We met our guide Alfonso at our hotel at 7am and went straight to catch a collectivo that will take us to Llupa. But we had to wait a good 30min before the collectivo was full enough to leave (after more than a month spent in South America we still find it hard to always wait for the buses/collectivos that want to get more passengers). From Llupa we walked 1h15 to Pitec (3800m) where the Huascaran National Park starts. The slope was steep, the sun very hot...we found it hard to follow the pace of our 55 years old guide! However we enjoyed this part of the walk as we met lots of locals working on the fields, taking their animals to graze, living their day to day life.The landscapes were very nice as well. At Pitec we had to pay the National Park fee (S/5) to a National Park guard waiting for tourists alone next to his motorbike. We then started the hardest walk of our life (so far...the Inca Rail is coming up!)! The slope is very steep and goes on for 2h15, Gosia thought she won't make it. At the end before reaching the lagoon we had to climb rocks for nealy 20min, we really appreciated the help of our guide. All those efforts were worth it as the Laguna Churrup (4485m) is very nice. After a quick lunch and nap we started to go back to Huaraz as it looked like it was going to rain. The way back was much easier and we arrived at Llupa around 3pm. On the way kids were asking for sweets, so we gave them some chocolate bars we had. We also gave the food we had left from our lunch to a grandmother who was asking for bread. We had a great day, we were very tired but really pround we managed to do this difficult walk in those beautiful landscapes (5h30 hike). We went back to Huaraz by collectivo, weirdly the price was cheaper on the way back! (S/3 to go and S/2.5 to come back).
