The Lares Valley - day 1

Poor night´s sleep, up at 4.30am. Breakfast at 5.
Both of us still feeling less than average.
Picked up by the trek company and on the road by 5.45.
We warned the guide and the driver that we were not feeling 100% and asked for the drive to be slower than usual. Traffic was light at that hour of the morning and we headed up the familiar road back towards Calca in the Sacred Valley
At Calca, we stopped for a toilet break and to pick up the reminder of the entourage. 
I needed some fresh air so we walked around the local market for 15 mins, then it was back in the car to head towards Lares.
The road for about 50% of the journey was sealed, but a typical peruvian mountain road with lots of switchbacks. As we ascended, the landscape changed back again to alpine.
We had a brief break at a high pass at 4,461m for a photo stop and then back into the car for the descent down to Lares.

 



Breathtaking vista - one of my favourite photos of the trip!



 I was feeling nauseated, but about 15 mins out of Lares, Jack had to stop the car and get out. (And yes, he was then sick!) We had a break for about 20 mins while he tried to compose himself and our guide tried various remedies to help him feel better - natural mint leaves found by the roadside crushed in his hands and then inhaled, and he also brought out a bottle of 70% alcohol for him to inhale.

Knowing we were not far from our destination, we got back into the car and continued down into the Lares Valley and about 20 mins later arrrived at the Lares hot springs on the outskirts of the town. Jack was still not feeling well so he rested and napped on the lawns, while I has a dip in the hot springs. I soaked in the medium temperature pool for about 30mins and then also had a short nap in the sun, before lunch was served to us.

The Lares Hot Springs

Tables and chairs were brought out, tablecloth and napkins. A soup, followed by a beautiful avocado salad

freshly prepared by the chef. I tried to eat as much as I could but only managed about half. Jack felt a little bit better by now. We has some coco mate (tea) and also some camomile tea to try and settle our stomachs.

The springs were our departure point for our trek up the valley and we left at 1220. Carlos our guide was mindful of how poorly we were feeling and led us off at a nice slow peruvian plod pace, stopping every 15-20 mins to drink and take in the views. We followed a river for most of the afternoon heading steadily uphill towards the town of Huacahusi.

 

 

 

The afternoon was cool and cloudy and after about 90 mins the clouds looked threatening. It started to drizzle and it continued to become heavier over the next 30 mins, eventually becoming quite a soaking rain.
The nausea, altitude and exertion was all catching up with me, and when Carlos said there was another 30 mins till camp, I reluctantly agreed to finish the afternoon on horseback. After all, the horse wasn't there for a lazy afternoon of sightseeing! I felt like a queen riding through town on horseback led by the able horseman, Santiago.
We arrived at camp at 3.45, ahead of schedule.The campsite was sited on the edge of a local farmer´s property. We and Carlos had tents, while the entourage set up camp in one of the outbuildings.  I was exhausted and almost collapsed into the tent. I decided to have a nap before dinner, and then it happened.
Nausea, then vomiting, then diarrhoea. And so it continued for the next 3 hours. I managed to only eat half a bowl of soup for dinner, and plied myself with drugs.
Meanwhile Carlos was trying to workout whether to cancel the next days walk or not.
Early to bed, I managed to sleep most of the night, woken several times by the sound of light rain on the tent.
What will tomorrrow bring?

Back to Cuzco.....

Today was a travelling day and a preparation day for our trek.

We received a phone call before departing Aguas Calientes from our tour guide asking if we minded being upgraded from our 3 star hotel in Cuzco to a 5 star hotel as the 3 star hotel was overbooked!!

We reluctantly agreed and couldnt believe our luck!!!!

We had a lazy morning, walking around Aguas Calientes, found a french patisserie and had pastries and baguettes for morning tea and lunch respectively.

A pedestrian walkway enroute to our hotel

Looking back down towards the Plaza De Armas

The only vehicles allowed in town - trains and buses

At about 1pm, the heavens opened which was OK for us because we were already at the train station just about to board our train back to Ollanta which left at 1.30pm. However,this meant there wasnt much of a view from the train.

At Ollanta, we collected our luggage which had been stored at the hotel, found our driver and we headed back to Cuzco. The journey was about two hours via Chinchero which was a farily windy road. By the time we got back to Cuzco, we were both feeling a little green.

We checked in to the Casa Andina Private Collection hotel which was like another world! Opulent and decadent are just two of the words Icould use to describe it.

Our room had a kingsize bed, a separate living area and a huge bath!

What a shame we both felt quite sick! And only 12 hours to enjoy it !!!!!

We met with the trek guide and his associate to pick up the duffle bags we needed to pack for the trip. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that we were the only two people booked onto the trek - with five people looking after us - a guide, his associate, two horsemen and a chef. The bad news?.....a 5 am pick up! I just couldnt think about getting up at 4am, so we negotiated and got an extra half an hours grace....

By this stage it was 6pm. We needed to get some laundry done so we had enough clean clothes for the trek, so we bundled what we needed done into a bag and set off looking for a laundry that could do an express service in 2 hours. Luckily we found one not far from the hotel, who could have it done by 9pm.

We went back to the hotel and decided to splurge on room service. Both not really feeling very hungry, we ordered a entree, main and desssert and shared. I took some anti emetics just so I felt like eating and managed a little. We packed, I had a bath and then waited for the laundry to be delivered. 9pm came and went, the laundry never arriving so Jack walked around to the place. It was closed. We resigned ourselves to having limited clothing for the trek and went to bed. We were telephoned by reception about half an hour later and told that the laundry had been delivered!

We finally got to bed some time after 10, with a 4.30 am early morning wake-up call!

Day 3 at Machu Picchu

Jack was feeling pretty fatigued from his efforts yesterday and was not keen on any more peak bagging.

He wanted to explore more of the site using his guidebook. I really wanted to see MP from three different vantage points and was keen to climb Machu Picchu Mountain. It was also the highest peak at 3082m. That was one of the reasons I didn't want to do the Temple of the Moon circuit yesterday

Jack's view of Machu Picchu Mountain

The Cameron brothers were also keen to do MP mountain, so the three of us booked on.

We caught the 8am bus up to the site. It was another fine and warm morning. The checkpoint entry gate is along the Sun Gate Track and the walk is restricted to 400 people per day. However, the full quota is not normally reached, most preferring to do the Huayna Picchu hike instead

We started at 8.45. The walk is mainly steps, which was not to my liking as the steps are usually very steep and not easy for my little legs to climb, even with the help of my walking poles.

I was also feeling the effects of the previous week's walking, but I tried to find a slow plodding rhythm. The track was also shaded in parts by forest which helped keep us cool on the ascent.

There were many good viewpoints to stop and look at the MP site, which was getting smaller in size, the higher we were climbing.

The boys could have probably got up the mountain in half the time, but they were very patient and waited for me as I climbed slowly but steadily. Thanks guys!

We reached the summit in just over one hour and the 360 degree views were fantastic. This peak was 500 metres higher than Huayna Picchu and the panorama was amazing! My three peaks challenge was done!

 

Breathtaking!

 We spent 20 min enjoying the views, snacked, took some photos and then descended.
After a 45 min descent, I left the brothers at the Sun Gate track junction. They were off up to Intipunku and I met Jack down at the MP site by the Inca fountains. We found a nice lunch spot on the lower terraces where we watched the clouds start rolling in over the mountains. Rain was on its way.

There were still several places I wanted to revisit with Jack, so we again looked around the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Sun and then with the weather looking very threatening, we headed off towards the exit.

We were almost tearful when we turned around to take one last look at the MP site and realised we had finally visited the number 1 place on our bucket list and that it was done and dusted. It had felt like all of my childhood Xmases had been rolled into one surreal experience!

There was a downpour of rain for about 2 hours, but then it cleared late afternoon. We played cards, had a very happy hour, or two and then had dinner at a very fancy restaurant, one of the best in town. French cuisine and one of the best meals that we have had all trip. Beautiful way to spend our last night at Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu - Day 2

Up early and boarded the 7.06am bus up to MP

No queues this morning, we were inside the site at 7.30. With not many people around, we were now having the MP experience we had envisaged.

We had a couple of hours of exploring before our Huayna Picchu climb which was booked for 10am.

Jack thought it would be good to explore the lower sections of the site as these were the areas which were the last ones that the guided tours visited and would be relatively quiet for a while.

He was right. We explored the Temple of the Condor, the Unfinished Temple and the Sacred Rock.

At 9.30 we headed towards the entrance for the HP walk. Already some of the 7am starters were finishing and boy did most of them look tired and sweaty! All agreed that it was worth the effort.

In a way, I had been dreading this walk ever since we had looked a a couple of people posting their walks on YouTube before we left. It looked pretty serious with some very steep sections and sheer drop offs. Only 400 people are allowed to do the walk each day, 200 people at 7am and the others at 10am. We had chosen the 10am walk in case of foggy weather. Luckily today the weather was perfect with clear skies.

We managed to grab a seat on a rock just behind a couple who were at the front of the queue. At 9.45, the officials at the checkpoint announced that we could start. Jack and I bolted to the gatehouse and were second in line. We had to show our entry tickets and passports and then fill in a registration book which is used to sign you in and out of. Our starting time was 9.50.

We headed along the path, descending first to a saddle and then we started the serious climbing. The track was mainly stepped, and very steep with lots of switchbacks. In several places there were fixed metal ropes to assist with balancing. We encountered several people returning from the 7am walk. Now accustomed to the pace required for walking at altitude, I maintained a slow but steady pace. We had already decided that Jack would head off up to the summit at his own pace. He bolted off and eventually overtook the first couple. I plodded on and was grateful for the 2 walking poles and also the good training we had done for this trip. With a steady rhythm I climbed, stopping only a couple of times to let people descending pass. I arrived at the first vantage lookout  and took in the view.

I looked up and could see Jack at the summit already. I paused briefly for a photo and then continued upwards, via a very narrow tunnel, arriving at the summit in 35 mins. I was very proud that no-one had overtaken me on the ascent, knowing that there were some very loud fit American guys not far behind me when we were queued up at the start.

Jack was very keen to move on to do the extra walk around to the Temple of the Moon so after another very brief photo stop, he headed off with plans to meet me back at the track junction on the descent.

I was happy to revel in the success of bagging this peak and sat down to enjoy the view from the summit of HP. There was another couple that arrived not long after, an Australian couple, so we had a short chat about each others travels and took photos of each other. After about 20 mins, I decided I should head down as I wasn't sure how long or difficult the descent would be. I followed the arrows which led down towards the storehouses. The path was literally rocks sticking out of the foundations of these storehouses on a precariously steep trail. There were no handholds or ropes or cables to use and to the right of these storehouses was a sheer dropoff of about 300 metres. This was going to be a challenge. I leant in to the building and used it as a support and slowly inched my way, one step at a time. It was very nerve wracking, but I had to keep my cool. I safely negotiated the 25 or so steps and got down to the storehouses proper.

Looking down at the storehouses from the summit

The treacherous staircase down to the storehouses

Not for the faint hearted!

 

The view of MP from here was not as good  and was obscured by some of the forest vegetation.

I decided to keep descending before I lost my nerve completely.

I looked down towards the next section and could see the Australian couple halfway down. At that stage, they were going down backwards, using the stone steps like rungs of a ladder. There were about 3 times the amount of steps in this section. I gritted my teeth and steeled myself for this next section.

My first approach was to tackle the steps going down on my bottom, taking one at a time. There was no way I was looking down to where I was heading otherwise the vertigo and fear would have taken over. I got about a third of the way down and realised that my walking poles were more of a hindrance than a help. I stopped and slowly packed them away into my daypack and then decided to then use the backward ladder technique the other Australian couple had used. I turned around gingerly and ever so slowly took one step at a time downwards. I managed to keep my fear under control with some deep breathing. The descent seemed to take an eternity. I was about 80%of the way down when I thought I could hear someone behind me coming up!

I glance behind and sure enough a young American guy was wanting to overtake me, enquiring "are you coming down?". It took all of my nerve not to start swearing at him, but not wanting to lose my cool, all I could reply was "Yes, do you mind!!!". He moved aside onto a terraced area, and I continued down, finally reaching one of the track junctions.

I couldn"t believe that I had done that all by myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This track junction was where there was an arrow marking the usual route to the summit, so that there was one route up and another one down in a anti-clockwise fashion. This was the route I had taken. Apparently Jack had not seen this arrow because a group of people were in front of it, so he ascended via the steep stone staircase that I had just descended.

I continued down the track as I still had to meet Jack at the Temple of he Moon track junction. The descent was much easier, especially with 2 poles to help.

I met up with Jack and we decided to climb Mini Peak. We headed off, taking the side track and after having to use a rope to help climb up a rocky outcrop, we made it to the summit. After a few more photos, we headed down and reached the registration checkpoint just before 1245.

Bat Girl!

Machu Picchu Mountain in background - tomorrow's goal

Another amazing view of Machu Picchu

We were ecstatic and jubilant at another goal achieved - Huayna Pichu was always going to be a real challenge. I was happy to have done the two peaks, but jack had really excelled doing all of the circuit!!!!!!!

We met the Camerons for lunch. They had already finished touring the site, having got up even earlier than us and arrving at the site before 6.30am.

The Six Amigos

After a lunch break, we decided to spend the afternoon walking up to the Sun Gate, another one of the main vantage points for good views of the MP site. The Camerons wanted to visit the Inca Bridge, but enroute to the checkpoint, we were stopped by officials. The Inca Bridge track was closed for approx 1 hour. They decided to head home.

The route to the Sun Gate was still open, so we continued on with our plans. The afternoon was very warm and after the morning´s efforts, we were a little fatigued.

The path up to the Sun Gate is one of the original Inca roads and is the last section of the official Inca Trail. It had several sites to look at on the way, more ruins and an old cemetery. About a third of the walk was shaded by the forest which was very welcome. We stopped at one of the ruins for a toilet break, and jack finished off one of his drinks. As he was attempting to put the drink bottle back into his day pack, it slipped out of his clutches, rolled over the ledge and down into the jungle, most definitely out of reach. Oops, luckily we still had enough water for the walk!

On the Inca Trail

Halfway to Intipunku

We reached the Sun Gate in 1 hour. There were quite a few people there as a couple of hiking groups were just finishing the Inca Trail. One of the groups was from the UK and not long after we arrived there was a lot of commotion as the last member of their group was coming up the trail. Apparently this lady, a Japanese-American was the oldest person to complete the Inca Trail, at 78 yo!!! We all applauded her arrival.

We enjoyed another magnificent view of MP with the afternoon sun blazing down on its western flanks for about 20 mins and then headed back down.

Another beautiful view of Machu Picchu

Enough sightseeing for one day, we caught the bus back down the mountain. We were tired but exhilarated!

Rum and Colas were the drink of choice at Happy Hour tonight and then we had tacos for dinner.

PS - Later we heard the reason the track to Inca Bridge was closed earlier that day was because there had been a death! Apparently a man in his 60´s collapsed, had a heart attack and despite CPR, he died.