For our third day in Huaraz we jumped on a bus that was supposed to drive us to Pastoruri. I wasn't too sure what Pastoruri was or what we were going to find there, all I knew was that it was a highly recommended place to visit. To get there we entered Huascaran National Park, a national park in the Cordillera Blanca, a range of the Andes The road we took was zigzagging up the mountains and as we were driving up higher I could feel my ears starting to feel a little funny and, most unexpectedly, a mix of snow and hale was starting to fall. Turns out we were heading up to a glacier, at 5000 metres of alt. When snow started really falling and when we must have been higher up in altitude than I've ever been before, the bus stopped and we were made to get off and, surprise surprise, walk up to the glacier. To make up for how inappropriately dressed I was to walk up a glacier in the middle of a snowstorm I bought some Alpaca gloves (I knew they were legit as soon as snow hit them since they stunk like wet dog). The walk up to the glacier was only 2km; but because of the altitude and the freezing cold every step I took was a struggle, thus when I finally made it to the top I was extremely happy (as well as soaked). The view was impressive, the glacier itself was massive, as you can see on the photo below, and it was surreal to think we were at over 5000 metres of altitude, and still breathing.
After such an epic day, what would have been better than celebrating the St Jean-Baptiste (very important holiday in Qc) in our hostel by putting together a hybrid form of Andino/Québécois poutine?
Me... in front of ... a large bloc of ice
LAGUNA 69
The next day we woke up at 5.30am to catch a minibus to the starting point of the Trek to Laguna 69. The ride lasted about 3hours, 1 of which we spent on the bumpiest rockiest road of my life, not helped by the bus' lack of shocks/suspension which meant I was literally bouncing out of my seat like a ping-pong ball. We finally made it to the starting point after what felt like hours of hitting my head against the ceiling/roof and started walking along the trail. Before the trail even commenced to go uphill everyone's breathing became more difficult and people started to slow down. My group slowly started to fall behind and for some unknown reason I kept a steady pace and ended up catching up with 2 americans, an experienced mountain climber and his daughter. I tagged along with them the whole way, and I was lucky enough for them to share with me their peanut butter sandwiches (i miss it so much!!), as well as their trekking tips, whilst we munched on Coca leaves to avoid headaches. We ended up passing a number of climbers on the way and arriving at the Laguna (at 4800m) 1hour before the rest of the group! We were ecstatic to have made it to Laguna - it was so beautifully blue, surrounded by snowy summits - after such an intense climb. We were also lucky to have enjoyed a bit of sun once at the top, since it snowed/haled quite heavily on the way down. I definitely think I have caught the trekking bug, so if ever anyone one of you wants company to climb a mountain or two in the future, I'm in!
