Preparations
I got up at twenty minutes to seven, took a shower, and packed my daypack. My daypack is currently a colorful bag from an Ecuadorian market, rather than any fancy hiking equipment. I packed it bursting with the following:
- Camelback + bottle with total of 2L of water
- Medical kit
- Rain jacket
- Extra upper layer
- Warm cap
- Sunscreen
- Zoom lens
- A few cereal bars
- Saltines
- Hand sanitizer
- Thermos
During breakfast I asked the hotel for some hot water to take with me. The guy knew exactly what I wanted and filled my thermos with coca tea.
On me I had warm hiking pants, a warm baselayer (which was overkill: I was hot for the first half of the hike), fleece, hat, boots, and camera.
I forgot to grab my hiking pole.
Getting there
The starting point of the hike is a place called “Pitec”. I asked at the hotel where the colectivo for it departed from, and they gave me directions and confirmed that there was a direct ride. It turned out there is no colectivo directly to Pitec, as the Lonely Planet book has said. The one to Llupa only goes there if there are enough tourists. I was a little too late for that. I took the ride to the village with a few indigenous women and their goods filling the rest of the car. One woman was retelling something and a younger one, listening, kept repeating the same word that I could only guess to mean “go on.”
The colectivo dropped me in the village at 9:10 and the driver told me to be at Pitec at 3 when he comes to pick up the other tourists. I took off up the road where he pointed, almost forgetting to pay the 5 soles fare.
Llupa.
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
The road led me by switchbacks through the village where the locals were building and herding their livestock. I took a couple shortcuts in the switchbacks, but missed some. Some after taking a left onto one such trail, I realized that it was taking me up and up the hill with no road in sight. As the scenery was beautiful and I knew how to get back, I continued with little apprehension. The only people I passed were a pair of indigenous women shuffling around their livestock. The donkeys made great photo subjects against the backdrop of the valley, but I was shy with the camera as I thought it may annoy the women. They looked rather busy so I did not try to ask where I was out where I was going; the latter seemed like the more correct, but funny, question.
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
After an hour and twenty minutes, including a stop for coca tea and crackers, I arrived at a checkpoint. The ranger told me that I had, in fact, made it to Pitec. It was immediately clear why colectivos don’t normally go here: Pitec is simply a hikers’ info and checkpoint, not a village. A wide trail bordered by shining white painted rocks lay up the mountain ahead. I payed the park entrance fee (65 soles for 3 weeks), stashed the valuable ticket for later treks, and hurried on, mindful of the time and of being the last of a very small group of tourists that day.
Pitec. Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
The Hike
The trail is remarkably well marked with the white border. Up to the last section it is a smooth gradient for relatively easy walking (as easy as ascending 600m at this altitude can be called), but about halfway up there is a bit of surprisingly unmarked scrambling. Tremendous views abound in every direction along the way: highland plains, valleys, waterfalls, black mountains, and white mountain peaks peaking out from behind those. I kept reminding myself that this is only the beginning: the real Andes trek starts tomorrow.
A well marked trail.
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After I passed the designated campsite at 4373m, I ran into the 4 other tourists on the trek that day coming down the last section of scrambling. I would have the lagoon to myself. The last couple hundred meters are quite steep, and would be very difficult without the cables bolted onto the rocks for assistance.
A few more steps…
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Coming onto view of the lagoon and the cliffs and cascades of stone and glacier behind it took my short breath away.
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The Return
I got there at 1PM and headed down 40 minutes later hoping to catch the promised 3PM ride. I accidentally started down the wrong side of the waterfall, which made for some interesting steep scrambling. Almost running down the trail, I made it to the trailhead at 10 minutes to 3. There were no other tourists. Evidently I was too late or there was no ride, but I waited half an hour just in case and to get some rest. Then I walked down to Llupa. A colectivo was waiting. I got there at 4:30, so the whole hike from Llupa took me 7:20. While the van waited for more passengers I let the exhaustion hit my muscles and my eyes. Packing for the next days was very difficult that evening, but I was excited to see more of the Cordillera Blanca.
Going down.
Copyright 2015 CC-BY-SA
Costs
Cost today: $46.00
Cumulative cost: $4,975.62