The agency we chose was Peruvian Andes Adventures and they were faultless. The guides, cooks, transport and general organisation were spot on. They also have a hotel-standard guest house in Huaraz which was perfect for pre- and post-walk stays.The Peruvian Andes Adventures website has some maps and itineraries that show where we had extra days, but not all the side walks we did on the rest days were well marked.

Day walks We did the Laguna Churup day trip first which is fairly close to Huaraz. It's only 6 kilometres long - but it goes to 4600 metres altitude so for your first day walk at altitude, assume five hours. Yes five hours for six kilometres. Second up we did the walk to Laguna 69 which is further from Huaraz, a longer travel time and a longer walk at 13

kilometres. It's longer at altitude, so I found by the time I got to the lake, progress was very slow indeed! They are good acclimatisation hikes and Churup followed by 69 is the best order. They are both nice walks in themselves.

Acclimatisation and temperatures Despite the four days acclimatisation, walking uphill at over 4000 metres in altitude still took a while to get used to. The third lung just doesn't grow that fast! Cordillera Blanca is a little lower and not quite so cold overnight, so going in that order worked very well. With the less exertion required for the guided option, going to both locations in the

Re-tying the freight before the mules head downhill

Highest pass for our Alpamayo Circuit, Ann and David Edwards

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Temperatures during the day were pretty good - I was mostly walking in a light Icebreaker 150 T-shirt with one of their long sleeve 260 tops once the day warmed up and a heavy fleece on before that. Overnight was quite cold especially in the Cordillera Huayhuash with frost on the tent every morning, ice in puddles and frozen mud (easier to walk on than bog!). I didn't have a measuring device so I can't tell you exactly how cold it was, but I would guess -5 ºC to -10 ºC. I found wearing my heavier down jacket over my lightweight down jacket quite comfortable at night though! April can still be wet and we had some rain into May, so make

sure you have very good wet weather gear if you're heading to the mountains in April especially. We took our own sleeping bags and mats, but you can hire them.

Choosing between Cordilleras I was asked to compare the two cordillera given we were going to one after the other. It's a bit of an unfair comparison for Cordillera Blanca because we had some unseasonal rain there and also being better acclimatised at Cordillera Huayhuash I think meant we were able to relax and enjoy it more. Cordillera Blanca has a lot more vegetation and wild flowers than Huayhuash, but both have their spectacular peaks and passes.

Until seven years ago, we had done lots of long day walks in Australia and other countries, but had never ventured into multi-day walks and didn't own the required gear ... and then I started planning our first trip to Patagonia and it became clear that things needed to change. Our first multi-day walk ever, was an eight night circuit around Torres del Paine in Chile. Since then, the gear collection keeps growing and we've walked the Overland Track, Carnarvon Great Walk, Larapinta Trail and several walks in Argentina, Chile and Peru. Things on the to-do list include The Snowman (Bhutan), The Arctic Circle Trail (Greenland), many things in Patagonia, Tasmania, WA, etc.

On the "rest" day the team assembled on the summit of the hill above the Laguna Carhuacocha camp site

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