When I saw the lakes, I knew I’d made the right decision. Laid out in a chain along a stepped valley, two turquoise pools were separated by the swathe of a third dark blue pool – beautiful proof of how wondrous our planet can be. Towering on the far side was an impossibly steep slope of rock and scree and, above this, a huge glacier too white and pristine to seem real. I arrived late at the viewpoint. The rest of the group had taken their photos, so I had plenty of time to soak it all in before collapsing on the ground to rest, drink a llama-load of water and snaffle an energy bar.
More than anything else, it was the lakes that had drawn me to the Huayhuash circuit. Part of Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, I’d heard that the scenery was amazing, and that the route rivals more well-known paths such as the Inca Trail and Torres del Paine’s W-trek. Online searches showed an image of the lakes – sun-washed, saturated – but when I looked for operators, it seemed very few UK-based companies offered the walk. Why, I wondered.
A feeling of fear
The eight-hour ride from the Peruvian capital of Lima was painless, the landscape ever grander as the bus climbed from sea-level to 10,000 feet. But the air on arrival in Huaraz was thin. Me and my partner, Kate, walked slowly around town, joining our fellow hikers and two guides, Lucia and Carina, for dinner. Most people do the circuit in groups of a dozen or so, sharing cooks, drovers, beasts of burden and tents.
After a sleepover and a short acclimatising downhill jaunt the following day, we travelled up to the first campsite. A brisk evening walk of no more than an hour’s duration up and down a nearby slope, was tough. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The campsite, a sign advised, was 13,714 feet – higher than Lake Titicaca. I went to bed with a vague feeling of trepidation.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/south-america/peru/peru-hiking-holiday-55-taught-life-back-home/
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Publish date : 2022-03-15 03:00:00
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