Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

July 12, 2022

4073m

Puno / Lake Titicaca, Perú

Co. Azoguini is a small hill rising immediately above the city of Puno next to Lake Titicaca. From the city this hill appears rather prominent but in fact, the rise above the nearest saddle to taller ground is only about 50 m, so this is a very insignificant bump after all. Lily and I made the spontaneous decision to hike this bump after deciding to spend a few days exploring Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 3812 m. The original plan was to ascend Chopicalqui but Alpamayo had already taken everything out of us, so now with zero energy reserve we must find something more touristy. The first choice was Machu Picchu but the tickets were sold out months ahead. Lily then suggested Lake Titicaca. I briefly looked at the maps and made an instant agreement. What I cared was whether there are hills near, or inside the lake to bag and the answer was yes.

We made the decision while having breakfast on July 11th and immediately went to sort out the logistics. We firstly booked a night bus from Huaraz to Lima using Cruz del Sur. The price was not the cheapest but this is one of the largest bus companies in the country and I liked to have some extra safety margin. I slept most of the way through the ride and we made to Lima at 5 am on July 12th. We then took a taxi to the airport and flew to Juliaca, where we took a colectivo to the city of Puno. The first thing we did was to check into the hotel and have the next few days’ tour booked, and then we went out to hike this little hill. I insisted we must bag this peak since it’s right there, and Lily reluctantly agreed to come together. I assured the view would be nice up there…

The hill was right above the city so we didn’t really need to take a taxi. We actually wanted to walk to explore more of the area. The crux was to get to the actual trail as we must walk past several aggressively large dogs. I was already bitten by one dog in Huaraz at the start of this trip so I was extremely nervous about them. I had a hiking pole with me to be used as a stick to beat the dogs. Thankfully this time they only barked on us but that was scary enough at times. Once we joined the trail the ascent to the summit was a cruise sail. The view looking back down onto the lake was good, but the summit itself was rather a garbage dump. Talking about dumpster diving, this is the exact definition…

After walking down the hill and nervously through the zone of dogs we were back into the city. Now Lily was high on motivation and wanted to walk all the way to the lake shore. I wasn’t keen, but reluctantly agreed since there wasn’t really anything else worth doing. This was a good decision as the view from the lake at sunset was superb. We then took a taxi back to the hotel and went for dinner.