High Altitude Snobbery
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2007
1
3
14
Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
Machu Picchu,
Peru
Monday, October 22, 2007
4 days ago, we began the Lares Trek, not surprisingly, in Lares, a small town in the Andes, 3400m or so above sea level.
While I was too late in booking the more famous Inca Trail Trek, the Lares alternative proved more fulfilling, physically challenging, and perhaps most importantly, more tranquil.
Where the Inca Trail is restricted to 500 people per day, our small group of seven with guide, Wilbert, and 2 cooks and 3 porters, ably assisted by several llamas and horses, saw absolutely no other tourists.
The first day consisted entirely of steep uphill climbs, culminating in camping at 4200m amongst some fields. Unfortunately, such heights meant it was incredibly cold at night, well below 0, and we rose in the morning to snow capped mountains. Fortunately, I had purchased an Alpaca sweater. We also visited a shepherd´s hut on the mountain near our camp, where we bought some alpaca wool hats and scarves. Inside was a small fire, and various guinea pigs running under our feet. It was barely two rooms, with no running water or electricity.
This kind of interaction with the local people made the experience very fulfulling.
The second day we hiked 18km rising twice to heights of over 4500m, sitting at the top of one pass unsheltered for 45 mins as the hail pounded down.
After these peaks, the trek was more downhill, but this proved just as challenging, particularly for the knees.
We ended the day camping on a soccer field, having time for a quick kick and just getting under cover before the heavy rains came in, not stopping until 3am the next morning.
On the final day, we hiked just 10km mainly downhill except for an uphill detour to some Incan ruins not far from Machu Picchu.
At breakfast we farewelled our endlessly cheerful cooks and porters, who incredibly returned the way we had struggled through in the last 3 days, but in just one day!
Finishing in Ollantytambo, we started to see some other tourists, and some census collectors. We then caught a particularly slow train up to Aguas Calientes, the tourist town at the base of Machu Picchu.
Rested and showered after 3 days, we rose at 4.30am to be at Macchu Picchu by 6am, where we met the other part of our group who had completed the last few hours of the Inca Trail that morning, not rested or showered.
It was very apparent from the unusually high level of organisation and service that Machu Picchu is THE most important part of Peru´s tourism trade and its economy in general.
However, it is quickly moving to restrict parts of the site, from the 500 people a day on the inca trail to the recently introduced limit of 400 people a day climbing Waynu Picchu (´young mountain´ in Quetchuan, the language of the Incans and still many locals), the mountain behind the ruins you see in all the photos of Machu Picchu (´old mountain´). According to Wilbert, many sections of the ruins we walked through will soon be seen only from a distance.
Nevertheless, the haunting entrance to the site, as the clouds hovered around the mountains, temporarily obscuring the famous view of the ruins, will remain a strong memory.
As will the ambitious decision by myself and Justin, one of my fellow trekkers, to climb the incredibly steep Waynu Picchu, the inevitable fatigue outweighed by the amazing scenes once we reached the top facing the sheer drops below.
Very tired after 4 days of hiking and climbing and climbing and hiking, we returned to Cusco in the evening, ready to head off the next morning towards a big, high lake shared between Peru and Bolivia.
