DAY 1 – Cusco – Yanacocha
Meals: lunch and dinner
Pickup at your hotel in the morning (around 6.00 am) and we drive to the town of Calca where we will stop for a break before continuing the drive for a further 3 hours to Qiswarani at an altitude of 3700 meters - here we will meet with the horsemen and horses that will carry our camping equipment. Once the mules and horse are loaded we will start our trek ascending a mountain trail up to a beautiful lagoon at 4200 meters. We will rest to catch our breath and take in the view and then continue onto the pass of Hualcacassa which offers us wonderful views of snowcapped peaks and some lagoons. We will descend a little and stop for lunch. After lunch we we climb again to the pass of Qolqecasa (4200 meters) and then continue onto Yanacocha where we will camp for the night.
DAY 2 – Yanacocha – Mantanay
Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner
After a good breakfast we start our second day's trekking and we will walk for about 2 hours, passing through quaint Andean Villages before we reach another ascent taking up for about 3 hours to the highest point of the trek - Auroracassa at 4600 meters. We take a well-deserved rest here to recover before descending down to Mantanay which will be our camp site for the night.
DAY 3 – Mantanay – Ollantaytambo – Aguas Calientes
Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner
On the third morning, after breakfast, we will set off along the trail passing through some amazing countryside landscapes and some local farming areas until we arrive at Yanuara where we will stop for lunch. From here we will be taking a bus to Ollantaytambo to catch a train to Aguas Calientes where we will spend the night in a hostel. We will go to bed early though because we will have a very early start the next day to visit the site of Machu Picchu.
DAY 4 – Aguas Calientes – Machu Picchu – Cusco
Meals: breakfast
We get ready around 4 am to walk uphill from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu - hopefully we can catch a wonderful sunset at the site. The ticket control entrance should be passed about 6 am and we will enter the site to see one of the wonders of the world. At the ruins your guide will take you on a tour of the site. We will visit enclosures, plazas, sacred fountains, temples, towers and he will explain the different functions of each area such as the agricultural and urban sections. The tour lasts for approximately 2 hours and you will then have free time to explore the site yourself.
After spending some hours at Machu Picchu we unfortunately have to leave and the group will make its way down to the town of Aguas Calientes (you can walk or there is also a bus service for an additional cost) before taking the train back to Cusco. You must be at the train station at least 30 minutes before your train departure time and the train journey takes about 1 hour 45 mins to get to Ollantaytambo, where we will transfer to a private bus to take you back to Cusco (you will be dropped off at the main square in Cusco).