Independence day on Santa Cruz

On the 25th of July Peace Corps invited Khaliah and I to speak on a diversity panel in Lima . The new training center is now located in Chacalacayo a town much closer to the PC office than Santa Eulalia. Khaliah (a Black PCV), Dennis (an Asian PCV), Hannah (a Jewish PCV) and myself shared our experiences to the new aspirantes. They are a talented group of new trainees soon to be PCVs in just a few weeks. During my training I immensely enjoyed the visits from current volunteers. They were much more interesting than staff members and easier to relate to knowing that we too would assume their role. Every volunteer led portion of training was my favorite part. Knowing this, it was exciting to be invited back. Each of us on the panel answered a series of prepared questions such as, What challenges have you encountered based on your situation?, and Are there advantages to being a minority volunteer? After the session, I talked with some of the trainees individually and many commended me for coming out to Juan. It´s wonderful to meet strangers who because of their home country accept and embrace differences. I rarely feel that in Peru.



That night I took an overnight bus from Lima to Caraz, Ancash ( 8 hours). I met up with Katie and Mia. We packed up some last minute food items and took off on our trek. None of us have extensive trekking experience but we had been told that Santa Cruz was a great 4 day, 3 night trek for beginners. By starting on a Thursday and we knew we would end on Sunday the 29th. We drove out of Caraz to Cashapampa where we met Victor the ariero ( encargado de los burros) at the Parque Nacional Huascarán. Victor loaded our bags on his donkeys and we entered the park. It was 11am. Our goal was to arrive at the first base camp by passing through the Santa Cruz ravine to Lake Ichiqcocha. At 4:30pm we arrived and Victor had set up the tents. It began to get cold and dark. We were all exhausted. Katie began cooking on the gas stove (no open fires in the park!) while Mia and I unloaded the other bags and prepared the sleeping arrangements. The brown rice and tomato soup was wonderful. We were so tired that as the sun set at 6:30pm we piled in our tents and fell asleep by 8pm. It began to rain. That following day we woke up early to a frost and cooked breakfast-oatmeal, fruit, eggs, and bread. Mia and I washed up by a stream, filled up our water bottles and returned to the camp. This second day was much easier, since sleeping well. Victor said we would only need to hike until mid day to reach the second camp. As we hiked through the valley we I looked up at some of the surrounding mountains of Aguja (5888m), Pumapampa (5582m) and Caraz (6020m). I felt incredibly at home passing these ancient landforms. What a view! As we crossed streams , winding paths, and other hikers, we slowly came upon the most beautiful mountain range I´ve ever seen.



Three snow capped peaks welcomed us into their arms at base camp 2. I was annoyed to be setting up camp at 1pm since I was still feeling strong for another couple of hours of hiking. Victor knew best. It was almost impossible to make the pass between mountains and arrive at base camp 3 in the same day. It would be too dangerous in the snowy/icy conditions at such altitudes. We needed time to acclimatize and rest for day 3. Since it was still early we hung out with some German friends we had met, talking and listening to music. It began to sprinkle, for fear of a down pour, we prepared a small meal and stayed in the tents until sun rise.



On day three we got out of the tent and frost had covered it. It began to snow! This was my first snowfall in Perú. The flurries covered our bags and equipment as we packed for the day´s hike. I filmed a panoramic of the site. We were surrounded by Alpamayo (5947m), Ririjirca (5810m) and Artesonraju (6025m). How spectacular! As the sun rose, clouds cleared showing the true beauty of these three peaks. We ate a full breakfast and took off to the right side of Ririjirca. As we climbed, a brilliant blue lake was located out of view in a crevasse of the peak. Our trail winded up and around the lake and up to Punta Unión (4750m) the pass between two peaks. We rested at the top with Victor and began the accent passing smaller lakes to the Huaripampa ravine. We camped that evening in Colcabamba and noticed the change in altitude. At 3300m it was dry and not nearly as cold at night. It didn´t rain but Sunday morning we woke up in a wet tent. The floor had leaked, or a nalgene bottle opened in the night. Luckily I stayed dry on top of my therma-rest and mummy bag. Mia, Katie and I were ready to end the trip, knowing we just had a few more hours to hike to Vaquería (3700m) where we would look for transportation to Yungay. It took only 2.5 hours to hike into Vaquería, but an hour to load the van, and three hours to drive to Yungay (including the repair of a flat tire). From Yungay we contracted a taxi to Caraz to unload at Mia´s apt. That night we drove to Huaraz and stayed in La Colmena- hands down the best hostel in Ancash!

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Matthew R. Lindsley, BSN, RN
Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz
Carata, La Libertad, Perú