Hiking to Laguna Churup from Huaraz, Peru

After a day of acclimatization in Huaraz, we arranged for a taxista (taxi driver) to pick us up at 6:30 am for our first real hike since Machu Picchu. We met an Australian couple at Casa de Zarela and invited them to join us for the hike.

We were a bit skeptical the first time we saw the 2-wheel drive Toyota Corolla station wagon that was clearly lifted for better ground clearance, but seemed an unlikely vehicle for driving up muddy roads with deep water puddles. But once we started up the unpaved roads, it became clear that our driver was an expert with a small car on what should have been nearly impassable roads. He navigated us through large rocks, mud holes, and small lakes that blocked the road.

On the trail to Laguna Churup

We reached the trailhead (sort of…more on that later) at Pitec, located at 3300 m (10,000 ft) at 8:00 am and started the hike up through hilly, grassy pastures crisscrossed with streams of water from several days of rain. The trail was tough to follow and we only found out later why that was the case. We walked in light rain but nothing uncomfortable or too slippery. Once the trail wrapped around the hills, it headed along the side of a steep-walled canyon with waterfalls cascading down the center.

The trail was fairly straight forward until we reached a section that required rock scrambling, no small feat with a baby in a child carrier, but we took our time and made our way up a 10-meter section that was particularly tricky. Once beyond that point, the trail once again became a mixture of walking through jarava ichu, also called ichu grass, twisted quinual trees, and stepping up stone staircases. Eventually we reached the final climb past a small lake to the Laguna Churup. Unfortunately, the fog at that point was heavy enough that the lake and its opposite end were lost in the mist.

Coming back down was far faster and we were doing very well right up until we missed our turn at a fork in the trail. That took us to a spot not only further from our waiting taxista, but also at the official trail head, where an official was waiting to register us and charge us 5 soles per person (about $1.70) for the hike we already enjoyed.

Regardless of the view, we were happy to have our first hike under our belts at 4450 m (14,600 ft). We returned, very hungry to Huaraz and beat a path to Cafe Andino once again for a delicious lunch and plenty of free wifi.  We can’t recommend the banana bread enough.

Editor’s note: We didn’t take the picture below. The Laguna Churup was fogged in and we couldn’t take an appropriate photo.