29 June: Laguna 69

One Saturday we took the tour to Laguna 69. (another interesting blog)We had been debating between that and Laguna Perron. Laguna 69 was a considerably shorter bus ride which made the decision for us. It was a decent walk, fairly high altitude but not too strenuous to the lake and not too crowded with people.

The tour stopped briefly at the Chinancocha Lake. Although the same beautiful turquoise we had already seen a couple of times and much larger than Laguna 69, I found it less interesting, partially because of the surroundings and probably because it was no challenge to get to it--climb out of the bus and walk a few feet. 

The next stop was the trailhead. This was a reasonably strenuous hike and would have been much more difficult if we hadn't already become at least partially acclimitized to the altitude--15,000 feet was still difficult. 

The first part of the hike was very easy, hiking along a river. A grove of paperbark trees which apparently grew only in Peru, Canada, and China were at the first area. 

The very start of the trail wound past this waterfall

We made new friends along the way

The second part of the trail was a series of switchbacks which went past a smaller pond. Off to the left was a huge waterfalls. Tall glacier covered mountains surrounded us. 

After the pond was another flat grassy section. The final section of the trail were steep switchbacks on gravel.

Just over the top of the last rise was an incredible view of Laguna 69. A waterfall trickled water into it from an extensive glacier above. 

It took us about 3.5 hours to climb up; we spent about a half hour there--eating our empanadas near the edge of the lake and exploring. Going down was far easier, only a couple of hours.