Laguna Churup: A Secret World

The young Dutchman I was hanging out with the night before was apparently a flake, since he had yet to show up on the street corner we agreed to over beers, or maybe he just couldn't hold his liquor. Either way it was fine, since it turns out a nice European couple (she Belgian, he Swiss) would be joining me this morning for the 7am collectivo ride to the trailhead for the Laguna Churup hike.

Two teenage girls (and sheepdog) driving their flock on the trail

I had wrongly assumed that the villages along the way would have some food for sale but I was mistaken. It so happens that my last chance for a real breakfast, the "village" just before the climb - Piteck - is just an abandoned farmhouse beside a dirt road in the valley. So I ended up fueling the whole day on the three bananas I brought and a couple of cookies kindly given to me by the Europeans. It was a hard day too - over 12km distance with 1000 metres of ascending. Trips like this may be why people have remarked that I look so thin in some of these photos. It's true that I lost weight on this trip (now regained) but it was probably only 5lbs tops. I'm just skinny, folks.

The trail ahead looked ominous. We knew we were heading straight into a crack in a massive wall of mountains way above us, and the snow-capped peaks that were our target got more and more shrouded in darkening rain clouds the closer we got. It was something straight out of Mordor.

Up the cliff, through the crack and you're there

The ascending was difficult, this being above 4000m, and involved a tricky section near the end. The only way up was to go over a cliff face beside a cascading stream whose source was the laguna. Luckily there were some steel cables bolted into the rock for the trickier sections, otherwise it would be impossible without specialized equipment.

And sweet goddamn was it worth it! Once we got over that cliff it was like we had entered a secret world. To set the scene: The luminous Laguna Churup, with the glaciated Nevada Churup towering above you. Completely surrounded by mountains, it's so still you can hear a pin drop.