SANTA CRUZ TREK - PERU

So according to plan, I fulfilled my goal of freezing my eversweet nuts off in the middle of the Andes over New Year... in fact, the year 2007 swung by without as much as a not from our little group of six adventurers, seeing as we were all hiding in our sleeping bags in the subzero temperatures... first day was a breeze, except for the rain over the last hour as we got to our campsite at 3700m, no sweat, but damn cold! I was armed to the teeth though... check out the sexy orange jacket, the mits and the Huaraz beeny... I also had my brand new Nike hiking boots, very comfy and the only genuine item in my armada... and Ayelet`s jacket was invaluable as well!
The next day, however, we started a freaking oddyssey... incessant drizzling rain, total fatigue almost from the word go and freezin cold winds made the climb to the Punta Union Pass at 4750m a helluva challenge... It took me all of 9 hours to make it to camp, I will tell you it was a hard slog. At one point I had lost the trail, visibility was zero and I only had a dim idea of where I was heading to the pass up above... catcalls to the others went unreplied, so I manfully scrambled up some huge rocks, and suddenly the cliffs loomed in front of me. Almost tripping up over my poncho, cursing the gods and starting to feel nervous, I soldiered on... I spotted the trail to my right, and when I got to the top, it was the best feeling EVER! Mattheas, my tentmate from Quebec, was up there as well, and we celebrated our victory over the Andes with a shot of Pisco. The other side of the pass was clear of clouds and rain and a beautiful valley with crystal clear lagoons greeted us... and our camp was down there somewhere!

The third day was a relatively easy slog... 19kms down the valley to the end, we decided to skip day 4 and do the whole slog on day 3, that allowed us to go hit the hot springs today.

The Santa Cruz trek is by no means the toughest trek I had ever done, but day 2 is a doozy and was pretty scary. The Trek company turned out to be not so dodge after all, although our guide Geronimo... yeah, that should´ve warned us... was not world class (we never saw the guy!!!), we were a nice bunch from Canada, Germany, Holland and Peru, and the hike was both challenging and pleasant.

The time in the mountains was a great way to enter the new year... I journalled like a maniac, spent lots of time rehashing some stuff in my mind and it has been the most introspection I have done since my hippy time in Guatemala, bringing home that the mountains do feed my soul. Right now I am happily tired, my bus back to Lima is at 10h30 tonight, the few days here in the mountains have done me the world of good, and I suspect I will be back.

Just a footnote as well... I have googled this back at fico`s place, and my tentbuddy Matheas pointed me in the right direction... there used to be a comic series on TV which I had LOVED as a kid, about a child who goes in search of the city of gold and his father. All I remember is the golden condor... the series was even more popular in Canada though, and is called the Mysterious Cities of Gold... check out the website http://www.mysteriouscitiesofgold.com/seriesinformation.html so it was kinda cool reconnecting with the kid inside as I walked down the valleys and mountains depicted in the show...

The melancholy has not quite left me, but I can feel myself turning the corner... watch out Bolivia!