Day 1: Lares - Huacahuasi
- 06.00 Pick up from your hotel, private transportation to the village of Lares.
- We will drive for about 1 hour over asphalted road to the village of Calca. From here we will take an unpaved road for about two and a half hours to the village of Lares, while enjoying spectacular landscapes.
- 09.30 Arrival to Lares, where we have breakfast. After breakfast we will have time to enjoy the thermal baths, hot mineral baths allocated between the mountains, outside the village centre.
- 12.30 Lunch. After lunch we will start the first part of our trek. Our destination is the the traditional Andes community of Huacahuasi. Habitants of this village are known for their fine weaving crafts. Here will be our campsite on our first night. Todays walking distance is approximately 4 hours. We will walk trough the River Trapiche valley on a slightly ascending road till we reach the small village of Huacahuasi at 3800 metres.
- Dinner and overnight in tents.
Day 2: Huacahuasi - Patacancha
- We will wake up at 05:30 to have an early breakfast. After breakfast we have to depart for a steep uphill part of our trek. The scenery is one of potato farmlands, Andean flowers and herds of lamas and alpacas. We hike up till we reach the Ipsayccasa pass with an altitude of 4300 metres. From this point we will have great views on the glacier ´Veronica´ (5700 metres) From the pass we walk further for about 20 minutes to the Ipsayccocha (Ipsay Lake) where we find Andean water birds.
- We will have lunch at the lake side, if we are lucky we can eat fresh trout from the lake.
- We walk further down until we get to the heart of all Quechua communities ´Patacancha´ at 3700 m. This is also a weaving community and the people are dressed in their own handmade traditional clothing. After spending some time visiting the village we will accommodate our tents for the night nearby.
- Today´s walking takes about 6 and half hours. This second day is the hardest day of the hike.
- Dinner at the campsite, overnight in tents.
Day 3: Patacancha- Ollantaytambo
- We will have breakfast at 06:30 and depart from Patacancha at 07:00. On this last part of the trek, with the village of Ollantaytambo as our destination we will walk great part over a main road. Most of today´s route is downhill. We will walk for about 2 hours to Huilloc, where we can buy beautiful textiles from the locals of this community. From here we continue our way to Marcacocha and Pallata where we will rest and have lunch.
- After lunch we will hike up for about an hour to the Inca Fortress of Pumamarca, the most interesting part of today´s route. The fortress is a very well preserved archaeological site visited by few tourists. After this visit we walk down towards Ollantaytambo where we will arrive at around 16.00.
- For those who want there is still some time to visit the ruins of Ollantaytambo.
- Dinner at a tourist restaurant and overnight in a hostel in Ollantaytambo.
Day 4: Ollantaytambo - Machu Picchu - Cusco
- Breakfast in the hostel.
- At 08:30 our train to Machu Picchu will depart from the train station in Ollantaytambo. In Machu Picchu we will first visit the site accompanied by our guide. After that there is some time for everyone to walk around by themselves, visit Machu Picchu village (Aguas Calientes) and have lunch.
- In the afternoon we take the train back to Cusco where we arrive at around 21:00. In Cusco a pick up and transfer to the hotel will be provided for.
|
