Salkantay Trek

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Just finished a 5 day trek on the Salkantay Trail and it was sick! We used Llama Path which is an excellent company and I would def recommend them to anyone. Our guide Santiago was also perfect. He really made this trip alot more enjoyable than it would have been with anyother tour guide. We had a group of 7 that consisted of another New Yorker, Canadian, Irish and two Frenchies. The group was great too, we all really got along perfectly.

The first day we all had a pretty hard time hiking due to the altitude but managed to make it to camp after EIGHT Hours at a hight of 13,750 ft.! Santiago explained everything from the medicinal plants to the animals we saw.

Our Second day took us NINE hours total but was my favorite. That day we passed through the Salkantay pass which was the highest point at 15,200 ft! I have never seen glacial mountains before and I don´t think you would even understand how amazing they are until you stand right in front of them. That same day we continued down through a cloud forest (9800 ft) which was really strange being that just earlier we were in a glacial area and then in the jungle.

Third day was also in the cloud forest and I couldn´t even keep track of how many waterfalls we saw. We passed by some hot springs that we planned on going in until we saw how gross the water was! We only hiked six hours that day and after lunch we had alot of nap time which was something we all needed. That night we had alittle more to drink than we planned which sucked being that we wake up everyday at 5:30.

The fourth day we hiked passing a variety of crop plantations, coca, banana etc. It was really cool being covered by jungle growth not even being able to see the sun alot of the time. That afternoon we had our first glimpse of Mach Picchu from the opposite side of the mountains. We ended up that night in Aguas Calientes which is the town you have to leave from to get to Machu Picchu. I pretty much didn´t like it at all considering it was the most touristy place so far. That night we had an awesome dinner and went out for quite a few drinks with Santiago!

Let me just remind you at this point that we have had perfect weather so far being that it is the dry season in Peru.

So the morning we were all waiting for arrives and guess what??? RAIN RAIN and more RAIN! Anyway everything turned out for the better being that the clouds made for a more dramatic experinece in the morning and the sun came out around ten.

These pics are from the Salkantay Trek the next blog I´ll just do Machu Picchu...

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