KRUSTY TRAVEL HUARAZ — Local services in Huaraz

This review is only for the daily activities, not the expeditions. We stayed in the hostel which is run by the same people as this company and booked 3 activities with them. I found all three good value but poorly run. Horse riding S/60: We were taken from the hostel by a man, who spoke little English, to a collective bus, and then dropped on the side of the main road where we met a lady, who spoke no English, with the horses. We were told to get on the horses and then the man left and we had to follow the lady along the main road. We weren't given a helmet and were given no instructions on how to control the horses despite telling the man we had little experience. I know the horses are trained to follow the lead but having some control when a lorry or bus is speeding towards you and the horse is edging more into the road would be nice. Once we turned off the main road we took a gravel road up the hill through villages for the next hour or so. We never left the road so it wasn't particularly of the beaten track. There were also lots of dogs on the path many of whom would pester or bark at the horses. One time the horses bolted due to this. The scenery on the walk was nice but not spectacular for the area. Pastoruri Glacier S/30: We were told to be ready to leave at 9.00 but the bus didn't turn up untill 9.15. It then proceeded to drive around Huaraz in circles, picking more people up, until finally leaving Huaraz at 10. Then half an hour later we stopped at an overpriced tourist restuarant for 30 minutes for people to get breakfast or lunch. Once we got to the valley the scenery was amazing but unfortunately the tour was only in Spanish so we didn't learn much. When we got to the glacier we were told we had to be back on the bus by 15.00. We got back to the bus at 15.00 but others, including the guide, didn't get on the bus untill almost 16.00. On the way back to Huaraz we stopped again at the overpriced tourist restuarant. As we were only 30 minutes from Huaraz, which has large choice of good price restaurants, we decided not to eat. Every one except for us and another family got of the bus. After waiting 30 minutes we tried to get off the bus to use the toilet and find out when we were leaving, only to find we had been locked on the bus. We had to wait another 30 mins to be let off. Lake 69 S/30: We were told to be ready to leave at 4.30 and again were picked up 15 minutes late. This time however there was no bus to get on and we had to walk around Huaraz getting other people for 25 minutes until finally boarding the bus. At many times the guide would wander off to get someone else and we'd be left standing in the street on our own. Once on the bus it then proceeded to drive around Huaraz for 20 minutes picking other people up, including past our hostel where 8 people were on the tour, so no idea why we all had to walk but others got picked up. We finally left Huaraz at 5.30 but we were now all unable to sleep on the bus due to the mornings commotion, combined with the uncomfortable bus seats, the driver's erratic driving and unnecessary use of the horn, the music and the lights. We were told we would get breakfast but needed to take lunch however breakfast wasn't included and we stopped at another overpriced tourist restuarant enroute for breakfast and lunch. Due to the prices we could only get a small breakfast which made the actual walk more difficult. The tour guide would also move individuals from there seats on the bus for couples to sit together, which is fine but he only did it for Peruvians. On the return trip everyone had moved seats as people had got back on in a different order. One poor guy who had got back early had to give up his seat at the front and sit in the middle of the back seat between for people he didn't know because the couple who were twenty minutes late back on the bus wanted to sit together. This is after they tried to split up a couple who hadn't got to sit together on the way because they were last picked up and wanted to sit together on the way back as the girl had...

The trek itself was clearly 5 stars for the amount of money paid (450USD per person in September 2024). Krusty Travel however is 1 star as a travel agent - so I give it 4 stars. Let's start with the negative. The information upfront is really bad - well best read through all the reviews to understand what you should get for the Huayhuash trek, and what to expect - because we got no information whatsoever via the website or a more detailled explanation from Krusty. Now I don't blame this on the reception guy at Krusty hostel, he did what he could and was very friendly. We were not provided with that PDF (that is incomplete anyhow - and wrong on the km of the trip which is about 95km and not 120km for the 8 day Huayhuash trip, plus optionally 5-10km via sidetrips) and misses important things like bring your own toilet paper.... Furthermore - I requested some sort of invoice and haven't received anything yet. It was supposed to arrive via email. The whatsapp guy from Krusty travel simply decided to ignore our questions after answering a couple. As you have to pay in Cash no receipt whatsoever...

Now to the trip - Freddy was a great guide, I especially want to complement Marco the cook - because he definitely cooked much better than what is standard on Krusty Huayhuash treks - based on what I saw on youtube videos. Still - if you want to have a decent amount of proetins and fats - I recommed you to pack a 500g of peanut butter - and 50g of protein powder per day to supplement all the carbs per person. But yeah - cannot expect more on that budget. I would not pay double to get this covered. And the food we got for lunch (one nice main dish) and dinner (soup and main disth) was really delicious. There are enough sugary snacks every day. Breakfast is a bit small - but good enough and snack bag 2 chocoloate bars or similar, 1-2 small candies, and a piece of fruit (like Mango, apple, pear, Maracuja)

The equipment is good enough - the tents are summer tents and the sleeping bags were relatively new decathlon bags with 0° comfort rating (not sure what the -5° they advertise should mean, the extreme range temp is -10° C.) The additional blankets are thing to medium thin - and wearing 1-3 layers of clothes inside your sleeping bag should keep you warm enough every night. I would not do this trip in the rainy season however - the tents would not stand hour long rain. However then - the tents of the much more expensive agencies are all identical. They do have a bit bigger eating tents usually though.

The trip itself is great - the days are short with 3-4 hours hiking on most days, only Day 5 to Huayallapa is a long drag and has 5-6 hours of hiking. Sadly except Day 4, Day 7 and Day 1 there is not much worthwile choices for sidetrips. I would prefer to walk Day 1 and 2 treks both within Day 1, and therefore add Viconga hotsprings into the trek.

The 10 days treks don't really have better schedules either - so if you want to get all the highlights - like Viconga, Trapecio, San Antonia, Santa Rosa pass, Alpine circuit down from Trapecio you will need to go yourself unsupported (then make sure to go via Rasac pass...

A whole lot of unprofessional crustiness is what you get with this company. Please note that this review was written after I spoke directly to Ivan the manager of Krusty, giving him the opportunity to explain the service I got on his 8 Day Huayhaush trek. As an experienced high altitude hiker I found the standard of the tour to be dangerous and unacceptable. This company works on the grounds that it attracts young backpackers who know very little about the risks of high altitude hiking and are attracted by the 1600 soles price point. What you get on this tour is no pre trip briefing or information, unprofessional guide who will lead a big group alone and leave slower hikers to hike alone on the trail, food that is largely made up of carbohydrates that will give you inadequate fuel and nutrition to hike under these conditions, no first aid kit, no appropriate plan of action for helping people who get sick or injured. So, choose wisely as most people quit on day 6 due to illness, especially since the itinerary involves dropping down to 3500 metres and then you will need to go up again to 4800 the next day (absolutely poor practice). When Ivan was questioned about his practices his response was " if you want better service and better guides choose a more expensive company". Great customer service. In addition he wasn't even aware that one of the hikers in my group had to be hospitalised after the trek, no care, no responsibility.

UPDATE 31 August 2024: the response from the tour operator to my review confirms how unaware and off beat they are with what takes place on their hikes as it has nothing to do with what took place with my group. I believe they are referring to another incident that took place at a later date with another group where one hiker was left on her own on the trail and injured herself having to wait a significant amount of time for assistance and only getting help from a random hiker who passed her, I heard about this matter from a contact in Huaraz recently. People should put two and two together when it comes to booking with this agency, multiple reviews of people being left to walk alone on the trails, people getting injured, a first aid kit that consists of a bottle of alcohol only, a repeat occurance of hikers quitting because they are not lead properly on the trail and become ill or fed up, this is not made up or coincidence. It is not professional practice to try and save money by having only one guide for a group or 9 people, there should always be two guides one at the front and one at the back. Book at your own risk, the defensive replies from Krusty to negative reviews should...