Trekking onwards to machu picchu via the Salkantay Trail

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I apologize for the delayed blog, I went from doing not much in cusco other than spanish classes and hiking to being overwhelmed with an intense amount of travelling, photos, hostels and broken computers... Every hostel has had about 4 computers, 3 of which never work, and 1 which we are allowed to use for 15 min if the connection is held. Here is a photo site i will attempt to put all my photos on + facebook:
http://s1094.photobucket.com/albums/i448/tlgallin/

Right now, me and Vanessa are in La Paz, Bolivia after a crazy 3 -4 days of busing from Cusco. The border to enter bolivia from peru had been blocked by locals throwing large heavy objects into the streets. Buses couldn´t drive through, and even if they could they were risking intense damage to their vehicles. The option of taking a boat across Lake Titicaca (no washrooms - 8+ hours) from Puno, Peru to Copacobana, Bolivia was available for a short period until the bolivians found out about that and were threatening to blow those boats up... Whether they would or not was not even a question in my head. There have been some travellers who survived the trip but have some of the scariest stories ive heard!! They include being shuttled in covered vans by local peruvians, being dropped off 40km away from puno and needing to cab or walk into town as the buses would not go, and one guy took a boat and had to sit quietly on the lake in the middle of the night to sneak to shore without being heard. Supposedly the guides were exteremely scared. So needless to say, our huge detour of Cusco - arequipa- arica , chile - La Paz, Bolivia may have been worth the safety.
On a positive note, Last week we attempted the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, a 5 day jaunt of 12-18 km per day... but unbelievably worth the time, money and effort!! We started our hike at an altitude of 3400m at Cruzpata and met our guide Puma, 5 others from Holland, and 2 chefs and 2 horsemen who would carry our bags and cook for us. The first day was quite a relaxed 11km, in the distance we could see Umantay, the mountain we would sleep under in Challabamba at 3550m. This was the coldest coldest night of my life... I was going to use my small bag of clothes as a pillow for the trip but this night was so freezing i had every layer of clothing on my body for some sort of warmth but zero head comfort. We had arrived shortly after the previous groups so we didn´t get to stay in the large tent which blocked the wind. Our chefs were amazing, the following morning they woke us up with mate de coca at 6am, and made us delicous breakfasts everymorning consisting of eggs, pancakes, toast, omelettes. THey said they wouldnt feed us much the first day or two with the intense altitude, but i was plenty full! The second day was much more difficult, an 18 km trek from 3550m up to 4600m (nearly 1200m directly up) or to an altitude around 15,000 ft to the Salkantay Pass back down to 3200m. It only got more and more cold and foggy the higher we climbed, my photos say everything! The energy on the mountain was so intense... there are no words to describe the feel of it. No one actually climbs the Salkantay mountain as it is exteremly icy and dangerous (according to Puma). At the top, when everyone arrived, we had all carried a stone from the bottom to build our tavern with which we made our offerings to Pachamama... 3 coca leaves, 1 to each of the worlds. Coca leaves are the most precious things to the incan and peruvian people. After a couple photos, we made our way down to Huayraqmachay at 3200m. This decent was horrible on the knees! We went from cold mountainous scenery to jungle/ forest within an hour... but still exteremly foggy (i loved it! such a mysterious and creepy feel.. sort of like Jurassic park aha).
The third day consisted of more flat terrain in the forests - or tropical forests. Puma showed us some new flowers, a couple birds, but thats all we caught glimpses of (lots of water falls though!). It was here we said goodbye to our horsemen (they cannot go on the stones we were to encouner) and a bus took our stuff to the next camp. Arriving at our 3rd night camp, there was a slight scare´ as supposedly my sleeping bag had fallen off the van... they returned it to me later that night but im a bit skeptical as to whether it was really lost...
The 4rth day was an optional hike up to Santa Teresa which would give us an alternate view of Machu Picchu and Wanu Pichu than we would see tomorrow. Vanessa opted out as her converse shoes would not handle the terrain! We had to get up at 5am to get to the bottom of Santa Teresa for sun rise at 7am. Of course it was raining. The hike was to take 3 hours directly up (in the rain) but Hein, Laura and i made killer time of 1.5 hours!! I was soaked and in neeed of sugar. If you look at my photos we arrived at the top to see only fog. it was killer dissappointing. We sat and waited hoping for a glimpse but nothing. We climbed down slightly with Puma to another opening and he yelled Ópen UP Pachamama!!!´ In one photo i have him pointing his walking stick (as he said that) and a small bubble opened in the clouds to reveal Waynu Picchu!! It was unreal!! Slowly it opened more and more until you could see all of the terraces of Machu Picchu... it was breathtaking, and there were no other tourists there to ruin it. We continued our jaunt down to below the fog until the heat swept it away and i got magnificent photos. The way down was exteremely steep, muddy and slippery and needless to say, I biffed it multiple times with the two Laura´s helping me up... ahaha. My knees were in bad bad shape after the 3 hours down. We reached the bottom (not in record time) to walk threw a feild of yellow flowers and millions of yellow butterflys... so so cool. We ate lunch at Hidroelectrica, where the 5 holland friends decided they would stay to watch the football game and pay for a train to Aguas Calientes for our last night. I decided the train was to expensive (and possibly silly to take) and opted to walk 3 more hours along the train tracks to AC with Puma. We did see some Coffee plants (and ate the red ripe ones... quite sweet and delish) and made it to AC quickly to catch the end of the soccer game and take the first hot shower at an awesome hostel in 5 days. The night was relaxed as the boys had to get up at 3 am to get bus tickets for machu picchu (they go fast!). We met them at 4am and exchanged spots in line so they could grab breakfast (we were first in line!). This meant we got the first bus up, as well as we could book a time to climb Waynu Picchu (also sells out fast).
In Machu Picchu Puma was our guide, he told us the magnificent story of the incas and the spanish takeover, and described all the landmarks fully. At 10am we were booked to climb Waynu piccu, it takes on average 1 hour or so, puma said he could do it in 30 minutes... needless to say me and Hien and another fellow Jeffery we determined to do it in less... 25min!! The photos show how steep and scary the stairs are, in one everyone is going on their butts. There are cliffs to either side, so if one person stops everyone stops!! Thats why a limited number can go. The very very top was super sketch, just big bulky rocks that were not safe at all... no barriers or flat parts... just more cliffs. Our day ended around 2pm, where we caught a train back to cusco around 4. THey returned us to our hostels and me and ness slept for a long long time.
The next day in Cusco I met up with my friends Remi, Siri, Shannon and Wolf for coffee and pastries as I was parting to Bolivia... Wolf was off to Germany 😞 , but I would see the others again soon.

xoxo

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