We re-joined our overland journey in Lima and drove the 400 kms to Huaraz.  The Lima traffic first thing in the morning was its usual chaotic self and for the first couple of hours the fog from the sea made for a grey and dull landscape along with the semi arid desert vegetation.  However, on leaving the main coast road and climbing up the Cordillera Blanca foothills, the scenery dramatically changed.  The road wound its way up the mountain passes, rising rapidly from Sea level to an altitude of well above 4,000 metres.

Huaraz is a rather scruffy town that suffered a major earthquake back in 1970 and looks like it has been quickly rebuilt to get life back moving without much attention to the ascetic qualities of its architecture.  However, the main reason for visiting Huaraz is not the city itself, but the fact that it acts as the principal gateway to the magnificent surrounding countryside. The Cordillera Blanca is an impressive multi-peaked range of mountains and is the highest mountain range in the tropics, with some 35 peaks well above 6,000 metres.  The peaks are snow capped, hence the name, but over recent years there has been a dramatic reduction in the amount of snow due to global warming and climate change.  In between the Cordillera Blanca and the coast is a second range, the Cordillera Negra, a range of mountains without snow caps.  The whole area has a fairly predictable climate, in that the mornings are generally clear with full blue skies, but in the late afternoons as the temperature changes, the rain comes.  As a result the valleys are very fertile with crops being grown quite high up on the mountainsides too.

Peru’s highest mountain at 6,768 metres is Huscarán and is a particularly beautiful snow capped mountain, with a classic bright blue glacial lake Laguna 69, at the top.  We trekked up the fertile valley to the lake, which sits at 4,609 metres.  While the trek was not difficult by Patagonian standards, the steep climb to the top at an altitude in excess of 4,000 metres was particularly challenging.  Huscarán has many glaciers and ice formations at its summit, but the evidence of the retreating ice is clearly apparent.

To the South of Huaraz and the other side of the Cordillera Blanca is one of Peru’s main pre-Inca sites, the Chavín cult’s temple complex at Chavín de Huantar.  The Chavín were at their height between 900BC and 250BC and left a complex temple structure in the mountains complete with distinctive gargoyles on the temple walls.  Some of the artefacts bear a semblance to the Mayans, the Twanakans and the cultures of South East Asia.  A number of the rocks have some quite complex hieroglyphics, but as of yet these have not been interpreted through the lack of a Rosetta Stone type discovery.  The Chavín had some quite complex irrigation techniques and the site was at a crossroads between different agricultural regions, so probably also acted as a major trading centre.  The Incas who came after the Chavín clearly built on top of their buildings, like all conquering empires adapting and improving on what they inherited.

Date: 18/05/2018 to 21/05/2018