Kirsty and I are about to start our Lares trek! The other 5 of our group are on the Inca Trail 4 day trek and we are going to meet them at Machu Piccu. It´s cold and we are a bit aprehensive about our abilities and going off alone into the mountains.
We are not exactly alone ... we have a guide - Ernesto and another guide is coming along to learn the route called Elvin. They are both nice. We also have a cook - Hilario a Horseman - Mario his horseman friend - Juan and Mario´s son Florentino. Oh and 5 horses. So just off to the mountains camping in the middle of nowhere with 5 men, a boy and 5 horses. Well it has been organised by Intrepid so we hope we don´t get kidnapped. We were (well I was) hoping that we may be joining a group of 8 single fit guys but alas we were by ourselves.
The winding roads
We had just driven along very windy roads from Cusco to Lares (3hrs). It was beautiful scenery but the road was pretty narrow and some of the bends were hairpin! We started our journey at the hotsprings and had a great lunch to set us off! It was very cold.
Wasp dragging spider along
The first thing we saw along the track was a large wasp killing and draging along a large spider to take it home for dinner. Hope they don´t sting humans.
It was a good and scenic trek. We started at 3000m and treked to 3,800m above sea level.
We had a few looks from the locals
Some lovely flowers
The mist was coming in
We made it to camp! It took us 3.20hrs to trek 7k to our camp! The cook and horsemen had gone on ahead and had set up camp! It was dark and pretty cold and we were happy to get a bit warmer in our tent!
The view from our tent!
Our first night camp
We stayed on the edge of a village by a river. We had a great meal in the main tent and hot Milo!(Australian hot chocolate)and cocoa tea ro help with the altitude. There was a portable toilet that was for our use only and big enough to have a wash in. We had hotwater bottles that warmed our feet. (These were a spare drinking bottle) The tents and equipment was all brand new and we were the first Intrepid travellers to go with the new tour company. We had hired sleeping bags that go down to -15 degrees so were about to find out if they worked! We also hired thermalrests aswell as the mats provided and walking sticks.
After our long trek we were ready for an early night! Not really sure how the next day would go and wether we would make it to the next camp or need to go on one of the horses.
No comments:
Post a Comment