Day 10: Osoruri to Calamina

Hiking time: ~ 5.5 hours
Elevation gain: 260 m/853 ft
Elevation loss: 960 m/3150 ft
High Point: Osururi Pass (also referred to as Cullicocha Pass) 4860 m/15,945 ft
Campsite: Calamina 3900 m/12,795 ft

Today was our last full day on the trail. When we start out on a trek, it sounds like we have a lot of days on the trail, but they always fly by. We had omelets for breakfast and took off for the short hike to the first pass of Osoruri. This feels like the pass, but there is still some small ups and downs to reach the true pass just a little bit further. We had some nice views of the Cordillera Negra, but nothing too crazy. As we continued to the true pass (which is also referred to as Cullicocha Pass, named after the lake), Nevada Santa Cruz and Laguna Cullichoca came into view. Steve scrambled up a little higher to get an even better view of the lake. Beautiful!

We descended to the lake and we were interested to see how Cullicocha was different from other lakes we had seen on the trip. There was no moraine, but instead a natural rock dam (and additional work had been done to create a dam and a way to divert some of the water into a canal down the mountain). We sat here for a long time enjoying the views, eating lunch, and tossing rocks in the water. It was a wonderful spot and we had it all to ourselves.

When it was time to keep moving Cesar suggested we walk along the canal to avoid a climb back up to the trail, and we did so until the canal and trail converged further down (it was a little sketchy in places). We had a long traverse along the mountain and continued to have nice views of the big mountains, as well as Cordillera Negra and the valley. Eventually we turned a corner and could see our campsite below on green hill with the colorful farmland of Hualcayan visible below. Some people opt to camp at Wishcash, but we decided to camp further down the mountain so our hike out on the last day would be short.

The descent today would be our longest one and the second half took us down grassy hillsides until we reached camp. Cows were already hanging out at camp and shortly after we arrived it started to rain and hail. Luckily it was a very brief storm (we were fortunate with weather on this trip - we had some gray days, but were never rained out). We spent the afternoon taking pictures and feeding apples to the donkeys. Everybody signed a birthday card for Steve and Joel improvised a birthday cake out of pancakes, dulce de leche and cookies. Our final dinner was beef burritos with fresh guacamole. Hard to believe it was our last dinner! This was the closest we had been to civilization in ten days - we could see the lights in the valley below. We took our last look at the night sky and the valley lights and got into our tent for our last night. It’s been a great trip!

Day 11: Calamina to Hualcayan

Hiking time: 2 hours
Elevation loss: 760 m/2493 ft

Today was a short one. We were all motivated to get back to town for hot showers and food and made good time on the descent. We initially intended to visit some hot springs, but the road from Hualcayan to the springs was unpassable and we ended up just returning to Huaraz. We checked into Villa Valencia - we had a nice, large suite and an adorable courtyard (all completely unexpected from the street entrance into the hotel). We got cleaned up and organized and went into town for some post hike eats and to enjoy our last bit of vacation. The next morning we rode the bus back to Lima and caught a red-eye flight back to NY. It was another fantastic Peru trek - I’m sure we will be back for more of these gorgeous mountains!