4 Day Lares Trek & Incan Immersion to Machu Picchu

We will start at 5:00 a.m., where we will pick you up directly from your hotel and drive 2 hours to the town of Huaran (2840m) located in the Sacred Valley between Pisac and Urubamba. Before starting your walk, you will meet your horses and horsemen (arrieros). After you get ready, we’ll start the hike through the beautiful Huaran valley toward the lares andes. The first 4.5 hours will be gradually uphill until lunch. After lunch, we will continue leaving the Sacred Valley behind us, heading north following a path that climbs gently alongside the small river for 2 hours to reach our destination, the small village called Cancha Cancha where we spend the night. Cancha Cancha (3,750 m / 12,303 ft) doesn’t have modern technology and people still practice real Inca traditions. In this Inca town, 85 percent of the houses are still made up of original, old buildings, made of stone, with thatched roofs. Unlike any other town in the Lares Valley, this town has no electricity or cars. Your porters will set up your tents while you have time to meet with local children. We provide them with food and school supplies on each Lares trek we do, and we invite our travelers to share in the support of education and health in this native village. You can join us and bring whatever you want to complement the lives of these Quechua-speaking children. Next, your guide will take you to one of the local family houses, where you will learn about the locals’ lifestyle. You can watch them raise their guinea pigs and learn about traditional hand-woven textiles made from llama and alpaca wool. This will be without a doubt one of the best days of your trek. In the evening you will enjoy hot drinks and dinner and an early night to be ready for the next day.

Leaving Cancha Cancha we continue northeast through the valley, passing small stone houses with thatched roofs. After 1 hour of gradual ascent, the path flattens out for a bit before steeply climbing for 2 hours to the highest pass called Paso de Pachacutec (4758m). From there, you will be rewarded with magnificent views of Lake Pachacutec and the snowy peaks of Pitusiray. After taking some time to soak up the views, we will continue for another 3 hours walking downhill along a beautiful path, passing by lagoons, stunning waterfalls and herds of llamas and alpacas. After lunch we will catch our van for a short drive along the valley to the Lares Hot Springs camp site where you will have happy hour with hot and cold drinks and time to jump into the natural hot springs before and after dinner. The pools range from very hot to freezing cold and are all composed of pure volcanic water, which is medicinal in nature and considered to be good for your joints, muscles, stress and headaches.

After breakfast, we will visit a Choquecancha farm nearby and your time here will be filled with fun as you:

• Learn about Andean agriculture
• See how music and dance are incorporated into the fabric of Andean farming culture
• Drink ‘chicha’, learn the importance of the sacred drink, and learn proper Andean drinking etiquette
• Try on clothing woven by local Choquecancha women
• Eat lunch featuring traditional Andean food

After lunch we take our private transport to Ollantaytambo which you’ll have some time to wander around. After dinner we’ll catch the train to Aguas Calientes where we stay the night in a hotel.

We will wake up early in the morning in order to catch the sunrise at Machu Picchu (weather permitting). You will have a two-hour guided tour by your private English-speaking guide. After that, you will have time to explore Machu Picchu by your own. Those who have tickets to Huayna Picchu will have time to climb the mountain, which takes approximately an hour and a half, round-trip. When you are done exploring, you can either take a bus, or walk, down to Aguas Calientes for lunch (not included). Following this, you will take the train back to Ollantaytambo, and then transfer to Cusco, where you will be brought back to your hotel.