Day 4 - Sacred Valley

After a good breakfast and a cup of coca tea, we set off about 08:00 in two minibuses with our day rucksacks, small camping bags and sleeping bags.

We drove through the Sacred Valley, passing vendors selling guinea pigs being roasted on the roadside and sold either on sticks or wrapped up with just their back legs sticking out. Naomi was horrified! 

The Sacred Valley is very fertile and farmed by families. They grow 80 varieties of potatoes, 4 varieties of quinoa and 60 varieties of corn. We stopped briefly on the side of the road and José explained the history of the valley. There were some local ladies selling their wares and we bought an alpaca scarf each for 10 sols.

We drove a bit further and stopped at Calca to visit a market where you could buy almost anything. We were amazed at the local produce, (vegetables, fruit and cut flowers).

Here we bought a basketball, pencils and books to give to children that we will be meeting at a school in the mountains. We loved the little mototaxis that buzz around ferrying people and produce. They're like the Asian tuk-tuks, a motorcycle with a framework around it. They can't be used in Cusco as the engines won't last long at that altitude.

We returned to the minibuses and drove up to the start of our walk, at 3,660m. The walk took us through small villages, stunning valleys with the fast flowing River Urubamba bordered with eucalyptus trees providing welcome shade and a lovely fragrance as we walked.

We climbed up to 4,105m in our walk and were met at the top by our porters who had prepared us lunch of chicken, lamb, corn, avocado, sweet potato and yuca (a root vegetable that grows in the mountains). Dean made himself a sweet potato crisps and Tabasco sandwich, very healthy! We found the walk pretty tough and were quite breathless at times but others in the group were suffering quite badly.

When we had finished eating the weather had turned cold so we all wrapped up and it was decided that we would take the minibuses to our camp site rather than walk as it was getting late and the clouds were rolling in.

A few of us were struggling with the altitude including Annette who had a stonking headache. As we descended, our symptoms subsided, or it may have been the paracetamol kicking in!

During our 1.5 hour minibus journey we passed awesome scenery as we made our way down the mountain side and some pretty hairy passing of lorries on the narrow roads. We saw local ladies making their way down with their herds of llama, alpaca and donkeys.

We arrived at our camp site at dusk (3,800m). It was amazing. The moon was out, we could see snow on the mountain top in the distance and we were amongst the clouds. Fantastic!

We prepared our stuff in our tent (we had a 3-man tent to ourselves) and then met up in the mess tent for dinner (butternut squash soup, trout and vegetables, then baked bananas). It was delicious. And, yes, Annette ate trout!!

Everyone turned in for the night at about 20:15.