La Cordillera Blanca

The Andes are the worlds longest mountain range. It reach from Columbia in the north to the tip of Argentina/Chile in the south. The Andes is made up of many smaller ranges; each rising higher and higher to make extreme heights that are famous for giving tourist altitude sickness. In the middle of Peru, a tall mountain range rises up called "La Cordillera Blanca." The main city of Huarez gives a reference point to explore the peaks, valleys, and lakes from anywhere from a day trek to a whopping dozen. I went on the most common 4 day trek called "La Santa Cruz."

The mountains are high... really really high. The starting altitude of the trek is 3300 meters and the top point is a whopping 4750 meters. No worries though, after one rougher 2.5 hour climb, the my knees got to take the brunt of climbing down 1750 meters to a bug-bitten semi-tropical climate.

The name of the mountain range comes from two seperate things. One, the mountains are made of a white granate thats makes then look grey or white in the sun. More importantly, the granate and the neighboring Cordillera Negra foster the growth of Glaciers on the mountains that make all the peaks have a snowcap.

The trails in the region date back to the Pre-Incan periods in Peruvian history. Even though the whole area is a national park, the local altiplanos use the area for raising sheep and cows like they have for centuries.