Hi all - What a week!? We have suffered our first lost in translation this week, more of that later...on the 14th we left our cosy Hostel in Lima and headed off on an 8 hour (north) overnight bus ride, destination Huraz, Ancash.? Haraz (pronounced Whereaz) is very different to Lima, the region has suffered several devastating disasters. In 1941, a flood originating from Lake Palcacocha in the Cojup Valley destroyed the northern half of the city of Huraz, killing 5000 people. Since then, the government have worked to control the water levels. In 1962 a whole town (Ranrahirca) was washed away by an ice and rock avalanche. In 1970 there was an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale destroying most of the City of Huraz (we were lucky enough to only witness a thunderstorm and a month old?avalanche!) As the town is around 3000mtrs above sea level and has some of the highest mountain and glaciers, with remote trails throughout the Andes it takes some time to get aclimatised.

On first arrival Huraz has the appearance of a very run down city, there are many very poor people who are always thinking of creative ways to make money (the picture of the Alpacha was not cheap!). Many of the streets and buildings are in disrepair but after a couple of days you realise that the city acts as a vital and vibrant trading centre for the whole region and many Andean Mountain people come down once a month to sell and shop.  They wear the most colourful traditional clothing and carry huge weights on their backs. The main market consists of street after street of covered allyways selling things like vegetables, trainers to (very) livestock(guinea-pigs)!

The smell and the noise is overwhelming at times. There are streets for butchers that have their produce hanging on display, streets for building merchants, streets for Chifa?(Chinese food V. popular and good in Peru!) and pretty much anything else you could ever want or need.  We were constantly amazed with the things you could buy on the streets.

After 3 days of could showers in our cheap hostle (4.50 a night for 2) we decided to get out of town for a few days TREKKING!? Now we dont know about you but we had images of a light hike across the beautiful hills and mountains surounding Huraz we did not take into account the effect the altitude would have on two 30 something backpackers! Imagine your hart rate at maximum capacity and your lung capacity at about 40%, add to this in excess of 1000 mtr climb and you have a tough few days!

Day one - Set off at 6 am for a 3 hour bus ride to Vaqueria, on the way we drove through a mountain pass at 4767mtrs at which point (due to the altitude) pretty much everyone on the bus fell asleep. We set off from base camp at midday and trekked through light showers and bright sunshine through many local mountain villages. After 5 hours of light climing we set camp at 3800 by a peaceful river (shower and taps for the next 4 days!).Thankfully we had hired mules and a donkey driver (Emilio) to carry all our gear and our guide, Rhuben was a top cook. Each day Emilio and the mules would go ahead and set camp and put the kettle on whilst our group of 4 (Jay, Emma, Rhuben and Henning another tourists from Germany) would set off. Life was good!

Day two - Set off early after breakfast for the hardest day of the four (or ever!). We climbed to meet our mountain pass at Punta Union 4750mtrs a shade under the snow topped glacier summits. Breathing and fitness levels at times felt like the hardest thing in the world and after 6 hours we finally reached the pass with an amazing sense of achievement and relief. 2.5 hours downhill and we were at camp with El Toro (see the pictures). Even though we were sleeping on 3mm thick mats, slept for 12 hours!

Day three - All flat today!  Feeling like a double hip replacement wouldnt go amiss! A walk in the park taking in all the fantastic sceanary and heards of wild animals.? Horses, donkeys, cows, bulls etc... Last camp tonight and Emilio set camp in the most fabulous setting. We were set below an amazing waterfall and fresh fish were being caught for dinner from the river.

Day four - Downhill! All good until 1 hour from base we happend upon an avalanche (1 month old but they neglected to mention this at time of booking!). Had to send the donkey back home as he could not climb the rocks so we became the mules! Had a bit of help from local farmers towards the end which was very welcome.

We arrived back on Thursday afternoon with plans to head north to Iquitos. Due to bus schedules we woke up on Friday and changed our minds. We are now sitting in Lima (again!) and waiting for our connecting bus to take us to Cusco (22 hours bus ride and we did 8 last night!). In Peru only a week long bus ride is considored a long time.

Planning to go to the jungle and may cross over the border to Bolivia which has been highly recomended, we will keep you updated.