We decided to have one last meal just the two of us before the group arrived and went to an Argentine steakhouse near the hotel. The waiter Alberto could not have been more helpful and told us that everything from the kitchen was ok but to go for the steak that was cooked on the vegetable charcoal grill. He then went through every cut of meat explaining were it came from, how much fat was on it and what the flavour was like. We were in heaven! We ordered the steak, Marc ordered medium/well and we saw Alberto go to the chefs at the grill and they shook their heads, seems they werent happy cooking it medium/well! The steak was one of the best we have ever had so we promised we would go back after the trek.
We got back to the hotel and collected our laundry… Normally we pay between 4-6 soles per kg and we reckoned we had about 3kg. Marc came round the corner to where I was sitting and told me that where the hotel had sent it charged by the item, the bill came to 150 soles! We had no choice but to pay, an expensive lesson to learn, we will definitely be checking the price before we do any more laundry!
We met the rest of the group at breakfast the following morning and then got on the bus to Huaraz which took about 10 hours. We stopped off along the coast for lunch and plates of fish just kept being put in front of us, ceviche, fried fish and squid, sweet and sour fish. All were gorgeous and so fresh tasting. We looked out on the ocean and there were lots of pelicans just skimming the surface of the waves flying in long lines. A member of the group Ken remarked it was a pelican crossing!
The next day was described in the trip notes as ´a gentle warm up`, it turned out to be anything but! It took about 3-4hrs to hike to Lake Churup and the last part up to the lake we had to scramble up a waterfall. Marc was not amused! We had lunch at the lake and then came back down the way we had come. The whole day was exhausting and a few people were physically sick because of the altitude.
The following morning we drove to Chiquian and arrived for a late lunch. The hostal was basic but had an amazing garden, full of brightly coloured flowers. After lunch we visited an alpaca textile factory where we saw the whole process of how the wool is spun, woven and dyed etc. I think it is probably just as well we are travelling for so long as it really does help me to exercise some restraint! We just dont have any room in our bags for a gorgeous alpaca blanket or two..
We went to explore town in the afternoon and ended up in a bar which was full of locals. The owner seemed delighted to see so many of us ( about 8 ) and took us to a private room at the back which consisted of some corrugated iron walls and a plastic roof. He then explained that his daughter was a singer and proceeded to put on a DVD of her. He then stayed sitting there with us tapping his foot and we felt obliged to watch some very bad Peruvian singing for a very long time! We have a great photo of Brad trying to escape over the wall with a ladder that he found out the back! We went to pay the bill and it was easiest for us all to round up our bill to 5 soles each, we ended up giving him a bit extra and he tried to explain to us that we had made a mistake and had given him too much. People here in Peru are very friendly and very honest.
In the morning we did some last minute shopping (crisps, coke!) as this would be our last bit of civilisation for 2 weeks. Marc decided that he hadnt brought enough underwear with him so we went into a shop ( looked like it was from the 50’s) and Marc tried to explain what he wanted. After 5 minutes the shopkeeper still wasnt any clearer with Marcs spanish so Marc started to undo his trousers and point at his boxers.. Thankfully he quickly understood and brought out some wonderful looking Y-fronts which Marc reckoned were marginally better than having to wash his boxers mid trek!! We then got back in the bus and continued on driving up the valley towards the start of the trail. We took short walks through the villages of Llamac and Pocpa, went past some mines and finally reached our first campsite. It was just off the road that the mining trucks went past every hour throughout the night so it wasnt going to be a restful nights sleep!
The Cordillera Huayhuash is south of the Cordillera Blanca and is a very small remote range. It is part of the Andes, the longest continous mountain range in the world. The Huayhuash ( pronounced why wash! ) has many snow capped and glacier clad peaks over 6000m.
It is probably easiest now if I call it day 1 etc otherwise I will continually be writing ´the next day..` at the beginning of every paragraph!
Day 1: We started the day with a wake up call and cup of tea in the tent at 6am, breakfast at 6.45am and start walking at 8am. Except everyone was ready by 7.30am so we started then. This was to become our routine for the next 14 days. Anyone who knows me knows how terrible I am in the mornings, it takes me a long time to wake up… Marc on the other hand bolts straight up and is out of the tent packed before I even manage to make it out of my sleeping bag. It doesnt help either that he is there telling me I am going to be late and can I pack his sleeping bag away. Marc figures that because I supposedly drag him on these treks in return I have to blow up his thermarest every evening and pack his sleeping bag away every morning!! Breakfasts became a bit of a scrum in the mornings as most of the group would arrive early and the few that were on time ( not late! ) found that the jam or bread was running out, not a relaxing start to the day!
We started walking to the Cacanampunta Pass (4650m) and within an hour I suddenly felt dizzy and then blacked out. It was very strange, I felt fine but had my head on Marcs chest and could hear everything around me but just couldnt see! I also had the most intense pins and needles in my hands. I sat down for 10 minutes and felt much better and put my rucksack on the horse and carried on walking. The pass is the Continental Divide after which the waters now flow to the Amazon and Atlantic rather than the Pacific. We saw condors near the top riding the thermals and then descended to our campsite at Janca (4250m). It was a lovely campsite with views of Ninashanca, Rondoy, Jirishanca and el Toro. Some young children came to the campsite with their mother and Marc gave them some hairclips and bouncy balls which we had bought before we left. I was sitting in tent and next thing I know I can hear Marcs voice singing ´Old Macdonald had a farm` to them. He has picked up a small amount of Spanish and knew the words donkey, cow, duck, sheep and cat so thought this would be best to sing to them along with all the accompanying noises! I dont think they had ever seen anything like it!
As the sun went down it was like a switch had gone off and it got very cold. After the first night I think it hit me that maybe I didnt have enough warm clothes with me. I went into the mess tent for dinner every night wearing my thermals, 3 fleeces and a down jacket, hat, scarf and gloves! Every night for dinner we started with soup to warm us up and then meat or fish and rice then dessert. We also had wonderful teas – lemongrass, mint, aniseed or chamomile. I loved having the tea as it warmed me up a lot! After dinner our water bottles were filled with boiling water which made a lovely hot water bottle, I dont know how I would have coped without it. Then it was bedtime, we were normally all in bed by 8pm, anything later than this was considered to be a late night!
Day 2: We woke up at 6am as usual and looking out of the tent the mountains that we were camped below were a wonderful pink colour, it looked spectacular. Todays pass was the Carhuac Pass (4600m) and it had amazing views of Yerupaja which is the highest mountain in the Huayhuash. Descending from the pass we reached Lake Carhuacocha and saw our two chefs Crispin and Miguel waiting there for us. It was always great to see them as we knew we had reached our luch spot. It was another wonderful viewpoint overlooking the lake and we sat back and had a lovely lunch watching lambs trying to jump across the river to their mothers. From here it was only about an hours walk to the campsite, it becomes much easier to keep going when you can see your yellow tents in the distance! While everyone relaxed in their tents Marc, Brad and Hesham played frisbee and threw a rugby ball about. It seemed to end up as a very bizarre game whereby if you did a bad throw you had dried cow poo thrown at you but you will have to ask Marc for further details!!
Day 3: This was described in the trip notes as a rest day. It was lovely to wake up and know that you didnt have to pack all your belonging into your exodus bag. There was an optional walk to go to 3 further lakes that were meant to be stunning and to see avalanches close up as we had seen and heard them far away the previous day. Ian (the guide) said that we would be back for lunch at 1pm.. We decided to go and walked along the edge of Lake Carhuacocha and up the next valley. We came across a house were the family were vaccinating all their sheep. They had them all rounded up in a small field which was surrounded by stone walls and one person was catching a sheep, one injecting it and another marking it so they knew it had been injected. It was so interesting to watch and seemed to be expertly done, the sheep didnt seem to be that bothered. We walked a bit more and saw some rabbits, they were very different from rabbits I had seen before and have a huge long tail. The lakes were beautiful and after reaching the second lake we climbed up the morraine to the right for 15 minutes and at the top were able to look down on a frozen lake. Directly in front of us was Yerupaja and it seemed that every few minutes there was an avalanche. We sat there just mesmerised by it. It looked like a waterfall of snow coming off the mountain. You would hear the noise first and then scour the mountain to see where the avalanche was, it was fascinating.
We then walked on towards the third lake crossing rivers as we went. We had to jump from rock to rock to cross which was fun although Judy was muttering something about health and safety ( she is a teacher!) so Guio our local guide found some larger stones and dropped them in the river for us to stand on to make it easier to cross. The third lake was a brilliant turquoise colour again with stunning mountains as a backdrop. By this time it was 1pm and we still had to walk back to camp which was at least 2 hours away. It had been a tiring morning and by now I was starving and had eaten all my snacks and my emergency chocolate bar and was beginning to get grumpy! We arrived back in camp tired and hungry for lunch at 3.30pm and were given ceviche. Marc was so disappointed, he was famished and then to be given a plate of raw fish which isnt all that filling.. It was lovely, fresh trout that had been caught in the lake that morning but just not what you feel like when you are hungry!
Day 4: Today we followed an Inca road through the Carnicero gorge and over the Carnicero Pass (4575m) past the twin Atocshaico lakes. There was a wonderful panorama of the eastern side of the range which was dominated by Carnicero, Siula and Jarau. We saw some prehistoric cave paintings and camped close to the tiny settlement of Huayhuash – one single house! That night was particulary cold and I ended up wearing 2 pairs of 3 season socks and 1 pair of 4 season socks just to try and keep my feet warm!
Day 5: We trekked to the Portachuelo Pass (4750m) today and there was a wonderful view from the pass, instead of all the snow capped peaks we saw the rounded ice domes of the Cordillera Raura to the southeast. It is amazing what flowers and plants we have seen even over 4000m, at the top of this pass we saw lots of gasoline plants so called because it does smell like that! We then crossed the continental divide again and descended to camp past lots of llamas at 4500m beneath Puscanturpa and Cuyoc. Marcs fitness seemed to be improving all the time and he also doesnt seem to get affected by the altitude at all so for the first time he was in the front group and feeling great. We got into camp at lunchtime and had a quick lunch and then headed straight back out again as we had heard that there were hot springs about 30 mins walk away. It looked like we were going to the beach, Marc had ditched his rucksack and was carrying an m&s bag with his towel, suncream and camera while I was debating whether to bring my flip flops!
We got to the hot springs and Marc and Brad jumped straight in whilst Hannah and I tried to find somewhere semi private to change into our bikinis. We did feel like we were giving all the locals a show in our bikinis! It was lovely after so many days of washing in a bowl of water to immerse yourself fully in such hot water. The previous year they had built a large concrete pool that the springs ran into and also a smaller pool which was much hotter that you could wash in. I jumped into the pool and it was absolute bliss! There were green bits floating in the water and the bottom and sides were covered in a green slime so slippery you couldnt even walk along the bottom but it was gorgeous. The sun was shining and then a local appeared selling beer and coke. Of course Marc bought a large bottle of coke and it really did feel like we were on holiday! Brad took the temperature and altitude with his watch and it was 38.2′C and we were at 4440m. Hannah and I then went into the other pool and had to get in so slowly as it was that hot, there we washed our hair 3 times and got out feeling the cleanest we had done in days!
Day 6: Today was the highest pass of the circuit the Cuyoc Pass (5030m), I think we must be getting fitter as we didnt find it that hard. It was spectacular views on all sides from the top. We took a group photo at the top and then made our way down. It was very steep and covered with scree at the top. Whilst everyone was making their way down slowly and carefully Marc decided the best way was to run down. He just didnt stop. He had caught sight of some Germans that were descending a different route from the top and had decided that these Germans were not going to catch him! He kept on going until he was out of sight, finally at the bottom I spotted him lying under a rock with a big grin on his face, he said he had been there ages and did we see him beat the Germans! We had another idyllic lunch spot by a stream, there wasnt a cloud in the sky it was just perfect.
Day 7: Today we descended and then turned up the Sarapococha valley to reach lake Jarau. It was quite a dull days walking as there was no pass to go over so I found it hard to motivate myself. As we walked along we kept hearing something about a burro blanco and a burro negro, it turns out that two of our donkeys had escaped in the night and they were asking the locals had they seen them. Further on somebody spotted a donkey up high on a hill, the binoculars came out and it was one of ours carrying the toilet tents on its back, they had lost another donkey on the way to the campsite! Marcello ran up to catch it, what would have taken us a good 40 minutes to walk took him 10 minutes. Then walking towards the campsite we saw Mesner riding his horse with the other 2 missing donkeys going full pelt in front of him looking very guilty!
We arrived at camp and had lunch and then decided not to take the optional walk to the lake as it was Hannahs birthday. Instead Marc, Brad, Hannah and I had spotted a waterfall a short walk away and we went there to celebrate. On the way we passed our donkeys (all 30 of them!) and some were kicking each other while others were nuzzled up together. Looking closely they were eating salt. Rosallino was putting large mounds of salt on the river bank for them to eat, turns out it isnt only us who need salt when we are trekking!
We got to the waterfall and it was like an oasis, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. Brad had carried some pink champagne all the way for Hannahs birthday so we sat in the sun drinking champagne and eating Percy Pigs! Bliss. It must have been the altitude but after one glass Marc and I feeling slightly tipsy! Hannah and I then decided to wash our hair, big mistake! We had a basin with us and so started pouring water over each others hair, the water was so cold our heads ached but we had to keep going to rinse the shampoo off, it was the most uncomfortable hair wash I have ever had. I dont think I will ever wash my hair again in glacial water! The sun went behind the mountain at about 4pm and it became instantly cold, it is so strange that it is so hot one minute and freezing the next.
When we got to the mess tent for tea that day the chefs had made Hannah a birthday cake, it is amazing what they can cook where they are and it tasted gorgeous. We then had dinner and stayed up playing cards and drinking pisco. We played knock and Ian won even though he pretended not to understand the rules and had never played before. We had a late night – 9pm, and went to bed!
Day 8: This was a rest day and there was a walk to Joe Simpsons base camp. If you havent heard of him google his name and he has written an excellent book about his experience, Touching the Void. It was another hard days walking, really not a rest day at all, I think they need to rewrite the trip notes! Ian had the book Touching the Void with him and there were some photos in it of when Joe Simpson had crawled back into base camp. We were shown the rock in the photo and Marc and Brad decided they wanted to recreate the scene. They got Victor and Marcello to be in the background while they pretended to be Joe lying down and Simon standing looking over him, it was hilarious with Ian orchestrating the whole thing trying to get it looking as it did in the photo. You can see the results on Marcs facebook photos and I will try and put them up here!
Day 9: We retraced our steps down the Sarapococha valley and reached the village of Huayllapa. There was an optional detour into the village which would take about an hour extra so half the group (inc Marc) decided they couldnt resist the lure of beer/coke/crisps and went! Their rucksacks all weighed a lot more by the time we met them for lunch and Marc had kindly bought me a bag of crisps, an orange drink and some ritz crackers. We both really did crave salty snacks on the trek. We certainly had enough chocolate, I was on a 4 bar a day habit whilst there! Probably not surprising that I think I put on weight on the trek! Again lunch was lovely and I bathed my feet in the river whilst I waited for Marc to come up from the village. It was a long hot day and just as Marc was starting to complain that he had had enough we saw Mesner in front of us and as we rounded the corner we saw all our yellow tents, it couldnt have come at a more welcome time! It was another great campsite although you had to walk across rocks in the river to get to the mess tent, not easy when you have forgotten your headtorch at night!
Day 10: Today we crossed our 6th pass, the Tapush (4750m). This pass is on the border of the province of Ancash where Guio is from, and Lima where Ian is from. Along the way the boys had their usual stone throwing competition to see who could throw a stone furthest or if they could throw it far enough to reach the lake, usually Marc or Ian won but it kept them amused endlessly!. We had our highest lunch at 4700m and then descended past Susucocha lake to camp in the valley of Ancocancha near a forest of Quenoal trees. Later in the afternoon Marc came back in the tent whispering that he had been with the cooks but that what he had seen was a secret. He said that they had bought two lambs from the local farmer and that he had watched them kill them and cut them up. They had pointed out every part to him, liver, kidneys, gall bladder, stomach and much more but told him that they were only allowed to serve the gringos the good meat! We were going to have Pachamanca ( a sort of traditional Peruvian barbeque ) in a couple of days time.
Day 11: It was a bad start to the day for me, everyone in the group had got to breakfast even earlier than usual so by the time I got out of our tent ( Marc was long gone! ) I saw that everyone elses tents had been taken down. When I got to breakfast ( on time ) everyone had practically finished and was ready to leave. I gulped down a cup of tea and had some eggs and then it was time to go. It just wasnt a relaxing start to the day! I think Marc was trying to resist saying I told you you should have got out of bed sooner!
We got to the Yaucha pass (4800m) fairly quickly and then there was an optional extra climb to the summit. We got to the top of this and there was the best panorama we have seen. We had wonderful views of the highest peaks of the Huayhuash range and in the distance could see the Cordillera Blanca. We also saw condors flying overhead. They are absolutely massive and have a wingspan of about 3m. From here we descended to Laguna Jahuacocha which was one of the most impressive lakes we have seen. We watched the sun set behind Jerupaja and the change in colour every few minutes was amazing.
As we had a rest day the following day (although we had come to take the term rest day with a pinch of salt!) we decided to stay up after dinner rather than going straight to bed as we normally did. Brad had bought another bottle of pisco in the village a few days before so we sat drinking that and playing cards. Marc had resort to using my ipod through the speakers as everyone elses battery had run out and after everyone criticising my taste in music they were soon all singing along to the village people YMCA! Might have had something to do with the pisco! It ended up being a very late night – 10.30pm and I became reigning champion of knock!
Day 12: We decided, along with Brad and Hannah, that we really would have a rest day. We waited until the sun had hit our tents before having breakfast that day so it was warmer than it normally was when we ate breakfast. I think the cooks must have been trying to unload the donkeys a bit as it was near the end of the trek and they had set out granola, cornflakes and yoghurt, it was such a treat having something different, I had 3 bowls of granola! It had been tiring trekking for 11 days without a break so when the rest of the group went off for the optional walk we stayed in camp.
We were beside a river where we had seen fish swimming past so Marc and Brad decided they were going to spend the day fishing. They got rods from the kitchen tent ( stick with a bit of string attached! ) and set up on a stool by the river. Rosallino then brought over a packet of worms for them to use as bait. Hannah and I lay on a rug doing crosswords and reading our books while the boys tried everything they could think of to entice the fish. Nothing seemed to work, it was just as well we werent relying on them for our dinner! Mind you we were impressed with their patience. Everyone knows Marc cant sit still ( and quiet! ) for more than 5 minutes but they persisted with it for hours. Hannah and I were willing them to catch a fish as we thought they should be rewarded.
We then walked up a hill to watch the cooks prepare the pachamanca which we were to have as a late lunch. Earlier that morning they had dug a large hole in the ground and piled rocks up in a conical shape. They had been lighting wood and putting this under the rocks all morning to get the rocks really hot and the rocks had changed from a grey colour to black. They then spread the rocks out, put lamb which was in tin foil on top, tipped on at least 20kg of potatoes, poured marinade over it and then put some more rocks on top. Once this was done they started covering the entire pile with the soil on the side from the hole until there was just a big mound. Mesna then decided to put 2 small grass crosses on the top to signify the 2 lambs we were eating! We were told lunch would be ready in 40 minutes. We were a bit sceptical but it was ready then, the rocks were so hot it cooked very quickly. We sat down to lunch by the lake with spectacular mountains behind us and drank red wine and pisco sour. We were given a huge plate of food with the lamb and chicken and 3 different types of potato, it was absolutely gorgeous!
While everyone was relaxing after such a big lunch Marc was with Brad and had found a large stick. He sat for ages with his penknife sharpening the end of the stick and then went to the kitchen to find a bit of rope. Then he stood by the river with one end of the rope tied to his ankle and the other attached to the stick and was attempting to harpoon a fish, it was the funniest sight and had all the Peruvians in stitches. Needless to say he didnt manage to catch a fish this way either!
Day 13: Today was our final days walking and was going to be our last night camping. It makes it so much easier walking when you know it is the last day, I think we could do anything! We had 700m of uphill and then 700m down on the other side of the pass so it was going to be a hard day. We ascended steeply to our final pass of Sambunya (4750m) and Marc was right at the front behind Guio telling him to keep going and not to stop! I think Marc has finally become a trekker and does actually enjoy these holidays now! The last section was very steep but it was a wonderful feeling when we got to the top. We had one last great lunch ( cold lamb! ) looking at the pass we had just come over and then descended to our campsite. It was strange coming down the last part, we could see the pass that we went over on the first day and knew that we were coming close to completing the circuit. It is a mixed feeling, part of you is just longing for a shower and a bed and the other part feels very sad to be leaving the mountains and returning to civilisation. It is such a remote mountain range, it would be odd seeing cars and lots of other people. We arrived in camp with lots of high fives from Guio and congratulations and hugs, we had done it!
Ian then mentioned that we could take a final optional walk to our first campsite which was about 3km away so that we could really say we had completed the circuit. Not many were keen as we all felt we had finished! Marc decided that he would go and so I had to go too, I knew I would never hear the end of it if I hadnt gone as he would always say to me that I hadnt really done the whole circuit! It didnt take too long to get there and it felt like so long ago when we had started. There were a group of Israelis camping there who were just about to start the circuit and of course Marc got chatting to them and somehow ended up standing with one of them singing the Israeli national anthem at the top of their voices!
It was our last night camping and we both had our worst nights sleep ever, it was cold and the tent was pitched on a downwards angle and to the left so we both kept waking up and had to keep crawling back up the tent. We were definitely looking forward to sleeping in a bed!
Day 14: Over the last few days Ian had been on the satellite phone to the office as he had heard that there might be a local strike today and a national strike tomorrow. The bus to take us back to Huaraz arrived about 8am and the driver told us that there were lots of road blocks in place and that the road into Huaraz probably wouldnt be open again until the evening. We got into the bus and had a very slow drive to Huaraz so as not to get there too early. Then at 4pm when we were 80km away we were told that the road was open between 4-6pm and then it was closing again. We rushed back onto the bus and made our way there. It was strange not seeing any other cars on the road and we seemed to be the first ones heading into Huaraz. As we got closer we came across road blocks which consisted of lots of small rocks in the road and sometimes burning tyres. Guio, Victor, Marcello, Crispin and Miguel would get off the bus, move some rocks, wave us through and then get back on grinning. Of course Marc found it all very exciting and was sitting up at the front of the bus taking photos! We got to Huaraz just before 6pm and even the police seemed surprised to see us and were asking the driver what it was like back there.
We got to the hotel and Marc had the first shower and loved every minute. It is so good to have a shower after 14 days washing in a bowl of water. I got in, enjoyed the first minute and then the water stopped! I couldnt believe it, Marc went downstairs and using the bit of spanish he knew ascertained that there was a technical fault and the water would be off for another hour. I was gutted! I finally got my hot shower at 7.15pm and then we went out to dinner at creperie patrick at 7.30pm with the rest of the group.
It was a brilliant restaurant and we sat down and were given coca sours which is similar to a pisco sour but with coca liquor instead of pisco. Marc and Brad became quite hooked on these and had another 6 more while Hannah and I had some great Peruvian red wine. The food was lovely, I craved salad as we hadnt had any for 2 weeks and pasta, it lived up to my expectations! Then for desert we had crepes. I had a nutella crepe which was yummy. I was so full by now but was telling Brad how great my crepe was and how I could eat another one, so he ordered me another and I finished that too!
We then said goodbye to Hesham as he was leaving early. His flight was earlier than the rest of the group and exodus were worried with the strikes that he wouldnt make it back to Lima in time so he flew from Huaraz to LIma while we all had a 10hr bus journey. Some of the group then decided to go out for a drink. We went to a club and we were pretty much the only ones in there and we had some more pisco sours. Pisco sour is lovely, it is a combination of pisco, lime juice and egg white all blended together and then a splash of angosturra bitters on top. Sue then got Marc up to dance and completely exhausted him! We then moved to another club and danced some more. At 1.30am I was knackered and went home while Marc stayed out. At 4am Marc came into the room slightly the worse for wear and told me he had been sitiing downstairs with Hesham for the last hour. It turned out that Hesham couldnt get to the airport because of all the roadblocks and that he was being picked up at 3am to try again. He did manage to get away but had an armed guard and had to crouch down in the car! By now I was wide awake and Marc fell fast asleep.
Day 15: We were woken at 9am by Ian knocking on our door as we had swapped rooms with Hesham and he was wondering if he got away safely. We decided to give the hotel breakfast a miss and head into town for some real coffee, not the liquid concentrate you seem to get at most hotels. It was odd seeing the town so quiet, there were no cars on the road and most of the shops were shut, all because of the strike. I took Marc to Cafe Andino which I had read about in the guidebook and we had proper coffee and a slice of really good banana bread. It was so homely in there, lots of trekkers, great food and cakes and a large lending librabry and book swap. It even had sofas to sit on which was such a luxury after 2 weeks sitting on a 3 legged fold away stool!
We started to go back to the hotel but then saw that the protest was coming our way. We had seen it earlier and Marc taken a photo but it wasnt that many people. It looked a lot larger now! We later heard on the news that there were 20,000 people there. We took a different route back to the hotel and thought that there was no chance now that we would be going back to LIma that day. We got back to the hotel and Ian told us that he still didnt know what was happening and we might have to spend another night here. We then went out for lunch and found out that the road might be opening at 4pm so to be ready to go then. We took Patty and Ken to Cafe Andino and had more coffee and bought more banana bread for the bus journey home.
We did leave at 4pm and we seemed to have 2 crazy bus drivers that seemed to relish the challenge of dodging rocks in the road like slalom skiers! We could see the rocks ahead but the bus didnt seem to slow down! The roads leaving Huaraz are winding anyway so we certainly couldnt catch up on our sleep. Just as some people were dozing off the bus veered left into the side of the mountain and up some rocks, it all seemed to happen in slow motion and the bus going over the rocks made such a noise. The bus came to a stop and it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere, but within 2 minutes dogs were round us barking and men with torches had appeared out of the darkness to try and help get the bus out. They did manage to move the bus and we were amazed that it seemed to drive ok, I thought we were going to have to wait for a replacement bus. It was checked out at the next garage we came to and was fine so we carried on to Lima and got back to the Runcu Inn at about 1am exhausted.
Day 16: We managed to make it to breakfast at 9.45am and arranged with Brad and Hannah to do some last minute shopping. We went to the market and looked at endless t-shirts and jewellery whilst trying to barter down the price. Once again we were very restrained and didnt buy anything! For lunch we went back to La Tranquera, the Argentine steakhouse with Brad, Hannah, Ian and Ken and again were served by Alberto and had another wonderful steak. Then we went back to the Runcu and waved goodbye to the rest of the group as they left for the airport.
The Huayhuash circuit was a truly great trek, we would both recommend it to anyone. I think it is the best trek we have done and the most beautiful mountains we have seen. The guides Ian and Guio were excellent and so informative about the mountains, local geography and geology and about Peru. Victor and Marcello also walked with us every day. Victor was a very dignifed 63yr old man who always had a smile on his face and kept telling me Marc was loco ( crazy! ), I had to agree! Marcello was always ready with his horses in case anybody or their rucksack needed a ride. And the cooks, Crispin and Miguel conjured up the most amazing 3 course meals every night, lunches and breakfasts as well as afternoon tea every day. We were really spoiled. The group were a lot fun too, it was a wide range of ages and Marc was pleased there were more women than men! It is always so interesting to go away with like minded people and find out what places they have been to and where we should go to next. We just hope the next trek we go on will be as much fun.
