Before beginning this trip, I saw some photos of this bright blue lake that was high in the Andes and decided “we are going there.” This blue lake happens to be a glacial lake located near Huaraz, Peru – Lake 69. We crossed into Peru about 2 weeks ago and have been steadily making our way south to the mountain range Cordillera Blanca. We started out in Peru with a few adventures on the coast beginning in Mancora. Here we tried to nap on the beach only to find a tide that came in so fast we almost started floating out to sea and spent our nights in bungalows that leaked, with a ginormous spider in the corner. From Mancora we had a couple of days in the hot, sticky city of Trujillo visiting the huge Chimu adobe pre-Columbian city, Chan Chan.

Once we had enough sweat on the Peruvian coast, we grabbed the 9hour bus into the mountains to Huaraz. Huaraz sits at 3,100m (10,100ft) so before any hiking was to take place we wanted to spend a couple of days acclimating and exploring the city. We stayed in an awesome hostel, Hatun Wasi, where the breakfast and chill room was on the roof with a 360° view of the surrounding mountain ranges. There are so many gorgeous snow-capped peaks surrounding the city, “acclimating” was a good excuse to just grab a book and coffee and enjoy. Our couple days of acclimating, however, quickly turned into a couple more because Will came down with a rather nasty case of food poisoning – we think the culprit was some fish from our bus stop lunch on the way. He was bed ridden for a couple of days so it was a good thing we had some nice views.

 

 

When he was finally feeling better, we decided we wanted to do 2 hikes – this was after all an outdoors-man’s paradise and there is no shortage of things to do. There is anything from a quick half day hike from town to a 10 day trek through the mountains. We knew we wanted to go to Lake 69 but were not sure what else, so we went to a tour agency to see what they recommended. The recommendation for our first hike was Mateo Peak – a 5100m (16,700ft) high mountain that you would trek through the glacier and reach the summit all before lunch and be home by 2pm. Neither of us have hiked through a glacier but were assured, “very easy, beginner!” so we signed on immediately. We got fit into our jackets, boots, and crampons and were giddy for our next day hike.

4am rolls around and our guide, Gustav, was early to pick us up at our hostel. Our ride, however was not. Maybe 20 minutes later, the driver shows up and we headed off for our 2 hour drive to the starting point. We got there and quickly got our gear on and packed our crampons and harnesses in our packs. The boots reminded me quite a bit of ski boots, and were very not fun to walk around in. When we took off, we immediately started climbing over rocks and through river beds to get to the glacier. To say I was struggling in the boots is a rather large an understatement – I was terrified to come back down. While Will and I were not so gracefully clomping up the mountain, Gustav bounded in front of us yawning and looked quite bored.

 

 

Unfortunately being in Peru in February lands you smack in the middle of the rainy season. We got a bit of snow, sleet, and fog during our climb, and Gustav told us if we were here in July, we would have been able to see for miles. After two hours of climbing up the mountain during which Will and I had many, MANY conversations about what the hell beginner means in Peru, we finally made it to the beginning of the glacier and began to put on the rest of our gear. We got on our harnesses Gustav took the lead, me in the middle, and Will in the rear and we took off. Gustav worked quite well to make good foot holdings for me in the snow and going up was rather enjoyable and challenging. Unfortunately, I loosened said footholds, and Will frequently slid down the mountain after us and had to scramble back up. I do not think his ascent was as enjoyable as mine. Nevertheless, 1.5 hours later we were at the summit! We couldn’t see much; it was a snowy, windy, blizzardy, tundra in which I’ve never been. It was gorgeous. Gustav even pulled out a flute and played us a song about mountains.

 

 

After a few photos and deep breaths, back down we went. This time we flipped the order and Will took the lead. Going down was a blast. We tried to stay upright, but basically slid down the snow on our butts for a few hundred meters until we reached the rock again. We removed the crampons but our guide told us to leave our harnesses on – which seemed practical to me. Why waste time and energy taking this off? It doesn’t bother me one bit. And we began our climb down. This was where my terror from earlier was leading up to, trying to walk down wet slippery rocks with hard plastic, inflexible boots for a couple of hours. It was actually not so bad. Slow and steady wins the race after all. After methodically working my way down, I finally catch up to Will and he looks at me and says “um, are we repelling down?” Sure enough, Gustav was tying up the rope to a rock and testing its length. The command to leave the harness on is beginning to make a lot more sense, despite another miscommunication with the tour operator. Though to be fair, I think Gustav was just bored and decided to do this on his own. Will and I have a special talent of getting the best guides – so it made sense to us he would be giving us a tour that may not be the most typical.

 

 

My nerves were pretty frayed, but Will was ready to go, so he jumped right in and repelled down the steep, mountainside river bed without hesitation. I was next and didn’t want to be a wuss so just went for it. I’ve gotta admit, it was really fun and a million times better than trying to work my way down the old fashioned, walking way. We got to the bottom, to the car, and were back Huaraz by 2pm as promised. We had no idea what we were signing up for, but it turned out to push our limits in more ways than one and was an amazing hike/climb/repel/thing.

 

 

We had one more day in Huaraz to get in the Lake 69 hike. This experience could not be more different than the one we had the day before. It is a very common acclimatization hike that is not overly difficult, so most tourists in Huaraz do it. We filed into a full van and followed 2 full buses to breakfast and then the trail head. The hike was one of the most enjoyable hikes I have ever done. You begin in a lush green valley with an impossibly bright blue river flowing through grazing cows with mountains and snow-capped peaks rising along the sides. After about a half hour we began rising to get to the lake and 2 hours later we found ourselves at 4,600m (14,900ft) and the bluest lake I’ve ever seen. The sun was out and there were plenty of rocks to sit on and enjoy some lunch (other people made sandwiches, Will and I opted to buy chips) so we spent some time just taking in the breathtaking view. I do realize every hiking post I say “this was the most beautiful/gorgeous/different hike/view I’ve ever seen!” It’s all true though. These countries are amazing.

 

 

It began to sprinkle a bit so we headed back down. 90% of our group was just getting to the lake after we had eaten so we took our time going down, figuring we had quite a while until the bus would head back to Huaraz. The rain quickly let up and we got a really clear view of the top of a peak nearby. We made it back to the van and hung out until the rest of our group got back. Turns out, 3 girls got lost so we had to wait awhile to leave – don’t worry, they were found. We finally got back to Huaraz at 7:30pm, ate a ginormous pizza and a calzone the size of a car then got ready to head to Lima the next day. While we didn’t do the long treks, I can only imagine at their beauty and difficulty. Maybe one day! Though when faced with Mateo Peak – Will says “never again” – we’ll see!