Lares Patacancha trekking, deep into Andes

We will dedicate this day for acclimatization. We will do a light trekking and visit interesting places on the way from Cusco to Lares. There will be a lot of diversity and everything in Andes.

We will leave from Cusco around 6:45 am. First we will visit animal’s sanctuary, where we will see from short distance condors, vicunas, alpacas, lamas, pumas, bears and other Peruvian animals, all rescued from the black market.

Next we will visit Incas ruins in Pisac, which we will trek around to get familiar with famous Incan trail and also to get used to trekking on high attitude.

For a dessert there will be short break in Pisac, lunch and trip to hot springs in Lares (around 2.5 hours drive by car). After 4 hours trekking it would be perfect way to relax.

At the end we will drive to Andean village at almost 4000 m. above sea level (around 2 hours drive from Lares) where we will finish the day with dinner and rest. From here we will start whole day trekking the next day!

Trekking time: 4-5 hours
Maximum elevation: 4250 m above sea level
Accommodation at the local, Andean family house

We will wake up at 5:30 am and have breakfast in beautiful Andean scenery. Around 6:30 am we will start trekking together with lamas which, exactly like in Incas time, will carry all our stuff. Host from last night and lama’s owner will join our trip as well. We will take also cook on board, so we can have some delicious meal on the trail.

Trekking in Patacancha Valley will be finished around 5:00 pm. We will have around 1.5 hour lunch break. We will spend the night at another Andean village where we will have dinner and good time sleep.

This day we will have also new attraction which is cooking Pachamanca dish in one of the villages.

Trekking time: 9-10 hours
Maximum elevation: 4550 m above sea level
Accommodation at the local, Andean family house

After the breakfast, which is planned for 7:00 am, we will do short walk in the village in Patacancha Valley. This is ideal occasion to meet local people, including those youngest ones. At this time all school kids are going down from the mountains. They look incredible in those colorful, traditional clothes. They are focused to be on time at the classes, so it is so nice to look at this picture.

Today more history, because on the way we will have Incas and PreInca ruins. We will include them into our trekking which makes it even more interesting.
At the end we will do sightseeing in Ollantaytambo, which despite it is so small, it is the most beautiful town in Cusco region.

We will finish our trip at 6:00pm.

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Trekking time: 3-4 hours
Maximum elevation: 3700 m above sea level