Unforgettable Huaraz - 4 Days

We pick you up in your hotel in Huaraz and drive to the town of Chavin, located 109 km away. On the way we stop at beautiful Querococha Lake (3980m). It is not uncommon to see llamas and alpacas grazing around the lake. From here the road climbs steeply to the Kawish Tunnel (4516m), which cuts through the solid rock of a mountain to emerge in the Conchucos Valley. We arrive in the small town of Chavin and explore the ruins. Our guided visit lasts around 1.5 hours. After lunch we visit the excellent Chavin National Museum, which houses numerous intricately carved tenons, as well as the magnifidient Tello Obelisk. Then we make our way back to Huaraz.

You are picked up in your hotel and we drive towards the southern section of the Huascaran National Park. Once we enter the park we have our first views of some of the Cordillera Blanca’s stunning mountains. We stop at Lake Patococha to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Further on we stop again at some unusual mineral springs. From here, we can clearly see the imposing snow-capped peak of Mururaju, which dominates this part of the valley. Later on, we stop to see the gigantic Puya Raimondi plants. The road now climbs steeply towards the glacier and we pass beautiful mountains with cascading glaciers. It takes around 1 hour on foot to reach the glacier. After spending some time at the glacier we hike down to the bus and drive back to Huaraz.

We pick you up in your hotel and drive into the heart of the Huascaran National Park to visit the famous twin crystal blue lakes of Llanganuco (named Chinancocha and Urconcocha). We eat picknick lunch at the lake and have time to enjoy views of Huascaran, Huandoy and Yanapaccha mountains. Then we drive up a spectacular zig zag road to the top of the Portachuelo pass (4767m) for more amazing close mountain views. On the way back to Huaraz we stop to visit the memorial Campo Santo in Yungay. The town of Yungay was completely destroyed in the earthquake in 1970. The earthquake caused a massive avalanche of rock and ice from the west wall of Huascaran which reached devastating speeds as it dropped over 3 vertical kms on it’s way to Yungay 14kms away. The town and almost all it’s 20’000 inhabitants were buried. The site is now a memorial with flower gardens and monuments to the thousands who perished.

You are picked up in your hotel in Huaraz. First, we drive 67 km to the small town of Caraz and then another 32km to the lake. The drive to the lake is through a spectacular canyon with 1000m high granite walls. Once at the lake, you can take a hike along a path around the side of the lake and finally hike up to another small but beautiful lake named Artesoncocha. We take the same path back to our transportation and drive back to Huaraz.