Alex´s Peru Blog: May 2011

I spent my Passover/Easter break doing an 8 day trekking circuit here in Ancash called Huayhuash, one of the awesomest hikes in the world as judged by people who I assume are qualified to judge these things. Here are some quick numbers:

8 Number of days
7 Number of nights
5 Number of us who went
115 Length of the trek in kilometers (according to Lonely Planet)
5000 The highest pass we crossed (in meters)
7 or 9 The total number of mountain passes we crossed
10 Number of cans of tuna I ate over the 8 days
4 Number of glacial bodies of water I jumped in to
100000 Lakes and mountains and rivers and sheep and cows we saw

That’s a quick overview of the hike. Of all the experiences I have had in this country, this might be the one that is hardest to put into words. It was a spectacular 8 days of walking, with snow capped peaks always in sight, rivers and streams and glacial lakes everywhere and more stars at night than I have ever seen in my life. The valleys and mountains and paths seemed to go on forever and it was almost hard to believe that we were only spending 8 days walking around.
But despite the fact that the 8 days flew by, they were long days, with us setting out each morning at 7:30 and usually going until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We got pretty lucky with the weather as it only rained a few days late in the afternoon, but we did walk through snow, rain, sun and clouds. There were two other groups that left the same day as us, and those 8 or 10 people were the majority of humans we saw for the week. There are VERY few people who live in that part of the mountains, and the “villages” we did pass through consisted of only about 5 stone houses with grass roofs at the base of a mountain or the side of a lake. But of course, as soon as we got back to civilization and were on a bus back to Huaraz, we were reminded by a lady who carried her baby cow onto our bus of how charming rural Peruvians can be…
Those were the words, here, in no particular chronological sequence, are the photos: