I´m up before the guide arrives. I´m just finishing my breakfast as he arrives. His name is David, a fulltime guide and glad of a days work in the offseason. Without delay we head down town and get seats in a collectivo heading to the town of Yungay, a 60 min drive from Huaraz. Its a bright breezy morning which is good. I´m looking forward to gtting into the mountains and while my hip is stiff its certainly not as painful as yesterday.
In Huaraz everything is back to normal this morning. The streets are full of people heading to work or going about their business. The collectivo we´re in is a Hiace van. A total of 17 people pile in and as we´re full we head off down the road to Yungay. 20 mins later we´re stopped by traffic police and a delay ensues as they question the driver. As the interrogation drags on most of the passengers who are going to work begin to complain loudly. In the face of this barrage from angry passengers the cop lets the driver go.
When we reach Yungay we have to change collectivos to another one which will bring us into the mountains. Its busy enough here while we wait for the collectivo to fill. Yungay sits at the base of the cordillera Blancas. Dominating the town is the western flank of Huascaran, Peru´s highest mountain. David tells me that the present town is not the original Yungay and is only in this location since 1970. In that year a strong earthquake triggered a massive avalanche of rock and ice from the slopes of Huascaran. Most of the towns 18,000 inhabitants were buried by the slide. The new town was built but its location shifted to its present site out of the path of any future avalanche.
The morning stays fine with blue skies overhead. After all the rain we´ve had lately I´m prepared for bad weather so I have my waterproofs and layers but it looks like I won´t need them. We take our seats in the second collectivo which is smaller than the first. As we leave Yungay 22 people have crammed into the vehicle. It hilarious. THe seats are designed for the shorter Peruvian build. I squeeze uncomfortably in my seat. Beside me is a 6´4 German who has even greater difficulty than me. We just laugh and it is funny to see how they can cram so many people with all their goods into these collectivos. Its a great experience. Bernhardt, the German, ids from Munich and has just come off a 4-day trek through the mountains during which he saw nothing. Fog, snow and rain clogged the mountains for the duration so he´s now back for another 2-day trek in the hope of finding some good weather and spectacular mountains. He´s delighted with the blues skies and sems to view me as some sort of lucky omen.
We bump our way into the hills on some pretty rough roads. The driver swerves over and back across the road to avoid the large ruts and potholes in an effort to find the smoothest route. How these collectivos simply don´t fall apart I don´t know. They must be driven to their absolute limit. This van is decorated with a lot of religious imagery. Pictures of OUr Lady, the Sacred Heart and the Holy Family abound around the interior. Many collectivos and trucks are similarly decorated. Many have dedications to Jesus and Our Lady across the front window. We stop to pay an entrance fee as the mountains are in a national Park. THere is an elderly woman selling snacks by the side of the road. For 1 sole (Eu 25c) I get a warm hard boiled egg and a hot boiled potato in its jacket. I feel a bit like me Mum and Dad when they were young heading of to school with their baked potato in their pockets!! Others tuck into freshly cooked cobs of sweetcorn (Choclo).
We all pile back into the van and 25mins later David, myself and Bernhardt are unloaded at the jumpoff point for our trek. We are heading up to a lake, Laguna 69, 8km away in the mountains at 4,600m. Its supposed to be spectacular. We start off in the shadow of Huascaran which towers over us at 6,700m. All around us are snowcapped peaks. We start by following a gently rising river valley at the head of which we hit some steep climbs which should bring us up to the lake. The first 2-3km are easy but David moves fast and soon I´m huffing and puffing in the altitude. We hit the steeper slopes and my breathing becomes laboured. We stop for a break and it takes a few minutes for my breathing to reurn to normal. Bernhardt joins us keeping a slow steady pace. You can see he´s experienced. He does a good deal of hiking in the Alps.
David is too fast for me. I keep a slow steady pace so my breathing can adjust and I just let him go ahead. He soon cottons on and slow his pace. The steeper parts get to me. Its an eye opener to experience the effects of altitude. It makes you feel so unfit and slow. However, the sights are spectacular. Its no real difficulty being out here. The air is so clear and cool. The scenery, stunning. Eventually I began to adjust to the altitude. As long as I kept a steady, even pace it was ok.
It didn´t take too long to get to Laguna 69. We had a last, stiff 20 min slog up rocky slope and the lake emerged in a hollow beneath three high peaks. Large glaciers which hung down the sides of these mountains fed the lake which was a beautiful aquamarine colour. THe meltwaters cascade down the slopes and over vertical cliffs to fall directly into the lake itself. There´s a constantly sound of cascading waterfalls. The three of us sat down for lunch after getting our required shots of the moment. We were happy out. It was a beautiful location. After lunch we split from Bernhardt. He was heading higher to a refugio up on the next peak a 90 min hike from the lake. We wished him luck, bade farewell and turned to head back down the valley.
I was running out of water so I refilled by bottle directly from a fast moving stream which drained from the lake which David assured me was fine to drink. The return was easy, so easy compared to the uphill slog. We flew back down the valley. We met a group coming up and while I thought I had struggled on the way up it was nothing compared to what some of theis group were going through. Two of the girls looked dead on their feet.
We were back at the road in plenty of time to meet a collectivo heading for Yungay. Sitting in the sun waiting for our lift I began to get a headache. By the time we got back to Huaraz around 5pm it was very uncomfortable. I wasn´t sure if it was dehydration or altitude sickness but it was so uncomfortable that back in the hostel I took some painkillers and went to bed. Once the painkillers kicked in I fell into a deep sleep.
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