Snow & rain along the way, but a perfect day on Machu Picchu

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September 14th 2007

Published: September 19th 2007

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Sam Rach

Machu Picchu

At 6am, in all it´s glory

Somewhere between Sam asking me how I wanted to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary and me answering, our wires must have got crossed. I definitely remember saying the words: hotel, swimming pool and champagne, instead I ended up with a tent, pit toilet and so much soup that it is going to take me a long while before I can eat another bowl again!

This was as a result of the Salkantay trek, a 5 day/4 night trek we did from Cusco - the traditional Inca Trail had long been booked up, so we opted for this alternative. While it wasn´t even in the same league as the Santa Cruz trek we did from Huaraz, it was great to be out walking in the mountains, passing through little villages and seeing the scenery change as we went from stark, harsh, rugged land to tropical forest. It was a hard trek, with an average of 8 hours walking a day, with about half of this up-hill.

On the third day (after crossing the pass the day before) the weather was a lot better as we left the rain & snow behind and entered into the forest which was littered with

Mt Salkantay (6,271m)

We crossed the pass to the left of the mountain

flowers and fruits - thankfully at the end of this day we could go to some thermal baths which was just what our legs and feet needed.

The following day we took a detour from the Salkantay route and our guide took us along what is called "the last Inca path", only discovered by the villagers living there in 2005. The route is dotted all the way by the original steps that the Incas built and leads up to what would have been a village. This looks over to Machu Picchu on the mountain opposite - they have started to clear and restore the area and it gave us a great picture of what Machu Picchu would have looked like when it was re-discovered from being "lost" by the American Hiram Bingham in 1911.

We weren´t sure what to expect from Machu Picchu itself - but it really was jaw-droppingly beautiful and more magical than you can imagine. I´m not sure if we would have felt the same way if we weren´t absolutely knackered and hadn´t just walked for 4 days to get there. The trek definitely made us appreciate, if only to a limited extent, just how

Muy frio!

Our group freezing at the top of the pass

hardy the Incas were and how seemingly impossible it was to build this city at the top of the mountain. The Incas were only in power for just over 100 years, but at their height the empire stretched up as far as Southern Colombia down to North-West Argentina. The official language was Quechua, which is still the most widely spoken of all the languages of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Incas were defeated by the Spanish in the 15th century and many of the Inca sites were destroyed, but they never found Machu Picchu (Old Peak) which is why it is one of the best examples of their architecture and planning.

We literally couldn´t move for 2 days after the trek, but I eventually managed to drag the "ruined-out" Sam around the other cultural sites in the Sacred Valley, although none were no-where near as inspiring as the lost city itself. Yet another highlight of the trip, South America just seems to have so many..we´re off to Bolivia next which too sounds fantastic...everything that is, apart from the food, we´re thinking of taking drastic action......and going vegetarian!!

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