Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [357]
You can do great two- to three-day treks from here to Huari or Yanama, from where energetic hikers can continue on to do the Santa Cruz trek (Click here).
The friendly and very simple Hostal Saragoza (Bolognesi; 370; r per person with/without bathroom S15/10) is on the Plaza de Armas – a couple of rooms have windows onto the plaza and the place manages to scrap together a certain bucolic appeal. Hospedaje Alameda (Lima 305; r per person with/without bathroom S30/10) has some similarly modest rooms as well as much nicer, newer abodes with attached bathrooms. Both places have hot water. Pilar Ames (the owner of El Cortijo restaurant in Monterrey, Click here) has the most comfortable digs in town at Hostal Pilar (in Monterrey 42-3813; Ancash 110; d S115), with decent modern facilities. This place is used as part of a local tour and is open only to those with prior reservations. There are a few hole-in-the-wall restaurants and pollerías around, all serving similar local dishes.
Copa and Transporte Renzo run buses to Huaraz (via Punto Olímpica and Carhuaz) at 7am and 2pm (S14, four hours). Combis leave for San Luis from in front of the cathedral when full (S2.50) and from San Luis you can catch passing buses to Pomabamba or Huari.
Yanama
043 / pop 500 / elev 3400m
Yanama is a tiny, mountain-enveloped pueblo, where the most exciting thing to happen this decade is a connection to the electricity grid in 2005. The town is about 1½ hours’ walk (or a 20-minute drive) from the end of the popular Santa Cruz trek (Click here) and makes a good stopover point, where trekkers and mountain-bikers can refuel and recharge. The town festival of Santa Rosa is held here in August.
A daily morning bus links Yungay with Yanama, passing the famed Lagunas Llanganuco and traveling within 1km of the village of Colcabamba (population 360), the starting point for the Llanganuco–Santa Cruz trekking circuit. Facilities are rudimentary in Yanama and showers can be as frosty as the mountain air. A couple of hospedajes supply austere rooms for around S10 per person, but the best option in town is Hospedaje El Pino (83 3449; r per person without bathroom S10), behind the church with a huge pine tree outside. Exceptionally friendly, it’s basic but has comfortable beds and the owners will heat up hot water on request for a ‘bucket’ shower. You’ll also find the best restaurant in town here – misty views of the mountains come standard.
Andes Lodge Peru (84-7423; www.andeslodgeperu.com; Jirón Gran Chavín s/n; s/d without bathroom S45/90, s/d S60/110), although pricier, is just a couple of blocks from the Plaza de Armas, and one of the best mountain lodges in the Callejón de Huaylas. Readers rave about the home-cooked meals, blazing hot showers, snug beds with down comforters and the ever-helpful Peruvian owners ready to escort their guests into the homes of local weavers and farmers. All rooms come with breakfast, and other meals are available.
In Colcabamba you’ll find several homestays that offer beds with dinner for S15 to S20 per person.
Colectivos leave for Yungay from the plaza around midday (S10, 3½ hours) or you can catch one of the buses originating in Pomabamba.
Pomabamba
043 / pop 4400 / elev 2950m
Known as the City of Cedars (check out the specimen on the plaza), Pomabamba is a great place to spend some time between trekking trips. Soak in a lung-full of the crisp mountain troposphere and the small-town ambience. Several cross-Cordillera treks begin and end at this township and you’d be forgiven for failing to notice that this is supposed to be the ‘largest’ settlement north of Huari.
A small museum by the plaza and several sets of