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Published: September 20th 2006
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Start of Salkantay Trek
Pete, Jair, Heraldo and Caz The Salkantay is the trek that most people, who didnt sort out the Inca trail to Macchu Picchu, do. Lacks the ruins but makes up in awesome scenery.
Day 1 We were picked up at Death O'clock by our so called Guide Jiar who was acompanied by (¨his friend¨) Horaldo the crazy Argentinian. Horaldo looked rough, apparently the Cerviche (raw fish) was doing its worst!!!
The bus trip to Mollepatta was steep and dusty. On arrival we met up with Eban our horse man and loaded up the Kit. While loading up we were kind of concerned that Jiar and Horaldo were lacking in the kit department, Horaldo only had a Nike day bag for the weeks trek.
The path was not too steep on the way to Cruz Patta it twisted quite a bit but was easy to follow. At Cruz Patta Jiar persuaded us to carry on to Soyrampampa, it was early so we said yes. Now bearing in mind that Jiar wasnt actually our guide, we should have stayed put. He´d asked if he could come with us to learn english, we had discussed with him that we wanted to do the trek over
Pete was pretty hungry
which one should i choose? a longer of period of time so we could do some side treks. His part of the deal was to arrange for a horseman which we would pay for.
The trek to Soyrampampa was hot and long about 10k ontop of the morning 8. The mountain and valley views were enough to take your mind off things though. Horaldo was already struggling with the altitude, he had flown direct from Argentina to Lima at Sea level and now was at 3500m.
Just before arriving at Soyrampampa we caught our first views of the 6000m snowcapped peaks before us, breathtaking was the word especially as the sun had now gone down.
Eban the the fastest treking horseman in Peru was in front of us, he was a great help at setting up the camp. Allthough he knew the route and the conditions he didn't bring a Jkt, so my nice mtn jkt became his for the trip and was returned smelling of mule poo -Great!!
Jiar put up his tent next to mine, I could have laughed but this was serious. The tent was from ToyTown no flysheet and tiny, Poor Horaldo at nearly 6ft couldn't even lie
in it and the sleeping bags were nade of cotton wool..
After a filling tea of pasta and soup we star gazed for a while. I would have liked to for longer but it was way too cold, the milky way was out and plenty of shooting stars.
Our sleep was rudely awakened at 3am by Jiar and Horaldo dancing about and trying to stay warm, apparently they had ice on their feet . Me being really caring I rolled over and went back to sleep.
Day 2 was a trek over the Salcantye pass. We followed the river up hill which then turned to glacial morriane. The going was slow and steady it was one of those walks that gives you false hope of a summit. It was worth it when we reached the top approx 4900m, the views were great the air was thin and the wind was biting.
We decended to what I thought was our agreed camp site... Jiar wanted to go all the way down to the warmer valley, and as Poor Horaldo was suffering with the altitude and cold we had to go.
Day 3 After a warmer nights sleep we treked through the cloud forest down the valley to La Playa, the route was very up and down and pretty hot. The vast valley opened up before us offering really cool views of the tree lined mtns above. Our group had split up due to feeling hard done by, by Jiar. Just to make sure we got our kit back all in one piece from Eban we decided to finnish the last Km at a run, not the fastest run you have ever seen but it served a purpose.
When we re-grouped at La Playa we put our cards on ther table, Jiar had to go. It wasn't the nicest thing in the world to do but sacking Jiar made us feel better and less stressed.
Day 4 The previous night we had enlisted the help of 2 local porters Joel and Lester. These 2 lads were fit as anything, their day to day job was to carry heavy fruit baskets over the mtn to the road head, carrying our bags was a whole lot lighter and paid twice as much. It felt a little weird letting these lads carry our kit but they were more than happy to do it.
The route led us through avacado, bananna and coffee plantations it was a pretty impressive place. We slogged steeply up hill, lined with wild strawberries, for around 4 hours untill we reached Lactapatta.
Lactapatta was to be our camp for the night, it had fantastic views of Macchu Picchu about 6 km away and we even had our own ruins to look around. The only problem with this place was all the little bitey bugs. The night was cold and damp for Lester and Joel as their Mum had only sent them up with 2 bankets and a sheet of plastic. Later they admitted that allthough they do this route every day they had never slept at the top. We helped them build a fire and plied them with soups and Matte de coca to keep them warm.
Day 5 All down hill to the Hydro electic stn. A short day at about 4 hrs but it was a killer on the knees. Eventually we reached the river, the crossing was made on an Indiana Jones style bridge. The bridge was about 40ft above the water and had the usual planks missing and an un-nerving wobble. After a sucsessfull crossing we reached the rail head and the hydro stn.
Our trek was over. The little shop had the biggest beers ever, we sat down with the lads and celebrated with a few cold ones. Although are feet were tired and we smelled quite bad we had had a great adventure!!
Peter and Caroline
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Izzy
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Hello!!
Hello you two!!! Sorry I have not been in touch for mega ages!!! Caroline just want to wish you a happy belated birthday!!! Sent Guy an sms for you but not quite sure if it arrived?!(if you are reading this Guy let me know if you have a new no.). Just come back from a cruise with my sis on the med, went to loads of different places, absolutely amazing. Take care and continue having fun x x x x