Blogs from Lares Trek, Cusco, Peru, South America

Cusco a UNESCO protected city with over 500,000 people was the centre of the Inca empire. A vibrant and beautiful city with a grand central square opposite the Cathedral Cusco also had some great bars and restaurants serving both international and Peruvian food at high quality and relatively low cost.!if you spend a few days there you won’t go hungry. Most if not all of the churches in Cusco including the cathedral were built on Inca temple sites. The Spanish destroyed the Inca temples but left the foundations and built their churches on them because the Incas knew how to build against earthquakes Our first full day in Cusco we were free to wander so after an orientation walk with the guide we found ourselves having brunch overlooking the main square and Cathedral watching even more ... read more

Obviously coming to Peru I was keen to go hiking, and the only trek I knew about was the Inca Trail. Lots of other people are obviously in the same position, as it's by far and away the most popular trek, now restricted to 500 people per day, with permits selling out months in advance. So based on not a lot of internet searching I selected the Lares Trail as an alternative. It's a three day hike, and on the fourth day you visit Macchu Picchu. Sounded perfect for us. However in another of my well-documented examples of failing to read the material very closely, I had not realised just how challenging the trek would be. After it was booked and paid for, Rod, who had actually read the trip notes, mentioned to me that we ... read more

Today we travelled to Ollantaytambo and visited some Incan ruins in the town itself and the surrounding Saqsaywaman (sexy women) National Park before starting our trekking expedition at 4.30am tomorrow morning. In the morning, we caught the bus to Calca where we stocked up on supplies to distribute to the locals on our trek. we bought tons of bread and fruit, and some crayons and toys for the children. Then we were off to Lares Town for a thermal bath at the hot springs and some food before we started our trek to the first campsite. On the way children would run up to us on the path and we handed out bread and food to them. We climbed nearly 1km to 4000 meters above sea level to a town called Chaqchapata where we camped on ... read more

We boarded the bus in high spirits, we were starting to get used to the altitude; we heard great things about Cusco and we were getting closer to another event we have been looking forward to for so long: the Lares trek to Machu Picchu. The bus journey was by far the most interesting one (with the San Ignacio-Buenos Aires one coming in close second). After about half an hour we stopped at the frontera, the border, between Bolivia and Peru. We had to get out of the bus and go into the Bolivia migration office to get our exit stamps on our passports. We then walked across the border to the Peruvian migration office where we got our entry stamps for Peru. The bus met us on the other side. ... read more

My head tossed from side to side as I tried to sleep through the switchbacks. The bus rode the edge of the cliff as if it had the luxury of being connected by a rail. Jon and I sat, bags on laps, tiredly gazing out at the first morning light reach the highest mountain peaks. We were almost level with the snows before we began to descend. It rained in Lares and it didn't stop. We were dropped in the bustling plaza, heads spinning like the tourists we were. Even Jon looked out of place this high in the mountains. About two-thirds of the market crowd wore the brilliant orange threads of Quechua people, the rest of the locals were certainly not so far removed from their indigenous colors. Lares was famous for its hot springs. ... read more