Thursday, March 1st, 2018

Day 12 of G-Adventures Inca Heartland tour; Day 3 of the Lares Trek

01.03.2018 07:00 S 13°14.0993′ W 72°06.5704′ 3.803 masl. max 15° C, wind 11 kph from N, night temperatur above 3° C.

“Enjoy the last few hours walking on the Lares Trek from Kuyoc to Punta Carretera (3h30m 10-11km). Follow the trail to see typical Andean flora and fauna, llamas and alpacas. Descend through the valley of Pumahuanca and meet friendly local Quechua people and explore some Inca storehouses along the way. Trek 3-4 hrs to reach the town of Pumahuanca. Enjoy lunch then hop on a bus to Ollantaytambo. Continue by train to Aguas Calientes.”

Rudi is full of mercy. He let’s us sleep until 07:00 am. He always asks after dinner, when to get up. The boys always answer something like 10 am. They lack on ability to assert themselfes.

The day starts with a traffic jam in front of the toilet and hot koka tea. Ted is already stretching.

The boys get up and start talking until breakfast. They talk all the time about everything in harmony. Mulis are already geared up.

We get something like scrambled eggs. It is cold in the tent as always.

Last day: the chef prepared a cake for breakfast.

We start to hike downhill, cross a village with kids (those are the winners, they get all the rest of our pencils …) until we arrive at some inka ruins.

01.03.2018 11:00 S 13°15.5027′ W 072°07.3792′, alt. 3.411 masl,

Rudi stops and tells us inka history and the spanish conquest for an hour until Valerie catches up with Popeye. They donot see it as a conquest or colonization, since they had civilization already they still see the spanish as occupier and as pillager (what they were in fact).

It starts raining. We continue. The path is slippery.

Rudi asks us if we want to go regular or adventure and decides by himself for “Adventure”, what else?

We walk along a cliff through the valley. Left hand it’s straight down.

Finally we leave Chulpany and reach the waiting G Adventures bus.

01.03.2018 11:40 S 13°16.5411′ W 072°07.6634′ altidude 3.153 masl

We wait for Valerie. The Rudi explains further schedule and we leave for lunch.
“Oh lala seniorita.”

Lunch is not a buffet but ok. The boys kill the leftovers, as always. Before and after lunch we play shithead. Lunch runs as expected, after we recignized a 8 year old local is selling cheap Cusquena beer. No, he doesnot serve anymore. He made a fortune this afternoon:

Ted shares his britishisms and australisms he collected during the journey with me …

We drive back to Ollantaytambo. Since there is Wifi all verbal communication dies immediately. What is the password?

We eat in Mijunapaq (main reason – fastest internet in town).

I focus on food

We walk to the train to Aguas Calientes.

Good luck, the qwirkle is in the daypack.

Later the girls are tired and the boys are happy

Finally I get my birthday cake from the train waitress while all others are asleep. Happy birthday stefan!

We got off the train in Aguas Calientes. Gladys is waiting at the train station to pick us up and bring us to our hotel Andean Terra. Hot shower and a bed. We go get some musli bars in the next shop, shower and fall asleep. Next day the alarm is on 4:30 am to Macchu Piccu.