It was a full moon and the cows were getting restless

We're back in Huarraz after 4 days trekking in the Cordillera Blanca (the Santa Cruz route), merely going to 4850m (about 15,000 feet) on Punta Union. Reminder for next time: get a decent roll mat. It was 4 days of gorgeous views and no sleep, up a river valley and down another.

The valley itself is a pretty good pass between the mountains, which go up to 6000m (Huscaran). As such, there were tons of locals mainly herding donkeys. We had a strange experience on the second night, there was this trampling and sniffling sound all around the tent, we thought it might be a thief but it turned out to be a cow. Poking my head out the tent, it ran away - it was a really surreal view. The full moon was bright enough to make out every detail of the landscape, the cow backlit in ghostly black and white against a huge snowy peak. I would have taken a photo but it was 3am and freezing.

Views From Santa Cruz Trek











We`ve decided to stay in Huaraz, not head up to Ecuador for a couple of days (mainly for the passport stamp) or Trujillo for Chan Chan (no, not a tacky theme park for comedy martial arts films but an ancient mud fortress). We`ve found a great hostel here (the Way Inn), with sauna, gym, 100+ videos, breakfast, kitchen, pretty much everything.