The Lares Trek

16th - 21st April
Before I start to tell you too much about the unfolding events of our trek, it might be best to explain what the Lares Trek is and how we came to sign up for it.
Several months ago when we started looking into booking out trip, we were told by friends that one of our main priorities was to book the Inca trail as soon as possible. The Inca trail is famously "the" trail that the Incas nobility took to get to the famous mountain top citadel of Machu Picchu and it's reputation has meant that there are thousands of people who sign up for it everyday from all over the world. Our travel agent at the time however seemed pretty relaxed about the whole affair and as such we relaxed as well. Lo and behold by the time the final tickets had been resolved it seems we had missed the boat as the Inca trail tickets were all sold out...bummer! So we took what the next best thing was which was meant to be the Lares Trek. This trek takes you on "another" inca trail used more so by traders through lush landscapes, over mountain passes and back to Agua Calientes where you catch the bus the following morning to reach Machu Picchu. Maybe not quite all the glamour but that was our only option - an it still sounded pretty fine by us.
One of the major benefits of doing an alternative trek is that there are far less tourists on the trek. In the company we went through and for the dates we set, there were some thirty people doing the Inca trail - multiply that by the countless number of operators in Cusco and you can rapidly understand how busy the famous trek gets - needless to say, toilet tales on the trek are glum. For our Lares Trek however we had the two of us, plus two more fun gals from New York - Maggie and Erin - that's all and as things went, it would turn out that we would scarcely see many other people other than the colourful locals.
Our guide Fernando seemed like a nice guy and our trek sounded pretty exciting on introduction. We would head to the Sacred Valley on the first day along with the larger group and visit the Inca ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo where we would stay the night before heading off for the official walking trek the following day. On the first day we would also stop at a project site where they are encouraging the locals to live by more traditional means; where textiles are created using natural dyes and hand woven into anything from tea cosies to thick sweaters.
It was on our night stay in Ollantaytambo that Jane first started feeling the effects of her cold - one day before a three day trek that would see us camping at 4200m - oh crap!...unfortunate timing!
So on the day or out walk, after a three our drive up trough deep green valleys we were dropped off at the Lares hot springs - a nice bonus to the start of our trek. After a warm bath and a solid lunch we were finally ready to set off on our trek just as the heavens opened. it was a cold and wet first day up past a running river, pushing through soaked foliage up to our first camp. We passed 3000m from from where the trees mostly stop growing (the only native trees that could grow at this altitude having been chopped down for firewood a long time ago) and arrived at our camp a little before nightfall. The porters and chefs that make up our party had set off early and had our tents and boiling water ready by our arrival. After another delicious meal and a few games of cards we crawled into our tents for our first cold night on the mountain.
We woke early the next morning and set off in good time for the longest day of the trek. The weather was fine but covered over a little as we headed up into the clouds. After a somewhat breathless climb (altitude) we finally hit the summit of our climb at the Lares Pass just after noon. We stayed at the 4600m pass just long enough to make an offering of thanks to the mountain (as directed by our guide - three coca leaves, a stone from lower on the mountain and a prayer to the four glaciers that surrounded us), take a few photos of the breathtaking view and witness a passing sleet/snow fall.
We quickly started our descent and stopped by a beautiful mountain lake for lunch. Later we continued down past another crystal clear lake (apparently abound with big trout) surrounded by snow capped mountains, past a waterfall and another running river down to a forested valley where we once more joined our prepared campsite in time for tea. That night at 4200m was intensely cold and we all slept in about every layer we had. When I woke at 4.00am I noticed the tent was frozen and it was a rather quick pee break. Poor Jane hadn't had a very good night at all and woke up with a very puffy face that made her look like she had been in a fight. Luckily the sun quickly filled that valley and warmed the air and after a good breakfast we headed down to lower heights to meet our departing van. From there we headed back to Ollantaytambo from where we caught a rather snazzy train that ran down along the Urubamba river gorge to the little town of Aguas Caliente. Aguas Caliente is a pretty name for a town that unfortunately doesn't live up to the expectation. Born out of tourism from the continuous flow of tourist that come through here to get to Machu Picchu, AC is a mish mash of ugly concrete hotels and restaurants in a stunningly beautiful surrounding of cloud forested steep peaks. Our hostel for the night was no exception to the mold and the news of no running water at the time of our arrival was sour news although something we were beginning to get used to in S.America. Luckily there are hot springs in town - giving the town it's name - unluckily every other person had had the same idea and the luke warm pools didn't hold their charm for long. Besides we were to have our own pools right in our room when we woke at 4.00am the next morning to find an inch of water flooding our hotel room. We cast our troubles aside and were prepared in good time for our bus ride to the mountain top Incan citadel.
A glorious morning greeted us as the bus climbed the deathly steep road to Machu Picchu. We were off in good time and the sight that greeted us at the top was one that I'll never forget. Machu Picchu is an incredibly photogenic sight and we have all seen innumerable photos of the place (you will see a lot more when we get home!) so being there yourself is slightly dream like - as if you were living in a photo landscape. We spent the morning roaming the site and being shown around by Fernando, then trudged the short but steep path to the Sun Gate for another perspective before we were "ruined" (boom boom) and headed back to AC for our connection back to Cusco. We arrived later that night and although exhausted we forced ourselves out for a departing meal with our trekking buddies.
All in all, we'd had a great time. Jane pulled through and by the end had all but recovered from her cold. We were somewhat disappointed by the all too many unseen extra costs that we felt should have been covered by the whomping original price, but even these details would not take away from the overall feeling and the countless memories.

Arrival to Cusco, Peru

16th of April
After another ordeal of a bus ride lasting some twelve hours we made it to Cusco in Peru. This little town sits at 3300m and is the continents oldest continuously inhabited city. We grabbed a dodgy brekki that gave us free wifi and quickly sought out our joining hotel for the Lares Trek (that we were to start the following day). Once there we quickly found our beds and caught up on some z's.
We woke up several hours later and set off around town to scope out the new scenery. If the bus terminal end of town hadn't quite met the image we had portrayed through stories of our friends, the historical, if not slightly touristy end certainly did. Cusco truly is a beautiful town. Many old inca stone walls have been built upon by the Spaniards to form a unique blend of architecture. There are several large squares all featuring their own church or cathedral linked by cobblestone streets, artisanal markets brimming with colourful textiles of llama or alpaca wool are stuffed into every hole in the wall opening and there are innumerable cafes and restaurants wherever you go. We were particularly happy to find Don Pimiento's restaurant, just off the main tourist paths, where you could get a three course meal and a fruit juice for 7 soles - that's about $2.60! - even very good in Peru.
Fed and watered, we headed back to the hotel for our introductory meeting for our next adventure - the Lares Trek!

Bolivia

11th to 15th April
The flight from Santiago to La Paz stopped off in the desert like landscape of Inquique airport. It was quite a sight as we flew in over the glassy pacific waters passing over the returning fishing fleet. The landscape in Inquique is almost Martian with tall sandhills looming over the narrow strip of flat dusty terrain that separates them from the bouldery shoreline. On to La Paz where a sprawl of red brick housing splays across the El Alto area and over into the canyon below. La Paz sits at 4150m and although we weren't greatly affected by the altitude, any staircase or the unavoidable steep roads would quickly pump our heartbeats up to some ridiculous rate.
We did our best to see the colourful side of town but apart from the incredible array of fabrics on show at the witches markets the town is overall pretty grubby and run down.
We took the opportunity whilst in La Paz to take on the much feared and greatly recommended Death Road. Now that was something to remember! We were pretty anxious making the call but it was one of those things you had to do - and so we did it! And my oh my! What a blast! At first we started off at 4500m surrounded by snow capped peaks. Taking a nice asphalt road you drop quickly away from the snow through the clouds till we had to pull up because a rockslide had taken the road out. This was an unforeseen problem and after quite some deliberation we jumped back in the van and took a quick detour to get us back on track. At this point we start the gravel section rarely wider than a couple meters wide that winds down along near vertical mountain sides covered in lush vegetation. Vertical drops are almost continuous along the edge with the greatest somewhere near 200m. All in all it might sound deathly scary but in truth as long as you concentrate and don't do anything stupid it's quite a breeze. The views are absolutely breathtaking and by the time we reach the bottom at 1700m we were absolutely pumped that we had done it.
Back to La Paz to pick up a few souvenirs the next day before heading on to Copacobana on the shores of lake Titicaca. It was a pretty interesting bus ride that saw us jump on boats while the bus was floated across the water to the peninsular. We also met a new friend named "Turtle" on the journey. Turtle, from Lake Tahoe, describes himself as an intellect but you couldn't help but place him the alternative basket with his lone dread hidden under his train driver hat and his choice of khaki attire. A cool interesting cat in any case and we were glad to have his company. Copacobana had a really good vibe about it and the three of us set up camp in the colourful if not slightly run down Hotel Utama. The next day we took the long and very slow boat ride out to Isla Del Sol, reputably the birth place of the Sun God, and were joined haphazardly by a lady Shamen and her aid who gave us the full rundown on praying to the sun god whilst being accompanied by drum beat and coca chewing. We decided to trek the three hour walk across the island passing by old inca ruins and a landscape very similar to that seen in the Greek islands. We were joined by a lovely older couple from Montana in the US who invited us to join them should we pass through their neck of the woods come July. Eventually after another very slow boat ride we made it back just in time to catch the bus on to Puno and eventually Cusco in Peru.

Stuffed in Santiago

7th to 11th of April
OK whoops! I'm getting a little bit behind on my updates now and my memories are starting to fade as to what exactly happened just a couple days ago. Maybe this is a point where I will refer you to Jane's email if you have access to that. Otherwise just let us know of you want to be added to the email list. I'm thinking of starting to make this a visual diary with a few key bits of additional info.
In essence over the couple days that we were in Santiago we busied ourselves with checking out a few monuments and buildings - aided by our guide Danillo who took us on a four hour trek around town - and stuffin ourselves silly sampling the local Chilean food.
Noteworthy sites were the two hills that overlook Santiago called both St Lucia and St Crystobal, the beautifully designed MIVA museum (note to self to find out who architect was), the Lorietta neighbourhood and the colourful urban art around Bellavista.
Food of note sampled include the Pastel to Choclo (mashed corn with chicken, olives, boiled egg and raisins - really good), the Paila Marina Especial (a fishy broth with muscles, clams, scallops, shrimps and fish pieces - sounds good - wasn't so great!), Mote con huesillo (sweet peach juice, with poached peach halves and soaked wheat kernels - delicious!) and the not so local Gelatti which was incredible (see Jane's face - hilarious excitement!).

Valparaiso

5th to 7th April:
The twelve hour bus journey up to Valparaiso from Pucon was very smooth. Large comfortable reclining leather chairs an plenty of leg room. If only we could fly so comfortably. My only bother, an itchy ankle - must have picked up a few mozzie bites before we left. We arrived in the colourful working harbour of Valparaiso by 9am or so, checked the map and trudged across town to our new hostel. Casa Verse Limon Hostal was perched on the hill that leads up to the Unesco protected neighbourhood of Cerro Alegre and technically outside the area of funky colourful houses (although we found our street to be just as colourful and lined with great street art everywhere that was absent in the designated areas). We spent the next couple of days taking it pretty easy, venturing out and scoping out this colourful scene, trying out local eateries and riding the local funiculars which crawl up and down the steeper hills of the town. You can't help but feel very vulnerable in these contraptions but I experienced nor heard of any incidents - not that I was asking too much. One of the highlights was heading down to the markets to enjoy a delicious battered hake and rice on good Friday - not religious but I think that the thing to do right? On Saturday I headed down to attempt to see where they landed the fish but it seemed that tourism had taken over during Semana Santa (Latino Easter) and all the local boats were taking people for scenic trips around the harbour. Not too concerned with this I headed back to the hostel to find Jane and head over to grab out bus out of town.
Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention was that the "Mozzie" bites I felt on the bus must have been something us altogether different as my ankle flared up pretty badly and the bites turned into a number of incredibly itchy blisters. In total we counted some 30 odd bites. Spider under sock maybe?

So much fun in Pucon!!!

It is with great sadness that we leave Pucon and i was very tempted to extend the date of our stay and exchange our bus tickets but in the end i guess all good things must come to an end. I will have to remember that lesson at the end of this trip again i think. Although the first activity we did in Pucon was a great anticlimax - we went horseriding with a cheaper company and quickly learnt that you get what you pay for in this here city - the following events were just so exciting, fun and beautiful that i think that i will remember this place for a very long time.

As i said the horse ride wasn´t great: On our first day in Pucon we were rather slow getting out of bed, fed and onto the streets to organise our first activity. Personally i blame the horrendous ride the night before but the fact that we only hit the streets at 2pm might be just the fact that we are starting to get the jist of the latino way of life which inbvolves rising late and staying up till the early hours of the morning. I´m not going to go too deep into this day as the horse ride which promised healthy horses running through fields and rivers didn´t really resenble the lacklustre donkeys that relunctantly carried us around the local roads and tracks whilst being pushed on and whipped by a dear old farmer who of course didn´t speak a word of english. ¿Cuales son los nombres de caballos (what are the horses names)? Ha ha ha! No tienen nombres (no names...of course - these were working horses).

Later that night we saw the weather was to be best the next day and that would be the best day in the coming week to climb the mighty Villarica Volcano which stands at 2847m.So the next morning we rose early (this time actually early! 5.30am) and headed over to an organised pick up point in the dark to head to the base of the volcano. By the time we got there a stiff breeze was blowing and the sulphuric fumes were blowing partly down the hill side. The guides give you an option at this point to call it quits and head home and try another day, or head up and assess further up the hill. Our guide seened quite confident that the wind would likely die off as the day progressed and we made the call to head on up as many others were also.
The climb was tough. Thta i must admit. Tougher that i thought it would be. Halfway up you must transfer to crampons as you pass over the glacier before moving back onto to loose rock and ruble in a steep 45 degree assent for the final hour. In total the climb took us about 5 hours to the top and about 3 hours to get back down! The warm shower that night hadn´t felt that good in a while.

Thye following day we followed the clinb which had been hard on the lower body with a little upper body exercise. Heading about a half hour out of Pucon we joined the Trancura River which runs down a series of class 3-5 rapids! FUN! Never been white water rafting before and i know that it is something that i will look forward to again. Our guide was an expert and thoroughly enjoyed throwing us down the river in every which direction or simply spinning us down over the falls. In the end he proposed we all jump in and drift down the final section which for some stupid reason we actually did. FREEZING!!! Glad i had my gopro on to capture Janes´face at the end and she shivered down the river.
Later we went out to an incredible restaurant in town called "Trawen". We had had many recommendations but were still blown away by the delicious Bacon wrapped Venison and Antarctic Krill stuffed trout! Yummo! What a day! Way to celebrate the first month of our married life together!

The only thing to do the following day was to soak it all off in the beautiful Pozones hot springs. High up in the mountains a series of natural sand bottomed pools are set along the edge of a flowing river. The weather was grey and wet that day which is why we chose this activity. Beautiful and warm and surrounded by nature we soaked our aches away.
Later that night we jumped on the bus leaving town for a twelve hour journey back up to Civilization. Valparaiso - a colourful working harbour west of Santiago - you will have a hard time to live up to Pucon!