Salkantay and the Sacred Valley (Peru)

Im now in Peru- I spent a couple of days in Lima which to be honest I found a bit boring as there is very little to do there but then I moved on to Cusco which was completely different. Myself and a lovely Dutch girl (Hester) who I met at the airport organised to go on a 5 day Salkantay to Machu Picchu trek so after a couple of days of manic cold weather gear shopping we set off on the 18th. We had quite a large group- myself, Hester, a French lady, 4 Asian Americans, an American Mother and Daughter and 7 Spaniards but it was an excellent group as everyone got on together really well (which is a good job really!) The first two days of the trek were full 9hr assents with the second day being the Salkantay Pass which at 4,800m altitude was very hard work! I didnt suffer too badly with altitude sickness (only headaches, feeling like my heart was going to explode, nosebleeds, and generally not being able to walk more than 10 steps at a time without having to stop to rest etc but others suffered far worse than me so I was quite grateful!!) I did become a bit of a convert to Coca leaf chewing as this was the only thing that even vaguely helped.

It was an amazing 5 days with some of the most spectacular scenery that I have ever seen, the only negitive was that unfortunatly I got really sick the last night before Machu Picchu so I actually missed the first half of the day as I was unable to move without throwing up but I did manage to get there in the end which was a relief!

After the trek Hester and I made our own way back to Cusco via the Scared valley which was really cool as it is just a valley dotted with little towns and lots of Incan ruins so that was a really nice journey. Although, we did have a bit of an unexpected detour as we wanted to go to the hot springs which were about 20min outside of one of the towns so we went to get a taxi but spotted a 'Collectivo' mini van which was going to the 'Baño Thermals' (hot springs) so on we jumped (along with about 20 people and 2 chickens in a 12 seater van!) . However, after 3hrs of driving up a mountain with absolutly nothing but llamas and the occassional mud hut in between we arrived at a tiny Andian village where they speak Quechua and it didnt look like theyd seen any tourists for quite sometime (but they did have hot springs!) We were then informed that there was absolulty no hope of us getting back to civilisation that day and that we would have to stay there and wait for the market bus to go back down the next day so that certaintly taught us a lesson- always ask which which hot springs the bus is going to!!! But it was a fun adventure and a very lovely village and we made it back in the end so we didint mind.

Im back in Cusco now but leaving on the night bus this evening for Arequipa (Canyon Country) will update again soon. Hope everyone is well- missing you all!!

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