Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There & Away
The Plaza de Armas is where you can pick up passing minibuses to Yungay (S3, 30
minutes) and Caraz (S3.50, 45 minutes).
Combis
to Huaraz (S3, 50 minutes) leave from a
small terminal on the first block of La Merced. Morning and afternoon buses from Huaraz
to Chacas and San Luis also pass by the plaza. Buses between Caraz and Lima, and Huar-
az and Chimbote, pass by here also.
REMOTE RIFUGI
Established by the pioneering Father Ugo de Censi, a priest of the Salesian order, the Italian nonprofit organiza-
tion Don Bosco, based in Marcará, runs three remote
refuges
( 44-3061;
www.rifugi-omg.org
;
May-Sep)
deep within the belly of the Cordillera. Each refuge is heated and has a radio, basic medical supplies, 60 beds, and
charges S92 per night for bed, breakfast and dinner (S130 with lunch). Profits go to local aid projects. Refuges in-
clude Refugio Perú (4765m), a two-hour walk from Llanganuco and a base for climbing Pisco; Refugio Ishinca
(4350m), a three-hour walk from Collón village in the Ishinca Valley; and Refugio Huascarán (4670m), a four-
hour walk from Musho. Trekkers, mountaineers and sightseers are all welcomed.
Yungay
043 / POP 12,600 / ELEV 2458M
Light on overnight visitors, serene little Yungay has relatively few tourist services. It has
the best access for the popular Lagunas Llanganuco, via a dirt road that continues over the
Cordillera to Yanama and beyond. Surrounded on all sides by lush hills wafting brisk
mountain air, it's difficult to believe the heart-wrenching history of this little junction in
the road.
The original village of Yungay is now a rubble-strewn zone about 2km south of the new
town and marks the site of the single worst natural disaster in the Andes. The earthquake
of May 31, 1970, loosened 15 million cubic meters of granite and ice from the west wall
of Huascarán Norte. The resulting
aluvión
(debris landslide) dropped over three vertical
kilometers on its way to Yungay, 15km away. The town and almost all of its 25,000 inhab-
itants were buried.
