Report Santa Cruz trek, part 1

This is my report of the Santa Cruz trek which I did 12 – 15 of Sept.

The four day Santa Cruz trek is described as ´easy/moderate´ in travel guides, but I feel this has been one of the biggest physical challenges in my life. That´s not due to poor physical condition, but to the fact that we were carrying our own backpacks, which made the whole thing a lot more difficult.
For those who have no idea about what a trek is: it´s basically a long walk in the mountains (at least in this case), getting up at 6 am, hiking the whole day, putting up your tent around 16 or 17h, eating and going to bed early. The highest point at the Santa Cruz trek, Punta Union, is a pass of 4750 meters, my own personal altitude record I guess.
The company we started out with was David, from England, Kobi and David from Israel, and a pack of five Belgians. We lost the Belgians at the end of day one and were then joined by Tiffany and Bob, two Americans that accompanied us for the rest of the trip, making a total of 6.
All days were hard, but day one especially so. You wonder why you are actually doing this and you want to go back to mommy. Everything hurts and you wonder how you are going to keep this up for four days. Obviously, especially the uphill parts are grueling. I was never so glad to arrive somewhere as that day, at the first campsite. And I guess pasta never tasted so good. Here´s the recipe of the dish I ate for three consecutive nights:
- scoop a pot of water out of the river
- as even at this high altitude, the water is contiminated by animal faeces and other dirty stuff, purify the water with three drops of iodine per liter. Let it rest for 20 minutes
- heat the water on your camping stove (in my case provided by David)
- add 250 grams of pasta when cooking (portion for one person)
- add soy meat (fine mince) three minutes before pasta is ready
- take off the fire, pour off, add tomato sauce from little bag bought in supermarket, add salt. Serve hot and ignore the inevitable dirt and cracking things that got in your food by accident

Obviously, if you eat this three days in a row, it won´t taste as good as the first time, but still, it´s the best moment of the day.

My tent was rented. 2,5 dollars a day. Couldn´t complain about it. At home, I feared I was turning into a snob, buying outdoor stuff from expensive brands like North Face and Patagonia, but God I was glad I had it during the trip. The Minusfive sleeping bag was just warm enough. The Thermarest matress made sure I wasn´t too uncomfortable on the hard ground. Still, nights weren´t as comfortable and restful as i had wished.
At night and in the morning, I´ve made good use of my fleece and windproof Paclite raincoat. Didn´t have need for an unvegan down jacket so far (usually recommended).