With some kind of hiking obsession we moved on via a nights stop in Lima, to Huaraz, the home of Peru's alpine hiking, and to the backdrop of giant snow covered mountains. We checked into a prison cell like room in exhaustion, spent the next couple of days doing nothing apart from moving to a better hostel, getting ripped off for lunch because of a language barrier at the restaurant we chose and buying supplies for our upcoming 'Santa Cruz trek'...Trevor also hurt his foot when he kicked a potato while walking along the road...only in Peru! The four day Santa Cruz hike would take us up to 4760m through the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, the highest tropical mountain range in the world, and provide us with the best views of the Andes in Peru...this time we decided to do the hike solo without a guide.

Up at 4am we packed the last of our bits into our giant and worryingly heavy bags for our trek and got a bus to the town of 'Chivay' where we then hurried onto a smaller minibus. Refusing to put our bags on the top of the bus for fear of them disappearing, we paid for a seat for each of them, receiving strange stares from the locals who thought we were mad! Sitting right at the back the lack of suspension for the 2 hour ride killed us, not to mention the very smelly man sitting in front of Trevor with black toenails, which meant Sophie was unable to stomach eating her breakfast for the whole journey. He also kept falling asleep, waking up with a start and then throwing his head back, narrowly missing Trevor each time. The route over the pass to our starting point was scarily narrow and high, the driver seeming to take each corner at breakneck speed! Nonetheless we eventually made it to 'Vaqueria' where we ate our breakfast and tried to avoid a local 3 year old girl stealing all our stuff, before donning our bags and setting off, hiking poles in hands. Our first day involved 4 hours of gentle up and down hiking which allowed us to get used to the weight of our bags without too much exertion. We made our way through a couple of small 'villages' consisting of about 3 houses surrounded by farmland, where children played football, one family proudly beamed at us next to a large de-skinned pig that was hanging up in their garden, and farmers worked their land. Wandering through green fields the landscape soon took us through a large valley as we walked towards looming snow-capped mountains ahead. The walk that day finished through a small forest path next to a gurgling river that we often had to hop across over stepping stones, whilst also trying to avoid bulls that would take it upon themselves to follow us at an uncomfortably close distance, 'moo' and make strange alarm type noises in chorus until we left their areas! Sophie vaguely remembered reading something about how the biggest danger on this trek were the cows, and quickened her step just a little! On arrival at our first campsite 'Paria' at 3850m, situated at the convergence of two valleys, next to the river and overlooked by the snowy mountains, we set up our tent probably a little too close to said river. Unfortunately Trevor, breathing a sigh of relief after narrowly avoiding losing his balance and falling in the river, caught his sunglasses instead which flew off his head and went for a swim, whisked away by the current and off towards the sea before we could do anything to retrieve them (rest assured he wasn't looking forward to the prospect of 3 days of hiking in the sun without them). After washing our hands and faces in the icy cold river, which we decided would be the extent of our cleanliness each day, we prepared our dinner of soup that was way too thin and noodles that were way too salty, and realised we would quickly get sick of our lightweight yet unappetising food! That night we just about kept warm in our -20 degrees Celsius sleeping bags and wished we hadn't camped so close to the deafening roar of the river!

Up at 5am in preparation for the usual hard second day, we continued our culinary delights with some runny porridge that really needed sugar, used a fellow campers toothpaste as we had forgotten to bring ours somehow, and packed up our stuff before setting off for the day. After about an hour of gentle uphill hiking Trevor then realised that a second item was missing...his hat. Off he ran back along the same track while Sophie guarded the bags for 45 minutes before he returned triumphant, if a little puffed out because of the altitude...Our toothpaste fellows had picked it up further back along the trail for him! After another hour of similar incline up stone zigzag paths we were rewarded with our first proper views of the snowy Andes running next to us, an impressive sight to walk beside! However, the next two hours up to the 'Punta Union' pass became extremely difficult. Not only did our bags feel a lot heavier as the gradient became steeper and the path less even, but as we were approaching the highest point of the trek at 4760m, the high altitude began to effect us. This was the first time we had really experienced effects of altitude while trekking during our travels, with our heads beginning to feel very light and dizzy and every step becoming a real effort and exhausting. We ate a few coca sweets to try and combat the effects and watched longingly as donkeys passed us and trotted up the path a lot more easily than ourselves! Particularly the last hour was a real struggle, our legs becoming dead weights and the Pass never seeming to become any closer as we clambered up the rocky boulder strewn path, hearts pounding and lungs gasping for enough air, following the trail of donkey poo, but refusing to stop until we made it to the top, even if Sophie thought she might have to crawl towards the end! We tried to admire the vast stretch of snowy mountains next to us, and the deep green valley scattered with small lakes below us although each head movement used far too much of our little remaining energy! Nonetheless as we made those final few steps up to the top of the pass, ecstatically almost running over the top between big rock walls either side, the view we were rewarded with on the other side eradicated every effect of the altitude and we stood there open mouthed in awe, so glad that the last couple of hours had been worth it! In front of us we were suddenly presented with miles of deep, green valley leading to a lake far in the distance, while to the right of us we were confronted by spectacular mountains covered in thick snow, so close it felt like we could almost touch them. Down below to the right was a beautiful bright turquoise lake shimmering in the light and reflecting the snowy mountains surrounding it, including the 6,768m high Huascaran, the tallest mountain in the tropics, which rumbled every 10 minutes or so when small avalanches occurred. It even started to snow a little at the top and we sat beneath the falling flakes eating our sandwiches and taking in the breathless (in more than one way) setting! After a while we began our two hour descent down the mountain side, stopping for a closer look at the still turquoise lake, and a picture on a rocky outcrop 'Lion-King' style. Spotting people setting up tents below we quickly made our way down next to the river to set up camp before the ever approaching dark rain clouds caught up with us! At the 'Taulipampa' campsite which sat at an altitude of 4250m, we set up our tent a bit further from the river this time, tucked into slightly less runny soup, salty noodles and a couple of cups of hot chocolate, whilst looking back up towards the pass we'd crossed and the mountains which were starting to glow in the fading light of the day.

Next morning we waited for the rain to stop pounding our tent before emerging outside for yet less runny porridge...we'd surely have it perfect consistency for the last morning! After packing up our wet tent we set off to do a small side trip to 'base camp', which led us along a slippery muddy path hugging a hillside and then out into flat farmland where we were able to see the perfect mountain peak, steep jagged and covered in snow, of the infamous 'Paramount Mountain' locals claimed is used on the opening credits of sponsored films. With heavy legs from the previous day's antics we ascended a steep winding path for 20 minutes at base camp to a turquoise lake hidden amongst the valley and mountains. A small glacier met with the lake, and white mountains contrasted the blue colour they surrounded. Starting to get a little chilly we made our way back down to the dusty valley floor, and hiked along it for the next couple of hours, periodically crossing the river until we walked beside the lake we'd seen from the pass the previous day and waterfalls cascading down the sides of the valley. We soon came across a group of donkeys in which one brave one approached followed by the other 5 trying to get at the dry fried bananas we were feeding them, until it all got a bit too tense and we made a quick exit. Following a small stone path beside woodland we hiked on for the last couple of hours that day, starting to appreciate our lighter bags now we were almost through our food supplies! Cold and tired as a light drizzle started to set in for the evening we set up our camp at 'Llamacorral', 3800m, amongst a bit too much cow and donkey poo in the field, cooked our usual dinner which was getting hard to stomach by now and washed our dishes in the hand numbing river water, before burrowing in for the night as the rain properly started up, confining us to our tents despite needing to go outside for the toilet for hours!

After forcing our stodgy porridge down we finished our Santa Cruz hike in 2.5 hours on the last day, down sand and scree slopes following a gushing white water river and surrounded by green forest to take us out of the valley to the town of 'Cashapampa'. Exhausted we clambered into a 'collectivo'; a 5 seater car into which we eventually managed to fit 8 people along the journey, which was an hour long knuckle whitening rally type journey far worse than the one at the start, down the winding mountain roads, to 'Chivay'. Our final transport took us 1.5 hours back to Huaraz where we 'treated' ourselves to a coke, a much needed shower, a burger and a beer to celebrate before once again collapsing into bed. We were really proud of our achievement on this hike, having navigated the whole thing ourselves, supplied all our own food, having to sort out the tent every night and morning and carrying all the weight ourselves, whilst tackling a high altitude alpine hike. It was worth every second of the bad food, occasional rain and cold, and the terrible altitude effects for the stunning vistas, the proximity to some of the biggest mountains we've seen at over 6,500m high in the Cordillera Blanca range, and to say we have completed another of the world's 'most spectacular hikes'!