Lares Trek Day 3
Last night was much warmer than the first night. Our wakeup isn't till 7:30 but everyone wakes up earlier because it's light by 5am. It's an easy day today, and I'm feeling good. But I play it safe and just have hot chocolate and quinoa porridge for breakfast. The cooks had even baked us a cake! (I tried a little, delicious) Amazing the incredible food with the surroundings. We start out at 9:00am, down the valley. The trail isn't as steep here, and we can all go at the same pace. We stop at an Incan way-station, at at a stream for a break. Reaching the road and our bus by about 11:30am. The bus takes us to a restaurant outside Ollantaytambo rented by G Adventures. There is about an hour to wait for lunch so we relax, and look in the small shop. A great lunch put on by our G cooks for the 3 groups who finished the trek that day. Potato cakes, fried yucca, fried zucchini fritters, rice mixed with veg, chicken, beef skewers.... I know I've missed some other dishes. All very good, and with the lower altitude my appetite has come back..
Then we say good-bye to our wonderful crew, and our guides Joell and Jonathan. They made it as easy as possible for us. For me, the altitude made the trek hard, but I'm very glad I did it. And we were very lucky with the weather. No rain, and neither too hot or too cold.
We are all dropped off at a room in a restaurant in Ollantaytambo for about 3 hours to wait for the train. I spend the time checking on emails and working on my blog. (I don't have my laptop still, so have to write by hand and type in later). There is a G guide from one of the other groups to take us to the station. It is crazy busy. The train is on time, fairly comfortable with table, but no service. Skylight windows but of course it's dark. 1 1/2 hour ride but it takes slightly longer because this train has extra cars for locals and there are some stops. Very jerky ride. The station at Aguas Calientes is crazy too. So happy to see Andreas waiting for us! A 10 min walk uphill to our hotel which looks very nice for the short time I'm there. The room is very comfortable, and a shower never felt so good. My clothes and I are very stinky!
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