Lima and the Andes

Arrived in Peru last Wed with my new all time favourite airline KLM. They give you a lot of food and there is a great selection of movies to choose from. Although they did not have a good reputation for carrying surfboards in the past I had no problems as long as the boards were booked in advance. Plenty of swell in Lima when I arrived and no doubt La Herradura was going off but I was too late. There were plenty of people surfing around Mirraflores but it looked pretty lame. Looked like the best of the swell had passed so decided to wait for the next one and headed up to Huaraz in the mountains. Straight away you notice the altitude. The town is at just over 3,000 metres. Had some good hikes the first few days to try and acclimatize. The mantra is climb high and sleep low. Went to Churrup lake today at about 4,500 metres. On Monday heading on a 3 night/4 day hike on the Santa Cruz trek. Opted to join a group since my track record at altitude is not too good, in Nepal and Ecuador. The last trip to altitude was to Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador at about 5,500m. It is now referred to as Coto-f-ing-paxi in my house. Needless to say we did not make the summit. The 4 day trek here with all the tents and food, and a mule to carry all the gear, as well as a guide, costs 90euros. Looking forward to not carrying a heavy backpack over a 4,800 metre pass. It is cheap here - you can get a 3 course meal for less than 2euros in the places that are popular with the locals. After the trek will be off to the coast for hopefully some very long left hand points.