I caught a bus from Lima to Huaraz, which wound along the coast thru huge sandunes and then up through the mountains...and discovered off putting sensations associated with high altitudes... headaches, and slight disorientation kind of like your drunk. Here I met up with Miles from London, and for the last few days we´ve been travelling together.We visited Chavin, ruins from about 1000BC, so definitely pre-inca. They were in another valley so we caught a local chicken bus (it had chickens loaded on top 
along with fuzbol tables, little chicks inside), which took forever winding up thru the mountains to this tunnel pass at 4500m inducing altitude sickness in many of the passengers, before dropping back down into the valley. The ruins kind of reminded me of Mexican ruins... stones, sunken central square plazas, carved rock heads... but these are really old. What was unique was the labrinth of rooms and passages inside/underground which you could explore... no one quite knows what these were for but they were huge...and had these cool airvents to let air flow around.
along with fuzbol tables, little chicks inside), which took forever winding up thru the mountains to this tunnel pass at 4500m inducing altitude sickness in many of the passengers, before dropping back down into the valley. The ruins kind of reminded me of Mexican ruins... stones, sunken central square plazas, carved rock heads... but these are really old. What was unique was the labrinth of rooms and passages inside/underground which you could explore... no one quite knows what these were for but they were huge...and had these cool airvents to let air flow around. We moved to Karaz, as Huaraz is a bit hectic and Karaz is a more laidback 
sleepy place, but with good access to walks. So we took a tour up to visit the mountains opposite the main range - so fantastic views of the snowcapped mountain ranges. And they are high... most of the big peaks are 6000m or more. And today we headed up to some lakes and did a fairly exhausting walk up to another lake and glacier... going up hill at any altitude really gets you puffing. And at the top (about 4300m) we felt so odd we pretty much had a quick look, took photos and legged it down to a more reasonable height to have some lunch. It was an absolutely spectacular walk up the valley between all these snow topped mountains... photos don´t do it any justice. 
sleepy place, but with good access to walks. So we took a tour up to visit the mountains opposite the main range - so fantastic views of the snowcapped mountain ranges. And they are high... most of the big peaks are 6000m or more. And today we headed up to some lakes and did a fairly exhausting walk up to another lake and glacier... going up hill at any altitude really gets you puffing. And at the top (about 4300m) we felt so odd we pretty much had a quick look, took photos and legged it down to a more reasonable height to have some lunch. It was an absolutely spectacular walk up the valley between all these snow topped mountains... photos don´t do it any justice. 
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