We woke up around 8 AM again and were relieved to know we had an easy day ahead of us. We made some coffee and then packed up because it looked like a rain cloud coming. A friendly cow joined us and ate our leftovers from dinner. As we walked into the valley we saw a rainbow across the hills. The scenery changed dramatically as we carried on. There were now cacti bordering the trails along with sandy trails instead of rock. The trail went through a long valley and eventually was parallel to a river. You can see the snow covered mountains turn into a waterfall which then turns into a stream. The water is so clean and clear. We got to the campsite before noon and decided to keep on going. The weather changed as well. It was now extremely hot. It's difficult to stop from getting burned due to our high elevation. We stopped so Bart could swim and I could put my feet in the water. We decided to finish the trek today instead of camp another night. The trail became extremely dusty and steep. We both took a tumble and banged our knees up a bit. We saw 5 men trying to coax a bull up the steepness and ill say it looked like the bull was winning. We eventually came to a road that led into town. We hopped on the next colectivo with relief to be off our feet. Once we arrived in Caraz an hour later the driver took it upon himself to try to drive us to Huaraz at a very steep taxi rate. We had to stop him so he would take us back to the other colectivos. In return he ripped us off and charged us an insane amount for the previous ride. It gets frustrating knowing your being overcharged because we are tourists and have no other way of transport. After 1 1/2 hours we arrived in Huaraz. We returned my sticks and ate at Chili Heaven again. While walking back to our hostel my backpack(which was attached to me) got hit by a car. We may have misjudged the speed of traffic a bit. We repacked, showered, and put our feet up for the night. What an amazing adventure the Santa Cruz trek was!
We woke up around 8 AM and were very shocked we slept in that late. We could see that the larger groups had left and their camp was almost all packed up. Neither of us slept very well due to it being so cold and the uneven ground. We ate breakfast and had some coffee while enjoying the view. Our steripen died and we aren't sure the half used propane tank we bought will last. Either way we boiled water to drink. The water is so clean, but there is a lot of grazing animals near them so we want to be careful. Then we packed away our wet tent and set off back over the log bridge. We knew this was going to be the hardest day, but you can't prepare yourself for it. The first 6 hours were uphill. At first it was a low grade incline, but it slowly became steep to the point of just putting one foot in front of the other. We could see Punta Union 2 hours before we would pass it. I'm not going to pretend that we were having a blast, because it was so difficult for us. I also cannot describe how stunning the views were the entire time. Once we arrived at Punta Union we climbed a bit higher to get the best view. It was breathtaking and by far the best views we have seen on a trek so far. The turquoise blue mountain lake was spectacular as well. It was worth every painful step. We spoke with a couple of men doing the trek in the opposite direction for a while and one of them was nice enough to give us some water purification tablets since we weren't sure if we would have enough propane to keep boiling water to drink and have enough for dinners. We set out down the other side of the pass. The next 2 hours would all be downhill for us....except that I forgot my stupid sticks(trekking poles) at the top. Back up I went. Once we arrived at the camping area we found a nice spot near the river. We made sure the ground was really flat this time. There are and have been grazing cows, horses, sheep, and donkeys the entire trip. We know the donkeys and some of the horses belong to the trekking guides, but the other animals don't have tags and are not fenced in. It is much colder at this campsite than the last. We watched some of the children of the guides catch trout in the nearby stream. We bundled up and got right to making dinner and enjoying a cold beer. Bandit the trail dog came to visit us again. We didn't last long out in the elements. We bundled up better than the night before and got into the tent to get warm. After a movie we tried to go to bed, but again we both struggled. We did have a good laugh as we tossed and turned in our sleeping bags listening to the donkeys "eeh haw".
