Cusco, The Lares Trail and Machu Picchu
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
35
65
Trip End
Ongoing
Cusco,
Peru
Friday, November 30, 2007
View from the first morning
That night is spent in a guesthouse and then you go to Machu Picchu the next day before getting the train and then a lift back to Cusco in the evening.So we booked and paid for our tour, had a wander around the city before getting an early night. We got up at 5am the next morning and left at 6am with our guide Roger, our cook Elizabeth and the driver. We went past some lovely scenery on the way to the first village, but then there was a problem. As we approached the village where we were going to hire horses to carry all the gear, we found that the road had been blocked off! Turns out that a village a bit further on had stolen a mule from this village and any guide passing through to the further village would be killed the next time they came back! That definitely caused a bit of a problem. So we had to spend the whole day in Lares, which actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We set up camp at the hot springs and Elliot and I had a quick dip whilst lunch was made. The hot springs are 4 pools of different sizes and heat, so we settled down in a medium warm one for a good 45 minutes. We were a bit worried about what we were going to do for the rest of the day, but Roger came to the rescue and suggested we go into the village and check out the local Chicharia. We had no idea what that was, but he explained it's a bit like a local pub where they serve Chicha which is a drink made from fermented corn which is brewed overnight and then served up from a barrel l
The local chicaria
. We were of course of the only tourists there, but it was so much fun! There were about 10 locals, a mixture of horseman, and local women. It was ½ a soles (about 7p) a pint and tasted pretty good. Elliot and Roger had 3 glasses each and me and Elizabeth 2 each. I also had to fend off the advances of a 78 year old man who despite speaking no English managed to convey that Chicha was good for the prostate and he was still in good working order! But they were all lovely and said that it was really nice to have some tourists come in. We then went to another bar and had a few beers before buying a small bottle of the local firewater to take back to camp. Elliot, Roger and I got back in the springs whilst Elizabeth did dinner and then put the firewater in some local tea. We went to bed at about 8.30pm after all the food and drink was gone, ready for our first morning walking.We were up at 6am the next day and Thomas our new horseman (we found him the village the day before) packed up the 2 horses with his nephew, whilst we set off trekking. The morning walk was really quite easy, although it was bit rainy. We stopped off in local village for lunch, which involved all 6 of us pilling into a local house with the cooking gear and cooking up meat and chips. Luckily the rain stopped when it was time to leave and we set off on the hardest part of the trek, which was practically all uphill. After about an hour we saw the climb we had to do to get to the top of the mountain at 4200m
View from our first campsite
. It was hell! I really started to struggle after 20 mins and Roger had to roll me up some coca leaves. Now we'd never tried coca leaves before, but had heard all about them. They are the raw product used to make cocaine but the locals use them to help with the altitude, depress hunger and give them energy. And it definitely works! I wouldn't say we were running up the mountain but they really helped us both. We finally got to the top and just as we started to come down the other side it started hailing. So we legged it down with Thomas and the horses in front so they could set up camp for us. So it was time for the second night of camping and it was 100% the coldest we have ever been. It rained all night and we slept in all our clothes, hats and I even wrapped my scarf round my feet to stop them feeling like blocks of ice (it didn't work). So after a rainy restless night sleep we got up for the last bit the trek, which was an easy 2 hour downhill stretch. We then got the train to Agua Callientes and checked into our hostel for a lovely hot shower and comfy bed for the night. We went to the local restaurant and tried guinea pig, which to be honest wasn't that great, not a lot of meat and a bit fiddly to eat, but you have to try these things. Then it was bed at 9pm ready for a 4am start to go to Machu Picchu!So we were up and ready to leave at 4.30am as Elliot had the great idea that instead of getting the bus up to the ruins, we would walk. That meant spending an hour walking up some Inca steps, chewing on coca leaves like a fiend and cursing Elliot with every spare breath (which wasn't many it was knackering!). We finally got to the top and waited about 10 minutes for our guide and then started our tour. We were so lucky with the weather, it was a beautiful sunny day and we could see all the ruins and mountains perfectly. After about an hour or so tour, checking out all the important spots and taking loads of photos we had a rest before climbing Waynapicchi Mountain
Local llamas
. Again the coca leaves came out which meant we made it to the top in 35 minutes instead of the normal 45-60 minutes. The views were amazing so we sat around at the top and ended up discussing where a girl who was moving from New York to London could live. Then it was time for the climb down which took almost as long as our legs were starting to get really tired now. We decided to catch the bus back down rather than walk and then spent the rest of the afternoon having a few beers whilst we waited for the train back. Our driver picked us up from the train station and drove us home via another Chicharia which serving amazing chicha which had strawberries in it! Elliot managed to neck 3 glasses in about 20 minutes. We were so tired when we got back at about 8.30pm we just watched a bit of TV and went to sleep.We are still in Cusco now waiting to get on a bus this evening back to La Paz before heading south into Argentina then across to Brazil for Christmas. Can't wait for a bit of beach....
