus the cows, donkeys, and horses...and all of their shit.

Our hike out down the very steep valley.

We had time to kill the next day waiting for our bus to leave Huaraz, so we did a day-hike up to Laguna Churup, which sits at 15,100 ft.