Day Six - Huaraz

Today we got up for breakfast of fried eggs, bread and beautiful fresh fruit juice (couldn't tell you the fruit however!!)

We had exchanged a few emails with a company about doing a Santa Cruz trek a few days ago and were told there were two spaces left, but then had lost contact so we headed out to go and see them. When we arrived at their office, I was more than infuriated that the two spaces had been filled and no one had responded to our email because the lady was 'in bed with bronchitis'! What incredible marketing!

Rather disheartened we headed back to the hostel to go back to our research and found a company called Eco Ice Peru tours, who were voted number one on trip advisor! We hurriedly emailed and called them and then headed straight down to speak to the owner Orlando about booking on.

He was amazingly thorough with his explanation, saying how we needed to do a couple of acclimatisation hikes beforehand to get used to the altitude and we finally managed to book on. He was rather bemused by my lack of organisation (no trekking pants or particularly warm clothing!) but booked us onto a Lake Churup hike the next day, and suggested that we do a shorter hike today!

We left rather chuffed, (sticking two fingers up at the other your company!!) and headed to the market for some gear. Unfortunately our bartering skills weren't quite up to standard, however we still managed to buy some trekking pants and woolly hats for the trek.

We went out for dinner that evening to El Horno, a recommendation from the Lonely Planet which was fantastic!! We ordered 'Lomo con salsa de champinones y ensalada y frites', assuming it was some kind of beef, and ordered it 'medico' for lack of knowledge of the words rare! The food was fantastic! We felt a little awkward when a panpiper came round playing music and asking for money, but that's just standard Brits for you!

We headed back to our hostel to get ready for our early morning trek the next day, full of worried anticipation!