day 1: salkantay trek to machu picchu
post by allana
The intrepid trekkers: Juan Diego, Teri, Us
It was a very early start at 4:30am when we got up to begin our 5 day Salkantay trek—an alternative route to the famous Inka Trail—being one day longer and physically tougher going up through the Salkantay pass at nearly 5,000m. Despite the early start we were soon quite awake as our guide Diego pumped his favourite playlist, featuring about 5 times on repeat the song that was to become our theme for the week, “Infinity”. We had brekky in the backyard of a local family about an hour and a half outside of Cusco. It was at brekky when we first started to get to know our two other awesome travel buddies — Teri from Fiji and Juan Diego from Columbia. We were very lucky with such a small group of only the 4 of us. In about 5 mins we’d all become firm friends.
We were all very keen to get started on our big trek, the first
day was meant to be about 15kms easy uphill… but somehow (according to Diego, unlike every other group apparently we had to “acclimatise”) we ended up paying 5 soles each to sit in the back of a truck, kicking up dust into the other hikers faces.
We were all very keen to get started on our big trek, the first
day was meant to be about 15kms easy uphill… but somehow (according to Diego, unlike every other group apparently we had to “acclimatise”) we ended up paying 5 soles each to sit in the back of a truck, kicking up dust into the other hikers faces.
We were dropped off on the side of the road and only ended up walking about 6km to our first campsite, smack bang in the middle of a valley of two stunning glaciers. The views were breathtaking!!! We set up our tents and had our first of many delicious meals cooked up for us by the lovely Satu, our cook. One benefit of catching the truck was that we had plenty of time to have a ‘super-nap’ and explore the surrounding countryside complete with frolicking baby llamas. The four of us squelched through a boggy meadow down to a creek (perhaps the start of the Amazon?!) The water was freezing cold and crystal clear. We had big plans to catch some fresh trout with our bare hands, however this did not eventuate. We were fresh and happy as we smiled and waved to the other hikers slowly trudging in at 5pm that afternoon. No doubt we made a few enemies that day!
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As the sun went down and the temperature dropped to below freezing, the two glaciers took on an extraordinary white glow against the darkening sky. None of us could really believe that we were here, camping in this magnificent place and about to hike even further into the Andes. Scott and I tried to put our planetarium training into good use that night, as the starry sky was clear and beautiful. We managed to point out some of the constellations with limited success due to the brightness of the nearly full moon.
day 2: Salkantay pass
We woke up in the freezing cold (and with busting bladders, no way we were going out to pee in -5 degrees!). The surly yet likeable horseman Wilfredo brought us hot coca tea into our tents to help us get up. Even so we were 40mins late by the time we got going… Diego by this point had probably
realised we were more of the fun and frivolous kind rather than hard-core trekkers. But once we did get going, we went hard! Today was by far the most strenuous and physically demanding hike we’d ever done, particularly because of
the effects of the high altitude. At points we were gasping for breath. It was actually Teri’s and Juan Diego’s first proper hike ever—talk about baptism of fire! But they smashed it, we ended up overtaking the other groups on the trail that day. We were very proud of ourselves :) Not that it was a competition. But it kind of was.
realised we were more of the fun and frivolous kind rather than hard-core trekkers. But once we did get going, we went hard! Today was by far the most strenuous and physically demanding hike we’d ever done, particularly because of
the effects of the high altitude. At points we were gasping for breath. It was actually Teri’s and Juan Diego’s first proper hike ever—talk about baptism of fire! But they smashed it, we ended up overtaking the other groups on the trail that day. We were very proud of ourselves :) Not that it was a competition. But it kind of was.
Right from the beginning of today the scenery was
breathtaking—it’s very obvious why the Salkantay trek is counted in the top 25 best treks of the world by National Geographic. On this tough day Diego explained our plan: Walk 1.5 hrs have a short break, walk one hour have a short break, walk another hour have a short break. These ‘walks’ however were serious climbs…starting with a portion of trail dubbed the “gringo killers”. The gringo killers are a set of 12 steep zigzagged inclines up the mountainside. When explaining this to us Diego conveniently shortened the number to 7 and it was also at this point he began his calling card cry of “Almost there! Almost there!”with a big grin on his face… LIAR! |
After finishing the gringo killers we had our first proper break at a shallow lagoon, with some friendly spaghetti munching alpine cows. Diego managed to procure a radio from a local shepherd and we were amazed to find that even here, up high in an alpine valley in the middle of the Andes we could enjoy the finest Latin American hip hop and folklorico. Teri: “that’s gotta be AM radio”
After our snack of fresh grenadine fruit and cookies the real challenge up towards the summit began. At this point the snowy glaciers were closer than they’d ever been yet we still had so far to go! Friendly jesting with other hikers on the trail helped get us through— even though we didn’t know anyone it was as if we were all in this together so there was a great positive, exciting mood and lots of encouragement. The first signs of our imminent arrival at the summit were all the travellers stones, wishing us a safe onward journey by travellers already passed through. |
hurrah we made it!!!!!
What a fabulous feeling! After hugs all round and a few photos we settled in a bit while Diego talked to us about Inka spirituality, of their belief about the Chakana, or tree of life and about Pachamama (mother earth). We did a simple and special ceremony with coca leaves, where we held two leaves together so that the shadow made three coca leaves, representing the heavens, this world and the underworld (all of which intersect at Cusco). We then honoured the surrounding mountains and finally made a wish before burying our leaves under rocks for Pachamama to take care of.
After so much up, up, up it was a relief to head down again. It still took us about two hours to walk through a misty, rocky field down to the valley where we would have lunch. We watched the cute dogs, pigs and sheep and had a lie down in the sun for a bit, while our pack horses also took a hard earned rest.
Due to new energy from lunch and the reduced altitude we seemed to have super-human powers and we reached our next campsite in record time. It was such a change from the cold highlands, within half an hour we started to feel the heat, and before we knew it the environment had changed completely to lush forest. We emerged around a bend in the track, and bam! Unexpectedly there was our camp! It was in the large front yard of a few local families who give up their peace and quiet for rowdy trekkers every night. This campsite was equally lovely as the last, we were surrounded by forested mountains in every direction and the kids were playing between our tents, laughing and pushing each other around in a rusty wheelbarrow.
We had icy cold showers and enjoyed a large warm beer as we reflected on the big day we’d had. We had our dinner on the families balcony, and enjoyed two types of popcorn (popped and “non” popped), just the way the Inkas had it.
We had icy cold showers and enjoyed a large warm beer as we reflected on the big day we’d had. We had our dinner on the families balcony, and enjoyed two types of popcorn (popped and “non” popped), just the way the Inkas had it.
day 3: hot springs
Today was the easiest walking day we had, it was along a road, and at a nice steady decline all the way. We wound our way down through the forested valleys and enjoyed the much warmer tempertures. The only tricky bit was a rickety bridge crossing.
We were also amused and charmed by the pure love and devotion of a little dog that chased its owner in a truck all the way down a long and windy road for over 2 hours. He faithfully ran all the way down the zigzagged hill until we eventually lost sight of him. After about an hour and a half he came past us again in the other direction, still going at a steady trot. He was heading home after losing his daily race one more time.
Another amazing sight was the crontraption that the locals had made to cross the gorge. Recent landslips had destroyed their usual way, so they made a little seat on wires to pull themselves across (last two photos), at least 200m up!
We were also amused and charmed by the pure love and devotion of a little dog that chased its owner in a truck all the way down a long and windy road for over 2 hours. He faithfully ran all the way down the zigzagged hill until we eventually lost sight of him. After about an hour and a half he came past us again in the other direction, still going at a steady trot. He was heading home after losing his daily race one more time.
Another amazing sight was the crontraption that the locals had made to cross the gorge. Recent landslips had destroyed their usual way, so they made a little seat on wires to pull themselves across (last two photos), at least 200m up!
We all enjoyed a nice mornings walking of about 14km (in spite of a few nasty blisters), and finished up with a lovely lunch, including an entre of fresh Peruvian ceviche made from local trout! Damn that Satu is amazing! To reward our achy muscles we enjoyed a few hours at the hot springs, just up the road from our third campsite. The hottest one was 33 degrees, so a perfect way to soothe our aches and pains and enjoy a few beers :)
day 4: zip line and aguas callientes!
post by scott
For me, ziplining evokes memories of tedious safety briefings, overexcited guides and bad jokes which can overshadow the actual fun part.. Not in Peru!
We arrived, were put into a harness and helmet and were straight up the hill to be pushed off the mountain top on an amazing set of lines set up across the valleys. The longest was a whopping 1.5km long and spanned between two huge mountains - from the start you couldn't even see where the line finished.. it just trailed off into the distance! Allana was lucky enough to do it "superman style" ie. headfirst! (She was also lucky to get the helmet made out of black vinyl)
After five hair raising rides across the mountains we were shot onto a rickety wooden platform and repelled down to the ground, glad to be alive!
We arrived, were put into a harness and helmet and were straight up the hill to be pushed off the mountain top on an amazing set of lines set up across the valleys. The longest was a whopping 1.5km long and spanned between two huge mountains - from the start you couldn't even see where the line finished.. it just trailed off into the distance! Allana was lucky enough to do it "superman style" ie. headfirst! (She was also lucky to get the helmet made out of black vinyl)
After five hair raising rides across the mountains we were shot onto a rickety wooden platform and repelled down to the ground, glad to be alive!
After the zip line it was time for our last proper hike to the little town of Aguas Callientes. We followed the railway lines for about 4 hours, accompanied the whole way by a (semi) faithful dog who Juan Diego christened "Infinity" after our theme song. The poor bugger looked half starved so I tried feeding him every type of snack that we had on us, but he was not interested. He just kept trudging along beside us, occassionally stopping to think about joining another passing group. In the end he shot off ahead and we found him "seeing other hikers" 10km further along in Aguas Calientes! Despite this we were all very happy to arrive in this beatiful town built alongside a raging torrent of water pouring down the mountain. It is surprising the locals don't have industrial deafness because the noise of water is so loud and constant - and it's the dry season!Celebrations were of course with pisco sours, which made us a bit emotional (especially Juan Diego :)). After a few drinks, a feed and a hot shower we were well and truly ready to hit the sack (or the pit as Teri would say). Early start for Machu Picchu tomorrow..
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FOOTNOTE..
scroll down to see something gross
Circumferential blister from the trek. Should've worn thongs.