Salkantay Trek Day 1


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South America » Peru » Cusco » Salkantay Trail
March 15th 2018
Published: March 20th 2018
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Trek Day One

We woke up early and finished the last few bits packing before checking out of our room and handing our main backpacks over to the hotel to keep for us while we were on the trek. We were then picked up at 4.30am by Leo. There were already two people on the bus who were a Dutch couple named Pal and Vivjan. We then drove on picking up the others; Catherine and Adrian who were from Switzerland, Kira and Jannine who were from Germany and Cameron who is from California. Once everyone was in the bus we started to chat to get to know each other a little. All of the others were more long term backpackers traveling from between 3 months to 8 months plus, apart from Jannine who was on a two week holiday and had come to visit Kira. We stopped for breakfast and spent some time there having a break before continuing on in the minibus to Challacancha when everything was unloaded. We loaded up our day bags and Leo went round the group and lifted everyone's backpack saying whether they were too heavy or not. He said mine and Steph's were too heavy along with a couple of others. He told us to put more things in the duffel bags so we were carrying lighter packs. This was fine, we had only got extra things in our day packs because otherwise they would be over the 5kg limit. We had only packed what was on the packing list so it wasn't as if we had overpacked either. We were told we wouldn't need our walking poles for the first half of the day so they could be left with the duffel bags too. All of that was loaded onto the horses and the horseman set off with everything.



Leo told us at the beginning that we needed to come up with a group name and let him know later on. We ended up calling ourselves The Killer Cuys which means Killer Guinea Pigs. Most of the other groups call themselves the Sexy Llamas or Alpacas etc. We set off on the 30min uphill hike and it was pretty fast going. Myself and Steph were at the back pretty much straight away with the others storming off ahead. About ten mins in I wondered if we'd made a big mistake. Everyone else seemed a lot fitter than us and we're handling the uphill a lot faster. Myself and Steph were struggling with the altitude and breathing and were literally gasping for breath. Leo was storming away at the front and then after a while the group stopped for a break and we joined them. Leo spoke to everyone to ensure they were OK and noticed we were struggling with breathing and gave us some tips to breath through our nose deeply. He then also said it wasn't anything physical and was all in our mind. This was a little frustrating to hear as when you are literally gasping for breath because you are trying your best to keep up with the group it doesn't exactly motivate you. Eventually we hit the top of the hill and began walking along the Inca Canal stretch. This was great and was pretty flat with slight up hills and a lot easier to manage. Along this part we were walking along with the group fine. The scenery was beautiful and it was great to be sucking in mountain air. We were still breathing heavier than normal but things were fine. Parts of the walk along the canal had some drop offs, they weren't visibly steep but you just had to be careful as to where you were putting your feet. We also went across a couple of wooden stick type bridges and some sections of the path went by/through som waterfalls. We eventually walked into camp 45mins ahead of another group of people who were doing the same trek who started 10mins before us. We then had lunch and a rest for about 1.5-2 hours.



After lunch it was time to start the walk up to Humantay Lake, by now it was starting to rain so we had to ensure we had raincoats on and our day packs which just had water in and cameras were covered. Again on the trek up to the lake it was pretty obvious that the rest of the group were fitter than me and Steph. We were struggling to understand how we were doing so bad, but we realised that it was actually the rest of the group who were doing well. The other group set off the same time as us and we found ourselves amongst that group for pretty much the whole way up. Leo and the rest of our group were long ahead out of sight so we had to rely on just following other people up. The guides from the other group were telling us to slow down and take our time unaware of our 'time limit' we had been given to avoid having to go on horses the next day. This was to be one of the first of many differences between our two groups that happened over the coming 5 days. Eventually we got to the top, Steph finished in 1hr 14 and I had finished a couple of mins ahead of her. So we did beat the 1hr 15 time limit but had to deal mentally with the fact that we were not only the slowest in the group but were actually 'slow'. Leo talked to us about pachamama (Mother Earth ) and the importance of connecting and asked us all our reasons for doing the trek, I said that I was for the personal challenge while Steph said it was for the experience. We then took some photos at the top in the pouring rain then headed back down with the rest of our group which was a lot easier. It was definitely the ascents that we were struggling with but on the level or going downhill we were OK and almost on par with the rest of our group.



Once we got down, we had 'happy hour' which was popcorn, coffee, tea and some pastries with dolce da leche on which was tasty. Dinner then came out half an hour later which was too early as we were all full from happy hour. The amount of food that came out for each meal was huge and the quality was always very good. The chef and his assistant had to cook with their own stoves and gas burners which were carried by the horses each day. Steph and Catherine had their own vegetarian plates every time. After dinner Leo had a talk with us all about the next day and how tough it was going to be. He said that horses were available for people who wanted them and that they had to let him know. Kira and Jannine opted to go up on horses. Leo said that everyone could make it but it was our choice. Me and Steph chose not to have horses, we had come to walk it and knew it would be tough but wanted to walk it. The only problem was going to be the timescale given for us to do it in but as Leo said that everyone could do it we had to trust his judgement. He did also say that he didn't want anyone in the group saying they were going to 'try' to do it and then have to take horses as they would have to walk back down to the start to get them. As we were all getting ready to go to our sky dome pods I saw some others from the other group and asked how they'd found the lake hike and whether they were getting horses if they hadn't done it in 1hr 15. They didn't know what I was talking about and said their guides hadn't given them any time limit and just told them to enjoy it and take their time and that they were all going to try and make it up but would get horses if they had to. Me and Steph found this surprising as we thought everyone had been told the same. Despite the fact that everyone in our group was very nice and we got on with them all we were beginning to think we would have been better in the other group as they were all more around our fitness levels. Going to bed I was very nervous and a bit emotional and starting to doubt if I could do the hike up to the pass. A whole manner of things were going through my head around holding the others back in the group, failing and having to take a horse and annoying Leo and just whether I had the confidence in myself to be able to do it. Steph and I talked about it and she just said we'd be fine and not to stress. Tomorrow was going to make or break me, I really didn't want to fail!

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