We were picked up early at our house in a minivan with four fellow hikers and our guide to drive to the Urubamba River Valley. There we stopped in Colca for breakfast and a visit to the market. There we purchased coca leaves to give to our trek helpers and bread and little toys to give to children from the village where our horsemen lived. Then were were off up a side canyon and over the mountains for another 3-4 hour drive to Lares. Here we vistited a natural hot spring bath with warm mineral water. We thought we would have to carry all of our belongings on our hike, so we packed minimally (one outfit plus warm clothes) and elected to not bring bathing suit and towel, so we didn’t actually swim in the hot springs. It turned out that we had horses that would carry our belongings (except our day packs) so we could have packed more than we did.
This was our first introduction to our trek cook, Walter. He had a propane tank, burners, real dishes, a table, chairs, tablecloth, sugar bowl, a cooking tent, and a dining tent. After the hot spring we got our first meal prepared by him. Amazing! We had a 3 course lunch with soup, stuffed avocados and spaghetti, as well as juice and tea.
Then we met our horsemen and started our hike. The first day we hiked 4-5 hours on a gradual uphill through farm country and farther and farther into the Andes. At night we stopped in a little village to camp. The horsemen had arrived before us and set up the tents, the dining and cooking facilities, and even a bathroom tent (which enclosed a hole in the ground, but was private). We had “tea” which was popcorn, biscuits, and hot drinks, played cards, got our stuff unpacked and then had another amazing dinner. We felt like we were at a nice restaurant, not camping in the middle of the Andes. Our fellow hikers were a couple from Australia and New Zealand, two college students from Minnesota, and a flight attendant from Holland. The one from Holland had stomach problems the day before our trek so she skipped the hike and met us 3 days later in Ollantaytambo. After dinner our guide showed us the ceremony that they local people use to give thanks to the earth and to get good luck. They purchase little packages of seeds, nuts, rice, grains, candies, confetti, llama fat, fur, hematite, powders. They empty the little packages one by one onto a piece of paper, each one giving thanks for what it represented. They they arrange coca leaves around the edges and make wishes, burn some little incense logs, and they bury the whole thing to give back to Mother Earth. They we drank Inca Rum, which was something like tea, orange juice, and rum.
It dipped below freezing at night (everything was frozen to ice in the morning) and became really foggy. We were all really cold. We wore every layer we owned, inside our sleeping bags inside our tent and were still pretty cold. We marveled at the local people who live in homes that have no doors, wear sandals and bare legs, and don’t seem to be cold.
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