Knackered in Huaraz

Day 2 views
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Huaraz is the launching place for treks into the the Cordillera Blanca which to quote a website I looked up is "without question one of the most magnificent mountain ranges in the world."   Having actually been to very few mountain ranges not sure if that is true but can say the place is spectacular.  To give you an idea of the grandeur of the place... within its boundaries are thirty mountains above 6000 meters (for reference the highest Mountain in Australia is 2228 meters and the highest in Europe is 5642 meters).

Day 1 views
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In our current physical condition we of course steered well clear of any 6000m peaks and opted for a slightly more sedate 4 day walk (the Santa Cruz Trail) with the highest point reached being approx 4800m.  First day myself and Jo were quietly confident that we would have no problems keeping up with the rest of our group which consisted of a our German friends, another German, a Frenchie and an Aussie bloke.  We were even more confident after our guide assured us the first day was "muy facil" (very easy) and we would be going "Lento, Lento" (slowly, slowly).  Unfortunately that was as long as our confidence lasted as our guide (nicknamed Nathan Deakes) then proceeded to take off uphill at a pace that implied he was trying to complete our four day trek in two.  Within the first hour I estimate myself and Jo were about a km behind...which I would like to blame on the fact that everyone else put there pack on a donkey except for us.

Day 4 views
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After around four or five hours walking and repeated stops by the group to wait for us we reached our first camp site called Llama Corral which somewhat disappointingly was full of cows instead of Llamas, however the view of the distant snow covered peaks was anything but disappointing.  Deakesy managed to forget our food tent so we ate in one of the local huts with a very strange and unidentified cut of meat hanging from the roof (the consensus was dog...but really it could have been anything).

Day 4 views
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The second day actually was nice and easy and we acquitted ourselves well managing to stay on the pace for the entire walk.  Helping us was it was pretty much dead flat and we had off loaded our pack to one of the donkeys we called "Bitey" for obvious reasons.  After 7 hours walking arrived at a camp even more spectacular than the last and ate dinner in a cave where the donkey driver sleeps.

The third day was supposedly the toughest and involved walking up to a pass through the mountains at height of 4800m.  Basically a 2 hour climb going constantly up already at a height to induce shortness of breath, headaches etc..  This time I managed to keep at the front of the group and Jo resumed her slow and steady attitude and her usual backmarker position.  At one stage the group had stopped about half way up and everyone was bent over hands on knees gasping for breath when quite clearly from far below a voice came drifting up extolling the virtues of plastic money, then ten minutes later Jo walks sedately into view with some poor unsuspecting English backpacker by her side who is now probably utterly convinced his money is crap and plastic is the way of the future....in fact I am half convinced Jo is still secretly on Securency's payroll as a covert sales person.  At the top of the pass there was a fantastic view of a glacial lake and clear views back along the valley that we had walked for the past two days..really amazing.  The remainder of that day was a cruisy 6 hours walking down, so easy in fact we still had enough energy at the end to race across the last field to our camp.

Our group at the Day 3 camp site
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Last day is only a 2 hour walk to the bus stop which wanders up through various local Quechuan villages where the kids come streaming out asking for caramello's (which supposedly means sweets and not caramello koalas as we originally assumed), we gave ours to the only kid that didn't ask plus he was holding a cute little baby pig..it only occurred later he probably didn't ask because he didn't like the stuff, we were consoled by the fact he could still use it to trade for some corn or possibly another pig.

The lagoon on the way up to the highest pass
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Now by this point you will probably be amazed to find I have not mentioned Jo falling over on mountain trails over 4 days but never fear because with 15 minutes to go Jo did the inevitable, in an attempt to beat another snobby french group to the top she managed to take a corner way too fast lost her footing and hit the deck like a sack of...spuds, in the same motion managing to throw her water bottle at the girl in front of her.  To Jo's credit she got up without crying and as a group we still managed to beat the Frenchies with their fancy walking sticks, massive hiking boots and lycra walk pants.

The only kid that didnt ask for caramellos and his pig
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Finally had to endure a 5 hours bust trip back to Huaraz the second half in a mini van which was held together by sticky tape, in fact spent the trip holding on to the hand grip mounted near the roof not out of fear of an accident but to hold the rear panel on.