Hotel Refugio, 4371m

      Picture of Hotel refugio
      Lat 32.39.22
      Long 70.03.79

      Info

      There is no higher hotel in the world. Hotel Refugio is a big building about 1 km from the basecamp in Plaza de Mulas. Here you can get shelter from bad wheather, or you can even hire a room (sorry, we don't know any prices, if you do, please let us know). They have one room set aside for campers who would like a place indoor to cook some food. The charge for this facility is $1 per person. There is also a room with chairs, tables and sofas which you can use free of charge to just relax. They have a big guestbook which you might sign. Some of the muletransports arrive here, but if you are staying at Plaza de Mulas, you are wise to get a mule which goes directly there instead. There is also a table tennis table.

      The building has lots of metal bars (to hold up the construction) which ends outside the building. This results in a tremendous loss of heat, and the hotel is rather cold most of the time.

      Outside the hotell is a pond and a tiny river from which you can get cold (but liquid) water.

      The hotell is a very good place to get nice sunset photos of the west face.

      Personal experience

      Our mules left our stuff here at the hotel so we came here a few times to pick up stuff. The management was really nice, and we could leave stuff at the hotel for several days until we got the last of our equipment. We succeded to ask the management to send some postcards and letters for us. This is not a regular service, but they sent it down with one of the muleteers to Puente del Inca. This is not a safe way to send a message (don't include valuables), but it worked for us even though it took a while for the letter to get home.