Since we had hiked further than planned yesterday, we allowed ourselves to sleep in until 6:30 this morning, but we had another long day ahead of us. We woke up to a stunning view…
We had slept at an elevation of 14,200 ft. From there, we started uphill again towards Punta Union pass at 15,600 ft. After an hour and a half of steep switchbacks, we finally reached the top and were greeted with amazing views on the other side of the pass. It was awesome (in the true sense of the word), with huge mountains, a bright blue lagoon, glaciers, and a beautiful valley.
From here, we started back downhill. We reached the valley floor and walked along the river for a while before it was time for the next uphill.
We branched off the main path towards Lake Arhuaycocha. We went up fairly steep for a while, then the path leveled out. We thought the lake was just over the hill, but once we popped over the hill, we realized we had a lot to go. We walked through a huge pasture, then dropped our big bags off under some bushes and made the final push to the top. It was tough! The view was definitely worth it though. The lake was a beautiful blue with large mountains surrounding it. We ate our lunch by the lake then headed back down.
We found a place to camp right by the stream back near the beginning of the valley. The sun was shining, so we set up our tent and just enjoyed being outside.
We made dinner then crawled into the tent for some reading. Lucky we did, because the rain started just after we got into the tent and continued throughout the night.
Travel Fun With Cassie and Alejandro 