Getting to the trailhead is generally straightforward.  However, the journey to the Santa Cruz Trek is an adventure in itself.  We chose to challenge ourselves by doing the four day, three night trail without a guide.  Hiring a guide will eliminate much of the transportation issues and allow you to only carry a daypack… but what’s the fun in that?  If you’re patient and follow the advice below, you’ll be on the trail by mid-morning.

In order to make the best use of our time, we chose to take an overnight bus from Lima.  A return ticket for the six hour ride on Oltursa cost around $35 USD.  We arrived in the hiking capital of Huaraz just after sunrise.  It was just the start to what would be a very long day.  Our first step was to find transportation to Caraz.  Despite having somewhat detailed instructions, we were unable to find the meeting point.  With some help from a friendly local and a short taxi ride, we were quickly ushered into a colectivo.

“Once outside of the city, be prepared for a wild ride.”

In Caraz, you’ll need to decide which direction you’ll be hiking.  We chose to begin in Cashapampa and finish in Vaquería.  The benefit of this is that you’ll end at the pass and have more time to adjust to the elevation each night.  The downside is that you’ll be hiking uphill most of the way.  If you choose to go this direction, flag down a moto-taxi and tell the driver “colectivo a Cashapampa”.  It’s a relatively short ride up the hill to town but worth the small price to save your energy for the trail.  This colectivo was a more enjoyable experience than the last.  The station wagon was filled full with several kids sitting on top of our backpacks and a few bags of rice in the back.  However, this time the ride was at a much slower speed.  We made our along a dirt road gaining elevation quickly as one switchback led to another.  The views overlooking the villages and their mountside fields below were beautiful.  I barely realized it had been an hour as we suddenly stopped and were told we were there.

There was a very small building next to the road offering some basic meals.  We decided to stop there and save the food we were carrying for the trail.  If you don’t already have some water, you could buy some here and not have to start by filtering some on trail.  It felt like we had already been awake for half a day but by 10:00 am we were ready to start hiking.  Follow along on our trek in part II here.