At 3:30 a.m. we heard our wake up knock on the wall from Mark and Deb, our signal that today was the start of our trek. Our guide Miguel was at the hostel at 3:45 waiting for us and to tell us a little bit about our day and our next 4 day adventure. First words, okay the second words out of his mouth was this was not that easy of a trek ….gasp….no problem we have an emergency donkey to ride if we need to… can we get 4???? We thought we signed up for the easy trek but apparently the little villages along the way do not want trekkers camping near them because some trek operators have been leaving garbage so we are going a different way and it is not easy…..okay lets go back to bed and re think this one…but we are up anyways and the words “not easy” had not sunk in, probably because we hadn’t had coffee yet, so off we go. We stopped in a little village so our cook and assistant cook could pick-up some last minute provisions and fresh buns and we ended up picking up some candy for the kids which we would apparently we will meet along the way. We opted not to pick-up a coffee as Nescafe is not high on our coffee list. Where is a good cup of coffee when you need it? As we drove through some beautiful valleys, our guide and van driver stopped along the way to give some buns and candy to some of the mountain kids who were tending their herds (sheep, cows and alpacas), the smiles on the kid’s faces and big wave gave you such a warm feeling.
We arrived at our start point at 3700m to wait for our donkeys and to re-pack our day packs. As we said goodbye to our van driver and said hello to: our new 4 legged vans (the donkeys) and their handlers Humberto and his 9 year old son Moises. Our cook Isidro and assistant cook Rony had come with us from Cusco, prepared our first coca tea and our snack package (fruit and chocolate bar)for the first day trek. As we were getting our psyche ready for the first climb to 4600m; yup up a mountain 4 hours UP…UP UP and yes UP and 2 hours down. No problem. So off we went. Okay we got about 20 minutes into the trek and we had to stop and start to strip off the layers….really it was an excuse to have a rest. As our lungs started to scream and we then realized what the guide meant by not easy, boy it is going to be tough day….By the way the first day was supposed to be the easiest.
For the most part of the trek you are looking at your feet, so as we made our way up, we stop every 20 or so minutes to look at the amazing valleys and mountains with a few lagoons thrown in for colour, at least that was our excuse for now. Oh, look snow up there in the hills!…..Oh, look Karen is about to throw a snow ball! Yup we walked throw snow and ice. As the donkeys, and our team, passed us our guide Miquel kept offering encouragement saying the “top is just around the bend”. Okay the next bend. After 4 hours we final made it to the top, with high 5’s all around and a few pictures, we started our way down. After an hour we stopped for lunch by a river where our crew had set up the dinning tent for a lovey meal starting off with guacamole with wonton wrappers for an appetizer, then followed by an amazing soup. We thought that was it, then came port chops, fried potatoes and fresh veggies all cooked in garlic. Wow. We could not eat it all …we then said that we need to have smaller portions in the future because the meals are huge. So after our lunch we rolled off our stools and continued our trek. A couple hours later and 12 km we finally saw our camp site. There were 2 other trek groups there, they had walked the road from Lares after a dip in the hot springs, now why did we not do that! As our crew set up our tents and the cook and his assistant started our dinner, we hid from the light drizzle and wondered how our legs were going to feel tomorrow. We had a 1 hour before dinner so we got our stuff ready in our tents so after dinner we could collapse. A huge and amazing dinner then it was off to our tents and bundled up for the night.
Next morning as we stuck our noses out and could see our breath. Moises and Rony delivered coca tea and a hot water wash basin outside our tent door. Room service, who would have thought! Breakfast of pancakes and hot chocolate and we were off with our snack pack to climb to 5000m only an 8 hour day today. About an hour into our trek we see this young girl sprint pass us with a full load on her back and what do we see at the first mountain pass about 3 hours later the girl selling water, beer and souvenirs. So we bought a little figure puppet and gave her some fruit and candy. We climbed/crawled/panted our way over the 5000m mountain. 6 hours up and 4 hours down. One hour before we hit the top we were greeted with a little snow storm, yup snow. Just for fun, at the top, it changed to hail. Our emergency donkey and 9 year old Moises stayed with us for the climb and when he got to the top even the donkey looked tired, but we all made it on our own two wobbly legs. At the top we didn’t even stop for the “I made it pictures” we just started down in 2 inches of snow on our trail. (Yup we all had running shoes on except for our guide) It would make a great running shoe ad. “Yes these shoes can go through anything”. An hour and half from the top we spotted the dinning tent and our crew at a creek (they had passed us about 4 hours earlier). Once we got there, lunch was served. Once again appetizers, soup and full course meal (Cheryl is now thinking of marrying either the cook or his assistant). As we left the crew to take down the dinning tent and cleanup we looked around to see the mountain that we had gone over and realized for the past 6 hours we were the only one around and what a feeling….beside the feeling in your lungs and legs. As we made our way down the valley we passed streams, wild horse, alpacas and llamas it was just truly amazing. We kept wondering where our crew was as they had not passed us yet, at 3:30 p.m. we saw our crew coming along the narrow path behind us. Miguel asked us if we want to keep going and have a shorter day the next day, so we all agreed a shorter day would be great, what is an extra hour after you have climbed Mount Everest. As we continued on the hour turned into 2 and it was starting to become dusk we wondered when we would see our camp, but finally we spied our tents all set up and our gang waiting for us at a beautiful waterfall in a valley surrounded by mountains and picturesque hills. Just us, awesome. You could not pay enough for this view. After 22 km we crawled into camp at 5:45 p.m. It was pure determination that got us through the day or logic as there really was no turning back.
Day 3 room service delivery was at 5:00 a.m. and a great breakfast and we were off by 6:30 we had a van and train to catch at 12:50 p.m. to Aquas Calinetes (now called Machu Picchu Village). It truly was short hike and all downhill to a little village where once again our cooks wiped up an amazing last lunch in the front yard of a B&B. As our van driver drove us away to the train station we waved goodbye to our houseman and his son even though they didn’t speak much, the smiles from both sides said it all. They were super. At the train station in Urubamba we said goodbye to our two cooks, Cheryl was still torn between which cook to propose marriage too but she was more interested in the real bed and hot shower waiting for her at in the Inka Town Hostel in Machu Picchu. After standing in the shower for ages we put on somewhat clean clothes and went out on the town….we really are back in civilization with tons of restaurants and souvenir shops. Miguel joined us for dinner and a celebratory drink and made plans for the next day, when we would finally see Machu Picchu.
We arrived at the bus station at 7:30 a.m. to line up for the hair raising bus ride to Machu Picchu. These bus drivers are nuts. Miguel gave us a history lesson and tour around the highlights of Machu Picchu and after 3 hours we said farewell to our new friend. He was an amazing guide, he loves the mountains and it certainly showed. With some tears and a wave we were on our own to explore this amazing site. We can’t imagine living there but we can certainly see that they knew how to adapt to their environment. We had a 3 p.m.??? train to Poroy (just outside Cusco) so we had lunch back in Machu Picchu Village picked up packs and we were off on a 4 hour train ride. As we arrived just outside of Poroy we got picked up by our van driver who left us the day before and he drove us back to our hostel in Cusco.
We did it and we are glad we did and yes we have bragging rights but we do know that we will not try Mount Everest. Climbing a mountain was not on our bucket list so I guess we are one ahead now. Apparently the Lares trek is harder than the Inka trail.
Would we do it again NO. But we are glad we did it. The views where spectacular you could say figuratively and literally breathtaking. Our lungs are now recovering and so are our muscles. Now we are looking for flat land for a while.
The next day after a great meal of Roast Beef and all the fixin’s at the Real McCory, Cheryl and Karen hopped on the 6 p.m. bus to Nazca leaving Mark and Deb until we meet again in Panama. We miss them already.
Tidbits
Cost for the trek including: 5 donkies, 2 handlers, 2 cooks, 1 guide, all the food tents, van start and finish, train from Urubamba to Machu Picchu and from Machu Picchu to Poroy, bus round trip up to Machu Picchu ($15.50), entrance into Machu Picchu ($47.00) and one night stay at Inka Town Hostel(a double was 90US). The train from Ollantaytambo to Agua Caliente was $35US and the train from Agua Caliente to Poroy was just over $50US. All of these items were included in our price $480 per person plus $25 for sleeping bags. We rented 2 hiking poles for $5. While this trek was on the expensive end of the scale, we would recommend it highly. From those that we have talked to who paid less they got a lot less!
Day 1: We started the trek in Quishuarani 3700 m, climbed over Abra Hulliquikasa Pass at 4600m, first night at Cuncani 3780 m. 12 km, 6 hours
Day 2: 22 km, 8 hours over the Nevado Pumahuaca pass at 5000m and camped at Chapasonco Orgo 4851 valley overlooking the Scared Valley.
Day 3 – Down 4 hours to the Pumahuanca Valley then to village of Ahuamarca where we said goodbye to horseman. We picked up our van which drove us to Ollataytambo to take the train to Aguas Calientes town (Machu Picchu village). Stayed in Inka Town Hostel.
Day 4 – Caught the 7:30 a.m. bus to Machu Picchu spent the morning then train back to Poroy (just outside Cusco).
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