Huaraz, Peru 🇵🇪

I am off to part of the Huascaran National park today to hike up to the  Pastoruri glacier.  The tour is Spanish speaking which is okay as the guide takes trouble to explain some of the more important points in slow broken English for me.  I also have Nathan (10) and Luke (6) sat across from me, they are from the USA visiting their Peruvian family and are not only entertaining but are excellent translators.  

We stop a couple of times, once for a cup of coca leaf tea and again for good photos of the snow peaked mountains that make up the Cordillera Blanca range.  By midday we arrive at the valley of Carpa, where the Puya de Raimondi plant grows. These are strange plants, that are actually the largest member of the bromeliad family (relative of the pineapple), hence the biggest pineapple plants in the world! They grow at altitudes between 3500 to 4700m and can be found in only a few areas of the Andes.

The Puya Raimondi look prehistoric and are actually quite incredible.  They grow to 15m over a 100 year period.  Once they reach maturity they bloom with thousands of flowers up the stem and then die.  Quite amazing to see clumps of plants with these majestic spikes in this rocky landscape.

Onwards to the main attraction and we park at about 5000masl to start the short hike to the Pastoruri Glacier.  This takes me about an hour, trying to go at an even pace to avoid altitude issues as we climb up to 5240masl.  The Glacier is in a beautiful spot and the rocky landscape has beautiful colours.  It isn’t as awesome as the Perito Moreno Glacier I saw in Argentina but still beautiful and the views across the Cordillera are fab.  It is really apparent here how climate change is affecting these natural elements.  Looking at pictures of this glacier regression it is about a third of the size it was 30years ago.  I think another 15-20years and there will be nothing to see, quite a sobering thought to think about how that will affect the area.