Abandoning civilisation!

This is our last posting before we depart Huaraz and the backdrop of the Cordillera Blanca early tomorrow for the Cordillera Huayhuash. Acclimatisation continued today as we drove up a very dodgy road out of Huaraz gaining approximately 800m in height. We then climbed/scrambled another 750m on foot to Laguna Churup at 4485m. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, as you´ll be able to see in the attached photo. We´re now back in the luxury of the hotel preparing to leave in the morning. Carnival in Huaraz tonight so we might manage to stay up later than 9pm!

Huaraz

We´re now on our third day in Huaraz, there should be a picture above or below this post that shows Huaraz (and John - one of our group!) quite clearly - it´s much bigger than we were expecting it to be. Huaraz is a town of contrast, from open markets with dead meat hanging all around to electrical shops selling everything you´d find in Comet! Litter is a huge problem - locals not tourists. We were having a pleasant walk through town across the river last night only to see a local woman hurl a large sack of rubbish into it!

Arrival and Acclimatisation!

Finally we have arrived in Peru! We landed in Lima on Saturday evening after a slightly delayed flight. Unfortunately, we saw very little of Lima as we arrived late and departed early on Sunday morning for Huaraz, a major town at the foot of both the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Huayhuash mountain ranges, based at 3000m. It took almost 9 hours to drive to Huaraz from Lima, with occasional stops from the police who insisted on our driver paying various charges with little reason - apparently it is holiday season and they need beer money! There are 15 of us on our trek plus our guide, Val, who seems to know anything and everything about the area which is great. Huaraz is, so we´re told, one of the best places in Peru for experiencing ´real Peru´ and we´ve certainly felt that today wandering round the town and through the markets. We did a short walk today and will do a longer one tomorrow before starting the trek properly on Wednesday. Whilst many of the buildings in Huaraz are very basic and many incomplete (deliberate apparently as a taz dodge), the hotel we are staying in is quite palacial so we´re making the most of the luxury for the couple of nights that we have here! Other people in our group seem great, a very diverse bunch ranging from students to retirees so I suspect it will be an interesting 3 weeks! Hoping to upload some photos before we depart for our trek but I´m afraid Ian is having a nap and I do not have sufficient technological skill to work out the new camera (don´t think I´ll be allowed anyway!). Should any of you wish to contact us, our email is gillandianbarker@hotmail.co.uk
Speak soon, love Gill