Boleslav wrote:We did 3 passes in the mid April-May 2008, it did not feel too crowded., but at that time not many people did 3 passes, The mountains are more majestic and you have that WOW factor almost all the time. Yaks are cool to see, so is the culture
Huayhuash- the east side is more crowded then the west side. We did it Mid May to Mid June in 2009, it was starting to be popular, several groups at every campsite. Heard back from others and it seems to be really popular nowadays. The scenery is beautiful but compared to 3 passes, did not feel surrounded by the mountains at every step. Llamas and alpacas are cool to see, so are campesitos who yell at you "Que pais" (what country?)
Do not take me wrong, we loved both treks, if you could do both of them eventually.
we organized the donkey driver through an agency, but we insisted we do not need their guide, so it worked out great as on several occasions he had to take a different route then us and we met him in the camp. I have his contact, if you are interested. I think we paid approx 35-$40 per day for the arriero, 2 donkeys, his food and his equipment.
The donkey driver went with us and his donkeys over the Trapecio pass from Huayhuash village to the other side (name escapes me). We skipped Vigonca as it did not sound that interesting.
4. Did you also do Seria Pass/Caramarca Lake? - did not do
overall experience:
1. 3 passes, but had to take it slowly as we felt the high altitude effects above Namche for couple days.
2. Huayhuash, its nice, but much smaller mountain range,
glad we did both
Awesome thanks, yes if you want to PM the drivers name, or agency I would need to go through that would be great. I was not aware donkeys could go up Trapecio Pass, I was told by one agency that they would have to detour around and it would take two days. Was communication difficult with the donkey driver? I've heard this is a common issue as none of them speak english or spanish, not that we speak spanish..
Any other treks you recommend that are up there with 3 passes/huayhuash?