Santa Cruz trek

Set out from Huaraz early on Monday to start the 4 day Santa Cruz trek. There were 3 others in my group. Steve from Boston and also Gia and Helen from Perth. Our guide was David and the muleteer was Bernardo. To get to the trailhead we had a 3 drive through some spectacular scenery. We walked for about 4 hours to the first camp site. On the second day we took about 4 hours uphill for 1,000 metres to reach the pass at 4,750m and then down about 3 hours to our campsite at 4,200. Very cold at night - about minus 5 degrees and hard to sleep at this altitude. The next day we had good walking down the valley along with a side trip up to a look out point and glacial lake. The last day was an easy walk down through the valley, the scale of which is amazing. We got the best weather on the last day. We had a fair bit of rain but nothing like Irish rain. There is a big swell hitting here next week so now its down to the serious business of surfing. Next post hopefully from the coast.