Ok, this one is going to be a doozy I’m sure. I just got back from a 5 day 4 night trek through the Salkantay Pass to MachuPicchu with six of my friends, and it was one of the more incredible experiences of my life, and probably the most physically trying of my adult life. After a night of packing until 12:30 (due to my usual procrastination), the seven of us and 8 others (4 Swedes in their early 20’s, a Canadian man in his 30’s and his 50 year old aunt, and a Chilean couple on their honeymoon) were picked up at 4:30 am by our bus, and driven 3 hours to the town of Mollepata, elevation of 2,900m/9,512ft. The bus driver decided that early morning was a good time to blast music, so we unfortunately didn’t get much shut eye on that leg of the trip. In Mollepata we had a quick breakfast of bread and instant coffee at a small restaurant, and embarked on our first day of hiking – 20 km (13 miles) over 8 hours of walking. We had 2 guides leading us – our head guide Edson, and Orlando, a 27 year old whose main initiative seemed to be to hit on my friend Caitlin. Three men came along to cook for us, as well as two horsemen who carried our tents, sleeping bags, and part of our gear (we kept 5 backpacks, which we took turns carrying). The five of them would set up our meals/campsites, then break them down after we left, pass us on the trail, and set them up again so they’d be ready for us at the next site. It was pretty humbling to see these men in their worn sandals and packs fly by us as we panted up the steep inclines.
We had beautiful weather the first day, and we stopped often to keep the group together (the Chileans tended to keep their own pace about 20 minutes behind the group) and to acclimate to the elevation. At 2 we stopped and had a huge lunch of garlic bread, soup, rice, fried chicken and French fries, then continued on to our first campsite at Soraypampa. I’ll admit that as it was getting dark at 6 and we were still half an hour from our destination I started to get exhausted and to anticipate the cold night ahead, I may have whined to my friend “I don’t want to keep walking…” I think that was my one brief outburst on the trip though, and I managed to keep my head down and pack on pretty much the rest of the time. Located at the base of the snowcapped Salkantay mountain, at an elevation of 3,600m/11,808ft, Soraypampa was our highest and coldest campsite. Both my friend Patrick and I ended up with sleeping bags that didn’t zip up, so despite having three people per tent for body heat and wearing multiple layers (including two coats, hat and gloves and 3 pairs of socks), I did not get much sleep that first night.
We woke up in the morning to warm cups of coco tea delivered to our tents, and after yummy breakfast of omlettes and a quick teeth brush, baby wipe shower and pee in a field we headed off on our second and most difficult day, 22 km (14 miles) over the Salkantay Pass of 4,650m/15,252ft. Let me start by saying that even in Cusco still (3,200m), if I walk up the 3 flights of stairs to my bedroom too quickly I sometimes get winded to the point of needing to sit on my bed for a second. So our morning hike up 1,000 meters over 4 hours to the pass was an extreme challenge, but hugely gratifying when we reached the top (one woman burst into tears). From there we hiked down for 2.5 hours as it started to rain. One of my friends wasn’t feeling well, so the seven of us stopped while she vomited, and somehow managed to lose the group during this time (well done guides, huh?), and ended up wandering for an extra 30 minutes until we were able to reconvene. An extra 30 min when you’re already hiking for nine hours in the rain really does count though, and our guide received a bit of an earful from my friend who fell in the creek as we attempted to find the trail again. It was a quick and grumpy lunch, then after a brief speech from the guides that we “needed to stick together,” Orlando took off at pretty much a jog so we could make it to camp before dark. Four of us managed to keep up with him as we descended into the jungle about 1,700 m (5,500ish ft) in the rain. We managed to make it to camp just before night, and the others trickled in over the next 45 minutes. We were all exhausted, so dinner was pretty quiet, then we slunk off to our tents around 9 for some sleep. Caitlin and I quickly noticed that our tent smelled off, which we soon discovered was from shit that somehow got smeared all along the inside walls of our tent (we think an animal must have pooped on the rain fly the previous night, which was then packed inside the tent and evenly distributed on all of the surfaces). It was too late at night to do anything about it, so I snuggled up with a baby wipe under my nose, made sure to sleep in the middle of the tent, and was so exhausted I actually managed to get about 5 or 6 hours of sleep.
The next day was much shorter, with only 15 km to hike over 6 hours, and at a much lower elevation. We were in the high jungle, so it was beautiful and green, with plenty of small waterfalls to pass through. The hiking was relatively easy in comparison to the previous days, but by the final few hours the blisters and soreness had set in, and when we hobbled in to our feast of a lunch close to 3 we were ecstatic to be finished for the day. We took another treacherously exciting bus ride 45 minutes to our campsite in the town of Santa Teresa, where we randomly camped out in a open air discotech for the night. We had the evening free to hang out, rest, use the first toilet in 3 days, assess the damage to our feet and drink beer (I did not), and after receiving a functioning sleeping bag and shitless tent I managed to get close to 9 hours of glorious sleep.
Despite the incredible night’s rest, I honestly thought that very little could motivate me from walking faster than a snail’s pace for the remaining three hours of our trek to the station to catch the train to Aguas Calientes (the closest town to Machupicchu). As we walked along the road however, there were cads of workers clearing recent rockslides from the street. After about an hour we caught up to Orlando and a few of the others, who, after a rock had fallen from the top of a huge cliff above him, decided to stop at that exact place to wait for the group to catch up(?!?). About a minute after we were all there we heard a huge crack and a rock fell 10 feet from my friends head – you can’t imagine how quickly I threw my pack on my shoulders and bolted out of there. We power walked for the next 45 minutes in complete fear, and fortunately we all made it safely to the river pass. I found out yesterday morning that later that evening, a huge portion of that very road collapsed (I’ve heard both 40 meters and 400 meters, not sure which one is correct). Either way, absolutely horrifying, and I was honestly praying for our safety during that entire portion of the walk.
To cross the river we had to wait in line for close to two hours in order to go on a small cable chair about 30 meters above the rushing Urabamba River – three people squished onto a tiny platform with our packs, then, with our feet dangling over the edge, we were pushed out over the river. We glided ¾ of the way, then were pulled to the opposite platform by our guides, who literally pulled the cable connecting us hand over hand until we reached the other side. One hour more of hiking (with no water at this point, having not anticipated the long wait in the sun), we finally reached the train station, where my friends and I immediately all bought tickets for the next train rather than hike an additional 3 hours in the approaching darkness to town.
Once in Aguas Calientes, we rejoiced in taking our first showers in 4 days, and believe me, it was necessary. After dinner in a restaurant we went to bed at 11:30, to wake up at 4 am in order to get in line for the bus up to MachuPicchu. Next to MachuPicchu is the WaynuPichhu mountain, an hour hike that provides incredible views of the ruins, but only 400 people are allowed to hike it per day, so one has to wake up extremely early and catch one of the first buses to get tickets. It rained during our tour for our first two hours in the MachuPicchu City, but it was perfect – as the day progressed the rain tapered and the clouds slowly burned off, revealing incredible views of the city and surrounding mountains. At 10 am, after the tour, my friends headed up WaynuPicchu, but I chickened out as it was really steep and crowded, and instead hiked an hour up another mountain that provided beautiful views of the ruins. We all met up and continued wandering around the ruins and taking pictures until 3:30, when we finally hiked an hour down into town to eat our first meal of the day. It was an absolutely incredible day, and after having done so much hiking it really felt like we earned it.
I’m not going to try to even describe any of what I saw as I could never do it justice, but I’ll upload pictures to facebook as soon as possible so you can see the views we came across. Despite the few setbacks and scary moments, I’m incredibly thankful that I went on this trek, it was one of the more amazing and different experiences of my life. And yesterday, after sleeping for close to 14 hours, I woke up and got an hour long $10 massage in Cusco, feels nice to be home J
Well, if you read this far, I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for listening to my ramblings. Pictures to be uploaded soon. Love!
