Hatunmachay

The four other volunteers and I decided to go away for a couple of days of climbing and trekking to a place called Hatunmachay. David who is one of our friends and runs a trekking company organised the trip and we took off on the Sunday. Hatunmachay is a two hour ride away from Huaraz in to the hills 4,200m up. We shared the ride with a group of Germans who were also staying in the refuge with us. The refuge is set in a beautiful area in the heart of the hills and next to an ancient rock forest which is where the climbing is. We got there in the evening on Sunday and chilled out in the refuge in front of the log fire waiting for the Mondays activities. On the first night the sky was completely clear and was lit up with all the stars and constellations, it was a very pretty site.

Sunset on the first day

On the Monday we got up and headed in to the rock forest for some bouldering. I tried my best but still couldn’t get that far on the boulders. You need to build up a lot of flexibility and finger, arm and leg strength to be good at this. The cloud and rain started coming around two so we headed back to the refuge. Once it had cleared up Andres, the owner of the refuge took us out for a walk into the rock forest to show us the ancient cave drawings and that exist in the area. The first place he showed us was a cave and ritual site where some rituals are still done to this day. Some of the paintings and carvings in the rock were 8-10,000 years old and it was amazing to see them close up without anything protecting them. He told us about a hill you can climb at sunrise to see a view of the mountain ranges around and that’s what a few of us decided to do.

By the fire

The next day my alarm went off at 5am and I woke up Wyatt and Dakota. We were out of the shelter at 5.45am to hike the hills and catch the view. It was a completely day and we took about an hour and a half to scale the hills and reach the top. The crest of the hill had been made in to a circular stone pattern and the stones were laden with a layer of snow. The view from the top was really amazing. The hill looked over both the Cordillera Blanca and Huaywash mountain ranges and everything in between. It was certainly worth an earlier rise to see it. We got back to the refuge around 8am and got ready to head to the rock forest again. I was a little too tired to try any more rock climbing so I chilled out in the sun while the other climbed. Later on Tuesday we were meant to head back to Huaraz was for reasons out of our control this was not to be………

The view from the top

The Cordillera Blanca Mountain Range