Plodding round the Cordillera Blanca

I have just come back from 3 and a bit days walking in the Cordillera Blanca and at the risk of sounding "over the top" I think it is the most beautiful landscape that I have ever walked in.

The direction we did it in, you walk up one valley for the equivalent of two days (day 1 is a half day and you cross a pass midway through day 3). The lake in the picture is part of Day 2's walk, which is just incredible. As you go up the valley different peaks come into view, snow capped and looking like implausible icing sugar confections. Because the Andes are geologically young they are very steep and jagged and I think that gives them some of their allure. Day after day of bright blue sky might do it as well.


The peak here is called Alpamayo (apologies to anyone who can spell it correctly). It was voted the second most beautiful peak in the world last year by Mountain magazine! Goodness knows what the criteria are in a mountain beauty contest! This is its unphotogenic side but I still think it looks pretty incredible. From this vantage point we could see three different snow clad peaks. Alpamayo is over 6,000m tall, which in this part of the world is not unusual! (There are no mountains in Europe over 5,700m and a good way to make a Peruvian laugh is to explain that at 1600m Ben Nevis is the UK's highest "mountain").

Not sure what our altitude was when we started walking but campsite 1 was 3,790m, campsite 2 was 4,250 and on day 3 we went over the Punta Union pass at 4,750m and were pleased to be camping at 3,700 again! The second night was very cold, we were all in bed by about 7:30pm because it was the warmest place to be! Night 3 we made it to 9pm....

I'd love to do another trek in this area, but the longer ones include more passes (one a day) and longer days, so I think a spell of getting properly fit might be in order before trying it!

On the final day we had a very short walk to catch a collectivo (a private minibus that works a particular route and takes as many people as it can find) which then drove up to a pass over 4,800m and down the other side. The driver must have had racing blood because he seemed determined to get down as fast as possible which made for an exciting descent!

We changed collectivos in Yungay, a town with a sad history. In 1966 the old town was destroyed by an alluvio - something to do with an earthquake causing a nearby lake to burst its banks - practically the entire population died. The new town is in a slightly different location but despite its beauty this is a very unstable area, most of the towns in the valley have suffered at some time.

Our new collectivo didn't go as fast but made up for it by stuffing people in, when real seats ran out small stools were deployed in the tiny aisle and one lady's barrels were used to sit passengers on. Potential passengers who attempted to point out that the bus was full were quickly persuaded that there was space for them too!

We arrived back in Huaraz at about 5pm and I gratefully made for the shower in my hostal and attempted to remove all the dust from myself, the water ran brown for a while. I leave Huaraz today though I'll be sorry to leave the mountains. Down to the coast for a few days and then into Ecuador.