Huaraz - Day 1 - Bit of a 'get used to the altitude' day
Huaraz is located at about 3100 metres so it is definitely wise to allow a bit of time to get used to the altitude, so that's pretty much what this day was all about. Again I had fallen on my feet with the choice of hostel, the Albergue Churup (www.churup.com) is absolutely superb. There are great views out to the surrounding mountains, and the staff is probably the friendliest I've ever experienced.
Unfortunately when I arrived at 6 in the morning, sleep deprived and wanting nothing more than to lie down on something, I had to wait until about 11 for the dorms to clear out of guests still selfishly sleeping from the night before ;)
However, I did use this time to meet Tom and Eleanor from London and found out they were also interested in doing the 4 day Llanganuco to Santa Cruz trek which I had been considering as well. The comment book at the hostel had so many good reports about booking through the hostel (which doubles as Huascaran travel agency) that we were quite happy to go through them, so now we just needed the numbers. After crashing on a random couch for a few hours, we found George and Nadia from Switzerland were also interested so it was all lined up for the following day.
The rest of the day was really just in sleep recovery mode, unfortunately I was feeling pretty ordinary and at times wondered if I would be able to trek in the morning. Fortunately I think the excessive sleep I had all day got me through.
