Santa Cruz Tag 4- The End is Near

After a not so starry night (although we managed to take some good photos), we enjoy the morning at our amazing campsite. Afterwards, we pack up one last time and tackle the final section. By now, our hips are bruised from the backpack and every step downhill is felt in our calves. First, we hike through a paradisiacal valley before starting the final descent. One last time, we torture our feet walking through sand on a narrow path steeply downhill in a narrow valley. To our left, there are steep rock walls several hundred meters high, to our right, there's a steep descent into the clear flowing river. The left side of the valley is lined with cacti and reminds us of the Grand Canyon, while the right side looks like Siberian tundra. After about five hours, we see the narrow exit of the valley and the euphoria of having made it lets us fly the last meters. We did it and it was awesome.

We immediately catch a taxi and drive back to Caraz, from where we take the Collectivo back to Huraz. Our taxi driver picks up more people, so that there are seven of us in a Toyota van and I have to share the front seat with Carmen, an older Peruvian lady who doesn't understand a word of my grand Spanish. On the mountain road, we encounter a motorbike taxi, which results in our first accident. But it's not a big deal, just a little bending of the fender and the journey continues.

The Santa Cruz Trek has certainly earned its reputation as one of the most beautiful treks in the world, and the difficulty of doing it on our own makes it even more awesome! I'm super proud of all of us and will never forget these four insanely fun, sometimes tough, and incredibly beautiful days. Thanks to everyone who was there.

From Max's perspective

The End is near… or not?!

It's half past 7. The sun is blazing on the tent. I can't stand it anymore and have to get out. I quickly put on my clothes and jump outside... Wonderful! Bright blue sky. Not a cloud in sight and the creek is rushing by. The mountains shine in the morning sun in all sorts of colors. The girls are already up! (As always). For the well-being of all of us, we start by brewing a round of coffee and tea before breakfast. We relax in mutual agreement until around 11 o'clock in the sun, before we should continue towards the end of the track. Full of optimism, since we walked 3km further the day before, we expected an easy 6km walk until the mountain would release us back into civilization. We continued down the valley and admired the beautiful landscape. A paradise of tropical-looking trees, colorful plants, and a mountain river that became more and more turquoise in contrast to the trees, emerged from the rock formations and accompanied us into the valley. The play of colors was overwhelming. We wandered through the "forests" further towards the valley and enjoyed the scenery. After passing through the forest, our path led steeply along the mountainside, down steep stone stairs and sandy paths. The path turned out to be more demanding than expected. However, compared to day 2, the effort was a joke. After another 5 hours of walking (the plan was 3 hours), we finally reached the exit of the national park and finally arrived in the small town of Cashapampa. After taking a farewell photo and giving some snuggles to the local dogs, we got into the shared taxi, which would take us to Carraz, a larger town on the main road and at the foot of the mountains. To our surprise, our taxi was not yet at maximum capacity. A normal 5-seater car was quickly converted into a 7-seater. Squeezed together, 4 people sat in the back seat and 3 people in the front. Welcome to Peru! After what felt like an hour of driving, we entered a blind curve on the mountain road. To our horror, a tuk-tuk (yes, they exist here too, called moto-taxi) came towards us. Our driver made an emergency stop, but it was too late. We crashed into the moto-taxi, which was driving on our lane. Fortunately, no one was injured. The car had a damaged fender and a broken light. The tuk-tuk had an additional dent in the front. After waiting for about 20 minutes in uncertainty, only photos of the license plates of the vehicles involved were taken, the fender of the car was slightly raised so that it no longer rubbed against the wheel, and the journey continued. After about 1.5 hours, we finally reached Carraz, from where we continued to Huaraz by minibus (collectivo). Upon arriving in Huaraz, we brought our luggage to the accommodation, took a hot shower, and ate the Peruvian national dish one last time together, grilled chicken with fries (pollo con papa fritas) at a restaurant on the main road.

What an awesome trip! Thanks to Marius for the motivational quotes on day 2 during the summit ascent, and thanks to the two Austrian girls (Iris and Vera) who kept us in a good mood for the 4 days with their open, relaxed, and funny attitude.

If you want another perspective, you can also read the blog of the Austrian girls:

https://vakantio.de/velochicas under the article Huaraz