Day 14 - Last leg of the Lares Trek

We awoke to snow on the ground and a breakfast of omelets, toast and quiche. We put on every layer we had and begun our final day of the trek, which was a few hours downhill. We struggled a bit but luckily had some solid walking poles to relieve the pressure caused by walking on rocks. We trekked alongside waterfalls and rapids, sometimes having to walk through them. We barely cared since the sun was in the sky and our bodies finally felt warmth again. The hike ended in a small town and we were bused to Ollayantambo, a city we had previously visited on a tour of the sacred valley.

Then took a 2 hour train ride (Emily's first time on a train!) to the small town at the base of machupicchu. This is a really touristy place that basically has only one main strip. Our guide told us everyone living in this town works directly with tourism. We checked into a relatively nice looking hostel and had a well deserved shower! It was only after we dressed that we realized how dilapidated the hostel was but hey better than frost covered tents! Then our entire trek decided to hit the town. We walked around a bit before going to a "pub" WHICH, was really the front room of someone's house. We were leered by the ad claiming that beers were 4 for the price of 1 (turned out to be false) and that had a pool table and games. Besides for the false beer advertisement, the afternoon turned out to be great. With a little buzz and some weird techno music we had a hard time concentrating on our pool and scrabble game. Then we met the rest of the group for a quick dinner. This turned out to be the first place we actually had decent pizza. Everywhere else seems to favour cheese and dough at the cost of any other ingredient. This was probably the only benefit of being in a tourist town where everything is over priced and lacking culture. We went with Daniel to get snacks at a small store that attempted to charge us DOUBLE 51 instead of 24 soles for some drinks and crackers. Thanlfully we knew better! Then it was off to an early AMAZING sleep in a BED!