Monte B - Peru

On the 5th of december we decided to go visit the pre incan site of Chavin.



We booked our own tour with ¨Kiki tours¨. It was a couple of hours away on the bus and it was a guided tour in spanish and english around the ruins. We learnt about the incan history of the andes. That night we packed for the five day long trek, ready to leave early the next morning.

We woke up the next day at 6:30 to catch the bus and had a quick breakfast of bread... honey and jam.The short bus ride through the Cordillera blanca took us through some of the original villages of peru.

We arrived there and it was burning hot and we met the trekking team who provided us with some snacks including little peruvian snack bars and some bananas.
The donkeys took our big packs whilst we carried our day packs.
The first day from 12 in the afternoon starting at the village of cashapampa through the Santa Cruz valleys and followed the river between the two valleys.
We arrived at the camp site that had already been set up by the trekking team at around 5 o clock. We were quite tired from the first day of trekking and were just getting used to the altitude. Once we had organised our tents we were brought hot tea and bowls of hot water by the trekking team, (who were very helpful and humble) to our tents. It was very soothing.
Our first dinner was actually caught by the trekking team in the water, fresh trout! It was delicious. We were also drinking boiled river water which was very fresh and clean.

Day 2 of trek
The next day we visited the small lake Ichiqcocha and the big lake Hatuncocha. We walked for approximately 6 hours and saw snow covered peaks and lots of the farmers cows. The mountains views astonished the whole monte team.
It is unfortunate that photos cannot replicate the beauty of the andes. Our spirits were high, and nothing could stop us.

Day 3
Day 3 was an optional side trek because we were staying at the same campsite. Most girls took the opportunity to visit the base camp of the tallest mountain in peru where they saw a stunning lake and an icy glacier.
A few girls stayed behind to fully acclimitize with Ms Harrison and enjoy the views of the campsite which were equally as stunning.
That night the trekking team made us beef and chips for dinner, yum. Which was followed by peach desert, hot tea and hot chocolates.

Day 4
Was by far the most challenging day for the team. It was an eight hour trek, three hours extremely high in altitude to reach the pass, ¨the punta union¨. 4750m high.

It was really difficult to reach the point especially after 3 full days of trekking in the andes, to find the energy to push ourselves to the limit. Also this was the highest point in our trek that we would endure physically and mentally.
However, our whole entire team made the pass and even found the ability to find some montevation and cheer, belting out the school song on the top of the world.
The weather changed drastically this day, from warm to cold to rainy, to sprinkling and then back again. We walked through clouds and we are now super good at quick changes into wet weather gear. We ate lunch a few times in the wet weather, new experiences all round.

Day 5
3hours of trekking left, but even this felt harder than the pass because our bodies were so drained and physically tired from the previous days. The trek was mainly non stop steep uphill trekking.

We made it and everyone was so proud of each other. We cheered and it was smiles all round. Unfortunately we had to wait around for the donkeys to bring our packs but we were still extremely joyful and felt really accomplished with our 5 day trek in the andes.


Now it is the 11th of December here at 10¨42 am.
We´re getting on a bus at 4pm this afternoon to leave Huaraz and go to lima to start our community project. we are just all so excited, and have really been trying to practice our spanish in advance for this experience.
We are all really looking to it because it has been our building point and aspiration for the year. We can´t wait to involve ourselves in the community, and have a wider awareness of our global community.

So now we bid farewell, or hasta luego to all our families.
We send all our love to you and hope you are all safe and well
Love from MONTE team B