Around the World in 180 Days: End of Lares Trek

Lares Trek Day 2:

We woke up around 5 in the morning; breakfast was banana pancakes. Drank lots of coca tea for the altitude.

We had a very long slog of 5 hours to the lunch break, but the major ascent was even until the afternoon (only a minor one in the morning). Often it was too much work climbing to enjoy the scenery.

After a big uphill, a big downhill, and a medium uphill we reached lunch, utterly exhausted. We were nodding off while Hudson (our guide) told us about the Incas and some Russian tourists who carried their own supply of vodka. Three little girls played in a pool of frigid water outside. Despite misgivings--misgivings not helped by the candy wrappers on the trail--we gave them candy from the stash we were told to bring.

Miraculously recharged after lunch and an attempted nap we continued going up the pass. This was the highest point in our trek--4500 meters at the top, and a climb of 700. Lots of snow at the top. Then a long descent, camping the second night perched above a valley and sheltered by some big rocks. Attempts to communicate our desire for tea in our tent were unavailing. Semolina soup and faux meat for supper. The three of us slept in the same tent and were marginally warmer. That night it started out with thunder and lighting, but switched to snow. We woke to two or three inches.

Lares Trek Day 3:

Porridge in a metal cup and a salty omelet for breakfast, and my mother averted a caffeine headache with 5 bags of tea. Then a quick march of about two hours downhill to the village where we were to meet our car to Ollantay. We waited a couple of hours once we were there, inducing grumbling about not having slept later and the needlessly fast pace of our walk. Saw a sow and her piglets, a beautiful foal, and a friendly german-sheperd-like dog. Lunch was in a grassy area next to a little soccerfield, than a farewell to our horseman. All our gear and the three of us crammed into the back of a station wagon, while in the front sat the driver, Hudson, and our cook sitting on the gear-shift. Car safety is not a big priority here--most cars don't have seatbelts, and I am quickly losing the habit of looking for it.

In Ollantay we had refreshments at a restaurant we had visited on our last trip there. We took packer lunches with us to Aguas Calientes, and it was really nice to sit outside and look at the ruins until it was time to head to the train station. The trainride was unremarkable, but it tracked a rushing river and we got to see the 82 KM marker, the start of the Incan trail. It lasted about an hour and half, but they had only a few songs that played over, and over, and over.
The train station in Aguas Calientes is a tourist trap--you step off the train and right into a maze of people selling you things. Fortunately, we found our way out and to our hotel without too much trouble. We crashed that night, enjoying the shower (that acually had more pressure than a dripping faucet!) and running water and lack of sleeping bags-on-the-ground.