Santa Cruz Trek Day 1

Up at 5:30am. Didn't sleep much because I slept until 1:30 yesterday. Packed our things, Kieran is planning on doing the Huayhuash trek instead of the shorter Santa Cruz.A taxi picked us up around 6:20, which took us to a mini-van at the tour company, then it was about a 3 hour drive to the national park. I´t's the same national park as Laguna 69, but we are starting in a different part of the park. When we got to the trailhead, the guide wasn't there yet, so we sat around for more than an hour waiting, while all the donkeys got loaded with all the gear and camping equipment. There are 11 of us on the trek.We left about noon, the hike goes up this amazing valley with steep mountains on either side, scraped by glaciers long ago.We hiked about 4.5 hours to the campsite, the crew had some of the tents set up, but not all. And it had just started to rain, so we ended up setting up our tents in the rain. Then we all hung out in the food tent, drinking coffee and tea, then had supper around 6:30. After supper, our guide informed us that we're getting up at 3:30am tomorrow to get to the next camp before the rain starts, which is usually mid-late afternoon.We groaned at the thought, but went to bed right away, knowing it would be a very early day.