Day 5: Trek to Huaran

TREK OVERVIEW

After breakfast, trekkers will start their four hour trek downhill. They’ll pass farms that grow potatoes, fava beans, and many other traditional crop by hand in the traditional Incan way. Trekkers will continue descending into the Sacred Valley where they’ll feel the climate change and see crops that are different from those in the high mountains. Around the Sacred Valley people farm corn, quinoa, kiwi, peaches, avocados and other types of fruits. They’ll end their hike in Huaran village. From Huaran, they’ll catch a van into the valley to visit the Salineras salt pans in the town of Maras. At 11,000 feet above sea level, a salt water spring gushes forth and spills down the side of the mountain. Over 3,000 small evaporation chambers have been created and look as if they are tumbling down the mountainside. These have been in use since before incan times. Local families each own one of these pans and make their living supplying salt to the towns around the area. After visiting Salineras, trekkers will continue in the van for 45 minutes to the ruins of Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo which still has many incan water channels, houses and walls. After a tour, trekkers will have dinner and then catch the 7:00 PM train to Agues Calientes, the town just below Machu Picchu, where they’ll end their trek. 

TREK STATS

Starting elevation 12,305 feet

Ending elevation 8,858

Elevation lost 3,447 feet

Distance hiked 8.7 miles

Average hiking time 6.2 hours

JOURNAL ENTRY BY RHETT HAVERTY

Today was our last day of hiking down the Lares trek. Since we had reached the highest point yesterday, today was all down hill. We had another early morning waking up to the porters delivering hot coca tea to our tents at 5 am. We quickly packed up and were in the meal tent for breakfast by 5:30. After yet another stellar meal from the Alpaca Expeditions cooks we visited another family nearby where we camped. The father of the family was already up and out and off to work (presumably farming) while the mother and her son of four years was kind enough to show us their home and outfit some of us in the customary clothing of the locals. After giving the family some children’s books and markers, as well as some bread and other goods we had brought, we started our hike. The scenery was a little different than the last two days being that we were in a valley walking alongside a gorgeous river for the six miles we had left. Once we reached the end of the trail the porters were waiting on us with (yet another) great meal for lunch. After lunch we said goodbye to the crew of porters who took great care of us during our time on the mountain and hopped on a bus.

After about an hour of driving and stunning views of the Andes we arrived at a salt mine where our lead guide, Randal, explained the process behind extracting the salt from the mountain. From there we hopped back on the bus and went and tried some chicha, that is corn beer. Then on to the train station where we traveled about an hour and a half to los aguas callientens, the town we are staying at for the night located at the bottom of Machu Picchu. We had a nice buffet style dinner a restaurant then headed to the hotel. Overall, another great day on the trip.