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Published: August 8th 2009
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At the start of week 2 we headed to Cusco but the strange thing was we had to fly north back to Lima then get another flight to come South again to Cusco! Bizarre! Arrived in Cusco mid afternoon where it was warm and sunny and we had the rest of the afternoon free to explore this beautiful city. In the evening we were given a small bag to pack what we needed for the 3 day Lares Trek which would be carried by a mule! The Lares Trek is a 35km walk and is an alternative to the Inca Trail which was fully booked when we arranged the trip. As if Jen didnĀ“t have enough problems packing 2 bags, they just made things an awful lot more complicated for her by giving her another! The next day we headed to Ollantaytambo and stopped off at a small village to watch some locals making wool then weaving it. Jen tried to bargain with one of the locals for a pair of socks to match her new Peruvian hat but the woman wasn't having any of it and we thinks she swore at us in Spanish as we walked away! We then
went for a guided walk round some Inca ruins before heading for lunch and a game of volleyball with the gang which was a good laugh. Our local guide and all of the people in the group we're travelling with are really nice and down to earth. We're really lucky as we've spoken to a few people in other groups and they have some issues with the people they're travelling with! Hope when we change groups in Bolivia that they're as friendly as the group we're with at the moment. We arrived in Ollantaytambo and before checking into our hotel we were taken round some more very impressive Inca ruins. Next day we got up at 6am (Yep, another early start Maz!) to start the Lares trek. We stopped off at a village on the way to buy some fruit and pencils to hand out to the locals that we would meet as we passed through villages on the trek. We then headed up a windy road to the start of the trek at 3800m! It was pretty steep but we just kept setting ourselves small targets and managed to climb quite quickly. After about 2 hours we stopped for
lunch and the porters already had the kitchen, dining and toilet tents up! We then sat down to an outstanding lunch which was very tasty and piping hot! All of the food we've had so far in Peru always seems to arrive luke warm! After lunch we climbed for about another hour before reaching the summit at 4400m which had amazing views. We then descended to the campsite where again all the tents had been pitched and our bags were waiting for us. We had a 'happy hour' where we were provided with hot herbal teas, which help with altitude sickness, popcorn and cream crackers with jam and honey! They then prepared another stunning 3 course meal for us which was unbelievable considering we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere! Afterwards we sat and drank more tea but this time with rum which was very tasty! The evening entertainment was provided by Jose the walking guide who played his guitar and our own guide Roland played the flute which was superb. It wasn't as cold at this campsite as we expected it to be but we'd hired decent North Face sleeping bags and thermarests so we were really comfy.
The waiters woke us up early the next morning with cups of coffee and hot chocolate in our tent! We packed up and had breakfast and started walking at about 8am. It started raining so Jen had to put on her funky poncho that she's been dying to wear since she bought it! Gordon left the poncho that Jen had bought for him in Musselburgh as he thinks he's so clever and wouldn't need it so he had to by a cheap and nasty one in Ollantaytambo which burst after about an hour of wearing it! Will he ever learn?! It was a bit miserable climbing up the pass as you couldn't see anything except cloud and mist. The guides then decided to take us a shortcut to the lunch stop. It might have been a shortcut but it descended quite steeply and was very slippery in places so Jen wasn't very happy with guide and told them exactly how she felt about it! After yet another amazing lunch we climbed another pass up to the final campsite at 4500m and thankfully the sun started shining again. It was a really nice walk and we passed a little girl of
about 8 who was living on her own while her parents worked further down the valley, so we gave her the snacks that we'd been given for the walk. We finished the walk mid afternoon and some of the guys from the group played the guides at football. We were then given a tour of a local house to see how they lived. It was dark and cold and they had guinea pigs (local delicacy!) just running round the room where they slept! We then had another superb dinner accompanied with a kind of fruit punch that the chef made out of white wine that Gordon had carried all the way to the top! During the night the temperature plummeted to -15c so Jen was glad she'd hired an additional winter jacket! It was so cold the side of tent froze! One of the girls in the group had washed her trousers in the afternoon and they too were frozen solid! An American guy in the group started suffering from the altitude and had to be given oxygen during the night as he couldn't breathe! Scary stuff! The next morning we had to get up at 5am (AAARGH!) to climb
the final pass before descending for about 2 hours back to Patakancha where the bus would pick us up. We were pretty knackered after the walk and Jen's knees were really sore but it was a fantastic achievement. We had lunch then caught a train with panoramic windows on the roof to Aguas Calientes where we would stay the night. The following day we went up to Macchu Piccu which is absolutely stunning and met the rest of our group as they'd been doing the Inca Trail which leads directly to Macchu Picchu. We then had a 3 hour train journey back to Cusco where we've had 3 days just to chill out on our own as the majority of the group have gone off on a seperate trip in to the jungle. It's been a welcome break though as you can see from what we've written that it's been pretty full on for the last 2 weeks! Hope everyone is well and we'll try to keep the blog as up-to-date as we can.
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Laura
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So Jealous
It sounds like you are both having an amazing time out there and can't wait to pick your brains on your return I'm quite up for South America as our honeymoon destination so would love to hear more. I'm loving Gordon assisting with your bags Pink and the Poncho is great..... I'll probably be using a poncho in two weeks when I head to V festival for my annual soaking and camping in the mud. Great to hear how your both doing Love Laura