HUARAZ

Huaraz is a the capital of the Ancash region of Peru. It is a bustling town situated in a valley, with Cordillera Blanca mountains on one side and Cordillera Negra on the other. It is Peru's outdoor adventure capital and is known for some great hiking and climbing. Unfortunately, now is not the time to be here as we found out.... it often rained pretty hard in the afternoon and the amazing mountain views were usually covered in thick greyish cloud. Come between May-August if you want the best weather.

The ladies here wear the best hats we've seen on our travels yet. I thought the cholitas of La Paz couldn't be beaten, but here they wear tall top hats decorated with a ribbon motif that they must sew for themselves. Unfortunately no photo as I didn't have the balls to ask any of them which I now regret! However see HERE for a blogpost I found with great photos.

On the first day we had a big planning and admin day - very boring so I won't go into it, but essential every few weeks of travelling to get your shit in order and work out where the hell you're going next.

Willacucha Lagoon Trek
This was billed as a starter trek, to get acclimatised. As we know by now, I'm not that great at altitude so it seemed like a good idea. We were advised to leave early so we were breakfasted and out by 8am, on a collective to a bridge where the hike started. It was a 2 hours up and 1.5 hours down. On the way we passed through a village where we got a little idea of life up here. Houses were all made from mud bricks, there were tonnes of donkeys around, and most of the women were working in the fields. Cactuses were used as natural barbed wire and a jolly lady chatted away to us as we past.

When we climbed up to the final crest a small pond came into view. Will joked that it couldn't possible be the lagoon we'd hiked all that way to see. Unfortunately it was - we had been warned that you do the trek not for the lagoon but for the view, only thing was that the clouds were covering all the peaks so we really didn't see much. I'm sure it's lovely in season!

A massive rumble of thunder sounded behind us we whipped round to see a dark cloud creeping up on us. We took that as our signal to leave. Just as we neared to end of the hike a man and wife who were just packing up their car said to us "Huaraz?" as we passed. It was a welcome turn of events and we hopped in with an American that had joined us for the walk down.

Climbing Los Olivos with Micher from Andean Kingdom
I cannot recommend Micher highly enough. He was an absolutely fantastic guide, was patient, kind and encouraging. He never rushed you and always explained what he was doing. His kit was in excellent condition and from very reliable brands. He was just an all round nice guy. If you are coming to Huaraz and you need a climbing guide, Micher is your guy! The price is 180soles for a full day including lunch if you want a private guide, or 100soles each if you have two people.

The crag was Los Olivos, a 10 minute drive from town and then a 10 minute walk through a small neighbourhood, across a raging river. I joked with Micher that crossing the river was more scary than the climbing! I said if I lived here I'd have to build a bridge because I couldn't face crossing the river each time. He said they had built a bridge once but the next day they came back and all the wood had been taken by the locals and there was nothing left! Micher had a great dog that accompanied us to the crag and hung out.

The climbing was great, very 3D volcanic rock, with almost too much choice of where to put your hands and feet. I did mostly easy routes (5a-5c) as I hadn't climbed in a while but they were really enjoyable. The view from the crag looked down over the city and every so often the clouds parted and we could see some of the surrounding mountain peaks covered in snow. Generally the weather was good in the morning and rainy in the afternoon so we tried to get to the crag as early as possible to get as much climbing in. I probably did 8 routes over the two days, going back to those I enjoyed or couldn't complete the first time. A few routes had overhang starts which were tough but doable, even with my wimpy arms.

Artesonraju or Paramount Mountain
Whilst H went off climbing for the day I rose at 5am and joined a bunch of folk from the hostel to make the journey to the vivid blue lake at the foot of Artesonraju Mountain. This peak is famous for its iconic shape which is allegedly what the Paramount pictures logo design is based on. Some have mentioned seeing the stars from the logo above the mountain however I think this is just altitude sickness. The lake sits over 4000m and the peak rises up to 6025m.

It was raining when we piled into the van for the nearly three hour drive into the mountains. After failing to catch up on any sleep due to Peru's obsession with speed bumps we pulled into a little market town for breakfast and to buy lunch. As H wasn't here I bought not one but two Avocado sandwiches for myself (Thats the kind of crazy thing I do when the boss is away). I did manage to get some shut eye as we started driving up the mountain valley. Not because I finally fell asleep, but because of the steep winding roads, half washed away down the near vertical hillside.

hen we arrived I could just make out Paramount Mountain poking through a gap in the clouds. I joked to the group saying "take a photo now as this might be the only chance". Unfortunately this turned out to to be true. Luckily the guys in the van were a good bunch and we set off on a small circuit climbing up a few hundred feet to look down on the vivid blue lagoon. Unfortunately we climbed up into more cloud and now couldn't see the mountain or the lagoon. Great !

The route was actually quite fun and challenging at this altitude. It was more like a pile of boulders than a path that got considerably steeper as we scrambled to the highest point. Apparently under all these boulders was an active glacier which every now and then caused small piles of rocks to slide sending loud rumbles down the valley. Suddenly the clouds parted for a fleeting moment and we all madly tried to cram a days worth of photos into 20 seconds. In the excitement I lost my lens cap, my footing and my pride. Would I say the losses out weighed the gain... Nope.

After that little bit of excitement we carefully picked our way down to the lagoon then piled back into the van to Huaraz. It was a shame about the weather as this is meant to be one of Huaraz's most beautiful day hikes, but at least I ate two avocado sandwiches!

Laguna 69
After another early start we wound our way out of town and up into the mountains. The start of the Laguna 69 trek is about three hours out of Huaraz. It's the next valley down from Paramount Mountain. We passed some impossibly green lakes as we snaked up into the mountains. One was surrounded by vivid orange paper trees.

The hike was relatively easy, but at high altitude, meaning the whole group took their time and went at an easy pace. The first part was relatively easy as we walked through a beautiful valley with Peru's highest peak, Huascarán 6768m towering down from above the clouds behind us. Ahead of us was a magnificent waterfall which we went from looking up at, to looking down on, as we climbed the flowed the switchbacks up a steep section. About half way through I started to feel the effects of the altitude again. I filled my checks with coco leaves like a hamster and continued slowly along the pathway. It wasn't particularly hard just long and high.

Eventually after passing some smaller lakes, a bunch of cows, navigating many stepping stones and finally dragging myself up another steep switchback section the lagoon came into view. A slither of the most vivid natural blue I have ever seen pinged out from the stark grey rock that surrounded it. As we moved closer more and more of the lagoon cane into view. Seeing it gave me a burst of energy and the last section was a doddle. However once I arrived my body remembered where it was and I lay on the rock trying to catch my breath and get some energy back. Still I had made it and it was beautiful.

Carnival
As it rained every afternoon and evening, carnival in Huaraz was always going to be 'damp'. We caught it by accident on one of our first evenings there, a procession of carnival trucks and dancers. This makes it sound more impressive than it was... the trucks were small utes, all reversing up the road so that their decoration could be seen front on. Dancers were mostly just kids having a good time, but at one point a whole line of cholitas sashayed their way up the road. The brass band were pretty excellent and even though it was tipping it down, people were braving the rain to dance and sing. Rio it wasn't, but fun for the local community it was.

Water bombing on Tuesday. Not sure where this originates from but if you're a gringo you are a prime target. From my vantage point at the crag, we could see kids in the neighbourhood opposite running around, covering each other in buckets of water. I also witnessed an older lady on a roof top, keeping very quiet until two unsuspecting kids came too close, and got absolutely soaked by her huge bucket of water!! Sneaky!

Wills said he saw similar sights as he kept his head down and power walked his way through the back roads to the safety of California cafe to hide from the carnage. He said a number of folk in the cafe weren't so lucky

A few travel tips

Where to eat:
Chilli Heven - Only decent curry we have had in the whole of South America. The Thai currys were bloody fantastic.
Luijis pizza - Best pizza we have had in South America hands down.

Where to stay:
Akilpo - Recommended to us by our friend Camellia, this place was perfect. The staff are the friendliest bunch we have met running a hostel. Nothing is too much trouble, they are so knowledgable on all the treks in the region, have an amazing interactive google map to show you everything on, including routes and photos from the top to get you motivated, aaaaaaand on top of all this, they are all complete jokers and really are rather funny.

On our last evening there, just before going to get the night bus to Lima, we were treated to clear skies and a stunning sunset on the rooftop. Finally seeing the snowy peaks that surround this little city made coming here completely worthwhile, even just to catch a glimpse. I'd love to come back and do some more climbing with Micher!