Hiking the Santa Cruz trail in 3 days.

The Santa Cruz hike is one of the most popular multi day hikes from the town of Huaraz, which sits at over 3000 m between the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra mountain ranges. There are over 35 mountains over 6000 m in the area so the scenery surrounding this grimy, busy town is incredible.

Huaraz lies 400 km from Lima and we arrived here on a night bus from Lima for $12.

Santa Cruz hike takes usually 4 days but can be done in 3 days. It has some of the best views in the Andeas, you will be rewarded with views of turquoise lakes, snowy peaks and incredible views from the highest point on the hike, Punta Union at 4750 m.

Santa Cruz hike can be done independently and we met plenty of people who went on it unguided. It’s a very straight forward path with plenty of hikers on it and its clearly outlined on maps.me. We didn’t have our our tents and sleeping bags but you can rent them in town. For the ease of it and the health of my back (I struggle to walk 800 m with my 17 kg rucksack as it is) we decided to book through a tour from our hostel Alpes Huaraz. This was a decent hostel with warm beds, en suite dorms, laundry, a great kitchen and they organised all tours. It’s €7 a night and includes a mediocre bred and banana breakfast. We found a tour in town that offered a 2 night/ 3 day or 3 night/ 4 day Santa Cruz trek for 350 soles (€94) but we decided to go with the tour from the hostel as we had heard the gear isn’t as good with cheaper companies. The tour through the hostel cost 430 soles (€115) and was really well organised and we were well fed. The price includes transports there and back (if you’re doing the 4 days), a guide, a cook, all your meals expect breakfast on day 1, tents, sleeping pads and bags. Although after the experience I don’t think there would have been much of a difference and we could have saved ourselves 80 soles. The hie doesn’t include the entrance fee to the Huascaran National Park which is 60 soles for a 4 day ticket. What we weren’t told was it is the same national park as Laguna 69 and we could have bought a 4 day ticket the previous day which would have done for both Laguna 69 and Santa Cruz. Could have saved ourselves 30 soles had we known.

We got picked up at 5.30 am from the hostel to start the hike. We left our big rucksacks in the luggage storage in the hostel and packed a day bag with lots of layers, water, a few snacks, sleeping bag liner, the usual.

After 2 hours on the road we stopped off for breakfast which is not included in the price of the tour and then set off on the last leg on the bus for another 3 hours along a bumpy, twisted, narrow and very dusty road. We stopped to take some photos of this incredible view. This is a taster of whats to come for the next 3 days.

We got to a small town (if you could call it that) that had shop and a toilet to get last minute things, collect our packed lunch bags and so the guides could pack the mules with the supplies. I had to close to eyes here as they loaded the mules up with the tents and food.

Day 1 of the hike:

We set off at about 12.30 pm with our backed lunches ready to tackle the first 15 km to the first camp. This was a fairly easy hike, mostly flat and downhill with a few short easy uphills. It took us about 2.5 hours to reach the first camp. The camp is beside a fresh and clean but freezing cold river. I decided to wash to my legs, hands and face in this freezing water while I was still warm from the hike. Probably a bad idea, I could not get warm after then despite all my layers. The temperatures drop at night to freezing and sometimes below. The first camp is at 3500 m so as you can imagine, it gets cold at night.

We set the tents up, got our sleeping mats and bags and warmed up with warm drinks and crackers. The cook managed to produce excellent food from the inside of the cooking tent. We had soup with pasta and vegetables to start and then chicken, rice and vegetables for the main. I was pleasantly surprised by the standard of food. We all went to bed early as its freezing and we had to be up at 6 am, ready to walk at 7 am.

Day 2:

The second day is by far the hardest and longest day, especially if you plan to finish the hike in 3 day rather than 4. Personally I couldn’t fathom why you would want to spend an additional night than necessary in a tent, sleeping on the ground, giving yourself hip bursitis in the freezing cold. So we decided to bash out 30 km on day 2 so we could finish the last 25 km on the 3rd day.

On day 2 you climb to the highest point on the hike, Punta Union at 4750 which is bloody tough. This is the toughest part of the Santa Cruz hike and after that it’s all downhill to camp 2. But the views from here are incredible which makes it worth it.

It took us 5 hours to reach camp 2 from camp 1. As we decided to do it in 3 days rather than 4, we had our packed lunch of sandwiches, cookies and fruit and headed off on the 10 km round trip to the laguna. This is an easy enough slow incline to the laguna. It only takes an serious change in incline about 1 km before the lake. The lake was stunning and we were lucky with the weather. If the visibility is poor you may not be able to see your hand in front of your face.

We got back to the camp at 4 pm which was ample time for me to sit in a tent freezing listening to the rain until dinner at 6.30 pm.

Day 3:

We did not sleep more then an hour at a time in the tent listen to the rain, freezing and me convinced I’d given myself bursitis despite my guide telling me there was plenty of padding around my hips. Cheers Juan, tell me something I don’t know. I couldn’t get out of the tent quick enough and we decided we’d get up and pack the tent away at first light. We grabbed a quick jam sandwich and boiled egg for breakfast, our backed lunch and hit the road at 6.30 am. We had no guide for the last day as we opted to do it in 3 days. The route is very straight forward and all downhill to the town of Cashapampa. The directions we got was; stay to the left, keep the river on your right. These were bang on, you can’t get lost.

We met some friendly faces along the way.

The first half is a lovely walk and mainly flat, towards the second half of the 25 km (they say its 21, its not, they lie) is very rocky, steep and filled with gravel so it’s hard going on the knees and can be slippy. Especially in worn out runners.

Transport back isn’t included if you opt for the 3 days so we caught a collectivo to Caraz for 10 soles which takes an hour and then we changed to another collectivo in Caraz for 7 soles to Huaraz which takes 1 hour and 45 minutes. After covering a massive 83 km over 4 days when we included the hike to Laguna 69 the previous day, we were ready for a hot shower and a pizza.

We were short on time so had a night bus booked for the night. Probably would have been nice to sleep in a bed after camping but I’ve never been so delighted to sleep on a bus. A night bus has never felt so good!