Lake Churup

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."
~Henry David Thoreau

Sunday, September 21st 2008

You see one you see them all you probably think. You're wrong.
A beautiful lagoon always mesmerize me no matter how many I saw the week before, and the Churup lagoon is painfully beautiful. After trekking north of Huaraz (Santa Cruz) and then south (Huayhuash) I opted for something in the middle and the Churup lagoon located about 20km east of Huaraz was just perfect for that cause. Since it´s a short trek and so close to home it was also very easy to execute and can be done independently without an agency all you need is a photocopy of the route (obtainable at any reputable agency for free) water and some snacks.

On the morning of September 21st Oded and myself woke up around 8:00 ate breakfast at our favorite Cafe and set out to find a taxi. The trek starts near the small village of Pitec, but the local public transportation only takes you as far as Yupa which adds another hour of walking to the starting line. We felt a little lazy so we stopped a taxi and negotiated for a good price to the beginning of the trail. It took about one hour to get to the big wooden sign that mark the end of the drivable road and the beginning of the trek itself. We paid 5 soles entrance fee and set out on the very evident trail that climb a steep ridge above us.

After we felt we had enough we started descending back the way we came. We slowly and carefully found our way down the rock wall next to the waterfall and down the ridge to our starting point. This time there was no taxi to take so we headed for the trail to Yupa which took us another hour or so of very boring walking making us happy that we choose to pay a taxi rather than walking this route twice. We waited almost another hour before the public van picked us up at Yupa. Unfortunately for us the van engine died about halfway to Huaraz but fortunately to the van driver the road was downhill only so he had gravity on his side... We glided down the badly paved road to Huaraz, using the starter motor for the rare cases when gravity was not enough and made it to one block away from the collectivo station. We paid the driver and walked back to the hotel. Since we bought tickets to Ica the day before I said goodbye to Oded who wanted to spend another day in Lima and went to sleep knowing that this is my last night in the amazing town of Huaraz..