I was going to make this cover our whole 8 day trek in the Cordillera Huayhuash, but that would be incredibly long. This covers the first half, and it's still pretty long so you may want to go get a beer before reading this post.
July 14, 2013: Huaraz to Cuartelhuain to Carhuacocha via Cacanan Punta and Carhuac Pass
This was an epic day. It began 5:30 am at Olaza's Guest House, which had graciously put out some breakfast for us, including hot water for coffee, because we were leaving before breakfast was normally served. As we were eating in the pre-dawn light, we heard the doorbell ring four floors below. The van for the trek had arrived 15 minutes early. We crammed final bites of food into our mouths and ran downstairs to silence the doorbell that hopefully not yet woken all of the other guests. We hauled our gear up the street to the waiting van, because the street in front of Olaza's was under construction. Our driver; Gilf, the owner of the trekking company; and Raoul, the cook for our trek, were waiting. Our guide, Lidia, arrived a few minutes later and we were off. We dropped Gilf off and immediately picked up our driver's girlfriend. The van itself was incredibly nice, a new Toyota Hiace with "Corazon de Jesus" stickered on the back and "Te Amo, Peru!" dangling from the rearview mirror. Our driver made rapid progress to the south towards the Cordillera Huayhuash, delayed only by a tollbooth/checkpoint where the officer demanded to see the contents of the van. After seeing that it was indeed full of trekking equipment, we were on our way. An hour or so out of Huaraz, we arrived at the top of a hill and were greeted to our first views of the Huayhuash, which was unfortunately on the other side of a canyon that appeared to be about 4,000 feet deep.
The road at this point was still paved, and our driver took full advantage, casually rallying tight switchbacks while flirting with his girlfriend. After about a half hour of this, we reached the town of Chiquian and stopped for breakfast. We ate a real Peruvian restaurant (i.e. one patronized by locals, not tourists, not that there's any tourists in Chiquian) and I had a bowl of chicken soup with a drumstick of the toughest meat I have ever attempted to eat. That plus a cup of tea ran the tab up to 6 soles (about $2.50). Katie smartly had just tea. We were soon on our way again, and were sad to find that the pavement had ended. When we reached the bottom of the canyon, we began to climb the other side and then turned off into a side canyon, continuing to climb. We passed through several different landscapes each with their own vegetation. Cacti and scrubby bushes gave way to small trees and denser greenery, which in turn gave way to tall grass. We passed through the town of Llamac, which would be the end of our trek, as well as the town of Pocpa, which was our guide's hometown. Each town charged us a fee to pass through. Beyond Pocpa, the land is controlled by a mining company and so we passed though yet another gate, but only after much haggling with the guard as well as showing our passports. We arrived at Cuartelhuain (labeled on some maps as Matacancha, elevation 4,170 m / 13,680 ft) around 10:30 am. Our arriero Catalino and his team of donkeys were waiting. It turned out Catalino was also our guide's father. We set off as the donkeys were still being loaded and ascended steeply to Cacanan Punta (elevation 4,685 m / 15,370 ft). As we reached our first pass, spirits were high. All of our nervous energy about the trek had been transformed into the joy of finally being there and doing it combined the full knowledge that we would get to do this for 7 more days. It was like the first bite of a delicious meal. Speaking of which, we had lunch on that narrow slice of ridgeline and put on jackets to keep the wind at bay. Although it had been clear skies in Huaraz, the day overall was cool and cloudy.
We descended from the pass towards Mitucocha Lake (the suffix -cocha means "lake" in Quechua, so Mitucocha Lake is kind of redundant, but anyway...) and saw Jirishinca in the distance, our first 6,000 meter peak of the trek, peaking out from the clouds. From Mitucocha Lake (elevation 4,200 m / 13,780 ft), we began to climb again and also began to regret that we had agreed to do so much distance on our first day. We dragged ourselves to the top of Carhuac Pass (elevation 4,650 m / 15,255 ft). This was one of those spots where the destination was clearly visible, but after trudging towards it for a half hour or so, you would look up and not feel any closer. In addition, moving at this elevation was starting to become painful and I rapidly developed a pounding headache. I should note that the donkeys, the arriero and the cook had passed us on the descent to Mitucocha and left us in the dust on the way up the pass. We stopped at the pass and attempted to figure out what peaks were what, despite the clouds. On our way down, we encountered some chinchillas. We also encountered several flocks of sheep, which were tended by locals and their aggressively territorial dogs. The locals lived in stone huts without running water or electricity (although we did see one with a solar panel). As the sun set, we finally and mercifully arrived at our campsite at Carhuacocha Lake where hot tea and a snack were waiting. We should have had views of Yerupaja and Siula Grande (the first is the tallest peak in the range at 6,617 m / 21,710 ft and the second is the next tallest as well as the peak made famous by the film Touching The Void), but alas, it was cloudy. Dinner was potato soup, poached trout, head and tail included, and potatoes. Dessert was canned peaches. Now well fed, my headache dissipated. There were two other small groups at our campsite as well as several stray dogs. One small one had figured out how to crawl into the vestibule of a tent, and into the tent itself, if given the chance. I can't really blame him for this tactic, as it got damn cold when the sun went down. He also whined horribly when given the boot, which I was forced to do twice. We went to sleep immediately after dinner, which was probably about 8 pm.
Well, that got out of hand. How about some pictures?
Leaving Huaraz before sunrise.
