Cusco
This time a 21 hour bus trip, again in an awesome bus and some great scenery as we travelled through the snow capped Andes on the way to an elevation of 3000m. Cucso is a beautiful heritage city, paved with cobblestones, dominated by lovely old buildings, and filled with the colour of traditional Peruvian Dress. It is quite the tourist town as it is the leaping point to the world famous Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu and the Sacred Valley.
As altitude sickness can be quite nasty we spent the first couple of days of our stay aclimatising and exploring Cusco at a snails pace. .........................
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One of the earthquake proof Inca walls - the only buildings in the area to survive Cusco's many earthquakes
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We returned to Cusco after our trek to Machu Picchu. There was a big week long fiesta where the centre of Cusco was overtaken by parades of dancing, singing and driking locals.
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| Steph getting her hair wrap with beads and string.... |
There were plenty of alpaca and llama based handicrafts to buy, and we finally got to the churches and a museum or two the day we left for Arequipa.
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| Steph's fav from the museum |
It took us a couple days longer than expected to leave Cusco and get to Arequipa due to some protesting and blockades on the road to Arequipa and at the Peruvian-Bolivian border.We originally planned to head across the border into Bolivia, but that looks doubtful at the moment.
The Lares Trek to Machu Picchu
As we had no idea when we would be in Cusco and able to get to Macchu Pichu we were unable to book the Inca Trail the required 3-4 months in advance to guarantee a spot. We decided to do an alternate trek of the Andes, called the Lares Trek, that covers 46km in 4 days and ends with Macchu Pichu. This was much less of a touristy trek and involved trekking through farmland and small local villiages.
DIA UNO
4am wake up, its FREEZING! 4:30am downstairs waiting to be picked up. We drive a couple of hours to the start of the trek in a remote town called Quishuarani at 3700m. We get our breakfast and meet our horseman who will be carrying our tents etc.
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| Kids playing before school just before we headed off |
We start up a grassy hill and quickly we are out of breath, the scenery is pretty amazing, no one around, the occasional farm, mostly which consist of one small mud brick/thatched roof house and a stone wall fence. Hew must be feeling a bit crook as he is not his usual "get to the front and leave steph behind" self. After a while we come across a woman lying on her stomach, chewing cocoa leaves while watching her llamas. Very peaceful!
The first pass was called hualcacasa (4400m). But first we have to get to a lake at 4200m. We walk for what seems like hours, along the way we begin to see peaks of nearby mountains shining in the sun. It looks like snow but is really glalcial ice.The land is very barron and sparce, as our guide keeps telling us dont worry you cant get lost, there is no where to lose you. Finally we get to the lake, it's really pretty and our first meeting point. The fast people go ahead and wait for us at other points. After a rest and some snacks we head off up to the first pass which we can now see. There are an older couple in their 60's - Maree and Dave from Australia (add strong aussie accent - they are from Brissie). Maree is NOT coping with the altitude and gets put on the medical horse. We make it to the first pass evetually, out of breath but in awe of the scenery.
Hew didn't go on the medic horse, even after a Bear Grylls moment behind a rock (ie Gastro.. a thumping headache and stomach ache)
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| Isac the tour guide with Hew admiring the view |
We head to our lunch spot, seven lagunas. It is at slightly lower altitude, Maree gets put on emergency oxygen. The tents are set up before we are there, a cooking tent as well as a dining tent. And chairs and tables!!! Luxury... Lunch was good, two courses. After a good rest we head on to a small town where we will make our first camp. We were meant to do a second pass for the day but were too slow. Most of the walk was downhill after lunch, but still tricky. The tracks we are using are very uneven, slippy, rocky, gravely, and sometimes wet.
About an hour before we reach camp the sun goes behind a nearby peak. COLD! FREEZING! Everybody gets out gloves, beanies, etc except me, they are in my rucksack! Oh well, coldness it is! Just before our camp we saw chinchillers - a cross between a brush tail possum and a hair, Strange. We all trudge down the mountain and into the spot we are camping. The tents again are all set up including our small Domes, thank god! Time for warmer clothes...Hew is looking worse for wear so he drugs up and goes to bed until dinner.
Before dinner the rest of the group get popcorn and matte de coca (coca tea), then a three course dinner! Early to bed for an early start to catch up on the slow day...
DAY 2
Overnight it wasn't much below zero. Quick brekky and we are off. Today we have to do two passes as we missed one yesterday. This is the plan....walk, snack, walk, lunch, walk, camp. Leave 6:30am, arrive 6:30pm. So off we go... We pass more farms, hills, llamas, snow peaks, locals, and lakes. After a long walk we reach the first pass of the day called Qolqecasa (4200m). Then after a short break we descend to a lake surrounded by reeds.
Next we descended into a nearby valley then started up again to our lunch spot. At the bottom of the valley there were some local women selling handicrafts. I bought a bracelet. The uphill is getting harder now, after what seemed like forever, we, reached the lunch spot, Chaqchapata (3950m). After another tasty lunch, its time to tackle our final pass.
Up up up...we must be nearly there....no, up up....what are those horses doing? up up up....this is not much of a track, follow that horse....up up up up up....and finally we make it. Not much air up here at 4600m. Auroracasa done....We descend back down to another lake and notice the scenery is changing. We are out of the brown andies and into the green andies. We are noticing trees and shrubs. It is getting REALLY COLD now, we finally head up over one small last hill and down to the queunas valley to our camp at mantanay (3900m)
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| The highest pass, 4600m |
This camp is alot more open. Behind us leading into the valley is an ice capped peak. A river runs next to the camp and all around there is small spongy grass in small pools of water. The wind cuts through you. It howls down the valley and through our camp. The one foot stone wall doesn't do much. It is definately a puffy coat night tonight. If only I had puffy pants, gloves, socks, beanie, and shoes. Still wasn't cold in bed though, thank god! although the hot water bottles they gave us to go to bed with were feet savers.
DAY THREE
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| Must of been cold overnight.... |
The next morning we headed down, down, down. Our last bit of walking. We made it out to the lunch spot after a couple of hours. After a tasty lunch (stuffed and beer battered chillies YUM!) After lunch we all got on the bus to head to Ollantaytambo to get the train to Aguas Callientes. The first "bus",we all pilled into a mini van and sat on our plastic camping chairs. Ollantaytamboo is part of the Sacred Valley, there is a main square surrounded by mountains with some inca relics and terracing. We had some free time to wander around. We checked out some ruins then grabbed a beer on one of the balcony bars. We watched a man trying to sell a chopped up bull out of the boot of his car - the carcus sitting on some newspaper and the four hairy legs in a bucket...lovely.
We caught the train to Aguas Calientes from Ollantaytambo a town in the sacred valley. The train is a scenic 2 hour ride along the mountain ranges. Lots of snow capped mountains, farms, and small towns. Straight to our hostel from the train, finally a shower some dinner and an early night.
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| Some ruins at Ollantaytambo |
DAY 4 - Machu Picchu!!!
Up at 4 for a 4:30 breakfast to line up for the early buses to MP to catch the sunrise. The line seemed really long, but didn't take longer than 20 minutes to get on a bus. Bus after bus after bus would make the windy trip up to 2400m to the peak where Machu Picchu sits. Some enthusiastic people walked from the town up to Machu Picchu, not what I call fun. They had to get up really early to get there by sunrise, the looks on their faces were classic as the buses fly past them and they realise they are not beating the crowds...
It is still dark when we arrive and was really eerie as the surrounding mountain peaks are covered in cloud. We head to the best viewpoint and wait. We stayed and watched the sun slowly creep over the hills and valleysand make it's way onto Machu Picchu.
Next we wind our way through the buildings and pathways. Some pretty impressive structures, including a sun dial that predicts the summer and winter solaces as well as the change of seasons by the shadow cast by the dial (in the shape of a llama head!). The irrigation system which supplied fresh water from the mountains throughout the entire complex was also impressive, the many channels and wells are almost hidden.
The stonework is out of this world, to think all of this was done without machinery and by lugging in huge stone from the surrounding mountains. And all the incas wore on their feet were sandles!! Our feet had barely survived for three days in hiking boots!
To earthquake proof the buildings the Incas used ball bearings made out of rock from fallen meteorites, they were hidden in the joins of the rock. These joins were so tight and precise that no morter was needed in between the stones.
We trekked up to the Sun gate, which is the 'classic' photo of MP. It was an hour round trip, and quite hard work, but well worth the effort as the view was crazy with the panaromic of the huge mountains surrounding the site.
To think that the place was never finished is remarkable as when the Spanish invaded the Incans fled the site to ensure they never found it.
