SANTA CRUZ TREK NP Huascaran. This was a guided trek with a tour company called Galixia out of Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca north of Lima. The tour came with a guide (really only a cook), and an incredible burro wrangler. With 4 burros, he took down the camp, packed the burros and routinely beat us to the destination. We only had to carry rain gear and lunch. The tent, pad and all food were provided.
Day 1. It was an incredible drive from Huaraz past huge granite walls with many high waterfalls, 2 turquoise alpine lakes at 3800 m, and past Huascaran, the highest peak in Peru at 6750 m. We crossed a high pass into the Atlantic watershed at 4500 m and descended to the village of Viliquerca (3700 m).
We walked downhill past fields of potato, apple, and alfalfa, then up through a small no-road access community to camp at 3800 m. Many cows and sheep are on the long trails. Unusually for this time of year, there was no rain.
Day 2 15 km uphill to Punta Union, the continental divide pass at 4750m, then past an alpine lake and spectacular mountains that all looked like the Matterhorn with pure white glaciers and fresh snow. We camped alongside a rushing river at 4200m.
Day 3. 12 km. We went to a mirador with views of Nev. Alpanayo and Nev. Quitaraju, both over 6000m, then down to a broad, wet, flat valley with cows and horses. To the left was the Paramount Pictures mountain. We walked past 2 big lakes, sheer granite walls, many waterfalls and fewer views of the high peaks to a campsite at 3800 m.
It rained heavily after reaching camp. A full moon at night illuminated all the great peaks.
Day 4. A short 2-hour hike down a narrow valley passed a great rushing creek to Cashapampa. We had to wait 3 hours for a second group doing the trek in 3 days, but after a big stink from us, we finally got them to drive to Caraz where we caught a taxi 1 hour to Huaraz.
Many people do the hike the opposite way. It can be done unguided but it was so cheap that working out the logistics of vehicles, camping gear and food would not be worth the savings.