Salkantay Trek

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This is going to be a long one...

DAY 1
So to start our trek we get picked up at our hotel at 4:45ish after little sleep and a breakfast of cake (win). Then the bus sits in various squares (one being 2 metres from our hotel) and we don't end up leaving cusco until 6:30. Fantastic! The journey out is 3 hours long with various stops due to road repairs, I spent most of this sleeping/attempting sleep so can't say much else except that apparently it shouldn't take that long. On this bus ride we also find that the guide (Fernando Fernandes!?) we met at the agency is thankfully our guide so we at least know that he speaks good English, but that everything else promised is a massive lie (although this was realised later) as he was our only guide for our group of 11 people. Great. So glad we spent 2 days making sure we picked a company promising 2 guides eh.

Arrive to Mollepata, the start of our trek where the horses are picked up, we have breakfast, stock up on water and purchase some walking sticks. A pretty little town. The walk on this day is following the road, with some 'short cuts' Fernando recommended that tested most of us from the off. Beautiful scenery though. Similar to Tuscany feeling but more green with more trees while still seeming quite arid. Eucalyptus trees all around that I think were brought over from Australia if my memory serves me right. Also on the road are lots of bitey bugs that eat my lower legs alive. Damn pasty, white, glowing beacons of fresh blood! And big giant flying bug/beetle things that have a long thin pointy nose that like to fly at you and chase you back down the hill (that was mainly just me :P). For this trek we are meant to go through 9 different climates and I can say now that each one is stunning and different at each point. This day was rolling mountains that were so surreal only surpassed when we made it over the top and saw the snowy peaks of... the mountain next to Salkantay that I can't remember the name... beautiful.

A hard slog but apparently a test for the rest of it. This was probably the easiest day! We eventually made it down through the valleys but still high in altitude and past a luxury lodge with outdoor jacuzzi included that made us all want to run over, kill the inhabitants, take over, and pretend we had been there all along. Apparently one trekker offered $1000 to use their toilet and they still refused. And the trek using that lodge is $5000 and doesn't even include Machu Picchu. But Fernando told us this, and we now know that Fernando says a lot of things. Our campsite was the worse of the two facilities wise, but we did have a kitten. Set up in the valley below the snowy peaks, a fantastic view. Rosie and I went out in the dark and the full moon lit up the peaks like nothing I have ever seen, sadly didn't have camera but suspect nothing could capture that image regardless. Stunning. Fed and watered, unpacked and repacked, huddled into sleeping bags, one of the worst sleeps of my life. It was FREEZING. I have never been so cold. Really. Woke up shivering throughout the night. Cocooned myself into my sleeping bag so much that I also regularly suffocated myself when I rolled onto the only hole for air but that let in the cold. Horrible.

DAY 2
Woken up at 5am I think. Painful. Breakfasted. Watered. Repacked. Asked by another guide for some bandages... errrr... aren't you meant to have the bandages? No. I go and ask Fernando, we're not sacrificing our own bandage for their own lack of organisation. Turns out Fernando doesn't have a first aid kit either, or oxygen, or anything, in fact he doesn't even carry a bag on most days. He blames the tour company, whoever they are. Fan. Flipping. Tastic. So with the reassuring knowledge that if we hurt ourselves we're completely screwed, off we go. An incredible, painful, long, arduous, slog that took everyone's breath away (except the 3 Americans hereafter referred to as Team America who bombed their way through the entire trek!) and was an utter struggle. I'd like to blame the altitude, we were at about 4,000 metres above sea level after all climbing about 900 metres in a couple of hours, breathing was impossible, but I later found that my unfitness was equally to blame for this as even at low altitude I was breathless hahahaha! But absolutely worth it. This was spectacular and probably the better of the hard parts as there was an end in sight, the towering Salkantay mountain. It peaks at over 6,000 metres, the point we reach is at 4,600 metres. Photo opportunities. We catch our breathes as much as we can with the air so thin. Make some little pebble towers. Sit in awe at the whole thing. Then start our descent all the way back down the other side.

The whole time they had warned us that going up was harder than going down. For me, not so. Going up was so incredibly difficult. Going down however was really fun for me. I just got a bit of a run on and skipped my way down through the pebbles and the valley. Mistakingly trying to cross over a marsh to cut corners and getting a foot full of mud. Then also slipping into the river to get to our lunch site so now muddy and wet. Thank god for good boots! Food and a short nap by some later and we're off for the rest of the trek, I don't remember much of this in the shadow of the Salkantay peak so I'm going to say it was fairly easy-going. Our campsite is in the middle of three lush, green mountains, not Amazon jungle but cloud forest. So another climate. Another setting. Stunning

DAY 3
And we spend the night in another second-rate campsite, freezing but less cold than the night before. This day was a bit of a mish-mash that I can't really remember, through little paths in the cloud forest (that I'll now refer to as jungle because it's faster) following the river and walking through the trees. Another amazing setting for the walk we even found a mini beach when we got down to river level. All very green and lush. Mostly pegged our way through this one just to get it over with after 2 days slog with no sleep and knowing we had a half day free so the sooner we got there for lunch, the sooner it was over. Saw pretty butterflies and flowers. Unfortunately good old Fernando had enough of waiting up for us or actually being a guide and legged it along in front. Other guides we walked past showed their groups how to sing into the bamboos that make the panpipes, the little wild strawberries that lined the path, the spores on the back of ferns... obviously far too boring for old Fernando! Rosie was also kindly left completely behind, lost, not knowing where to go, as Fernando pegged it past us again and not bothering to wait for her. Brilliant.

We make it to our campsite in time for lunch and rest in the Sun. SO glad we had this afternoon to relax. Have a lie down. Do some pointless washing as the Sun sets 10 minutes later. Have a shower that I had to pay 2 soles for. Eat. Have a couple of drinks. Play some drinking games with Team America but in the sad knowledge that we have to get up at about 4am again for trekking so take it slow. An idea completely lost on the other group on our campsite who buy a bottle of vodka and get wrecked. Irish girl passes out on the rocks, can't walk, eyes rolled back in head, obliterated. Irish guys 2 and 3 plus some others from a whole different group, fall into the tent of one of their other group members who is thankfully not in the tent at the time but also not drunk so doesn't find this as hilarious as they seem to, then to make up for destroying her tent, destroy theirs and another one too. All apparently hilarious to them. Complete idiocy to the rest of us. Not only do they snap the poles, they get their guide and their porter to sort out the obliterated girl and the obliterated tents while they keep drinking. Rest of night spent worrying that they will decide it will be funny to fall on the rest of our tents with us all in them, but also hoping that they do it to Team America so that they can pulverise their stupid drunk asses.

DAY 4
Randomly probably harder than day 2 purely because it was endless and we couldn't see a sodding thing. This day was a voluntary day to do a part of the unofficial inca trail and see an inca ruin and perhaps Machu Picchu off in the distance if it is clear. It becomes apparent it will not be clear and it will rain. Constantly. For the whole morning. Which is the whole of our time trekking. This bit is meant to take a whole day but we're all pretty fed up and bomb it along again. It is incredibly difficult. Constant uphills with no end in sight. You turn the corner, think it's over, but oh no there's another hill. If there had been the option of stopping and giving up I probably would have but there wasn't, once you're on and up, you've got to make it through. The reward of the ruin and the view is obsolete as the mist encompasses everything and we're dripping with rain and sweat and want out. We find Team America at the mid-point to start the descent and they've had enough too and are just waiting for directions so they can get the f out of there. They manage the descent in 25 minutes. It was meant to take us a couple of hours. Impressive stuff. Most people found the downhill fun, it was muddy as hell and lot of snake bends so the best approach was probably Team America's to just run it and fall where you slipped and keep on running. Rosie and I took it slow and steady but still managed it in very good time. Sadly we all made it down to the end point, Hidro Electrica, to see the sky clear and the view open up but all too late for us. I guess the tortoise won this battle.

To make the day not a complete bust, Rosie and I decided to walk from Hidro Electrica to Aguas Calientes instead of waiting for the train. This walk was beautiful and amazing and I'm so glad we did it. It was just walking along the train tracks but completely flat so a nice relaxing 2 hour trundle along the river and seeing a fantastic first look at Machu Picchu. Also gave us time to shower and sort out stuff before the rest arrived on the train and we could go for an early snack before everyone else.

Aguas Calientes is a beautiful little tourist spot. On our little trundle we walked past a beautiful waterfall viewpoint, butterfly garden and botanical garden. I could easily go back there and just have a wonder round these bits and relax. Of course it's primary function is to be the hub of Machu Picchu for tourists and trekkers alike to stay before seeing the ruin itself. It is also the point where the trekkers realise just how disgusting and dirty they are as you come across very clean people, not panting, not smelling, not covered in dust/mud/suncream/sweat, brand new hiking shoes or trainers that have probably just walked along a road to the hotel and not carrying their world on their back. It was funny, embarrasing but also quite satisfying that we walked the whole sodding way there. Accomplishment! Dinner is spent at some restaurant arranged by the tour group and everyone promptly heads off to bed to clean up and prepare for Machu Picchu the next day, another 4am wake up call if not before.

DAY 5
The early wake up is for Waynu Picchu, the mountain in the background of most of the shots of Machu Picchu. Only the first 400 people in line get the option to go up and to be in this first 400 people you either have to stay in the ridiculously expensive hotel at the entrance to the site, trek up the hill at ridiculous o'clock or stand in a queue in Aguas Calientes to get on one of the first buses up at 5:30am. We go for option 3 except that it is tipping it down with rain. Thankfully Mit is more organised than the rest of us and gets us a space in the queue. A massive snake begins and everyone is hoping that not many people have hiked on this horrible dark, rainy morning, to get your space on Waynu Picchu. Team America make it along and join us in the queue and it's a cold, wet, waiting game of misery. Finally the buses start coming and we all pile on. Mit cunningly takes the seat right up front to be first off. We make it to the top to join another queue and go to stand with Mit as we were all in the same place in the other queue, that would make sense wouldn't it? Not to the American with the two daughters standing behind us. He tells us that if we don't move to the back of the queue he will "fuck us up", considering we're with four guys, three of which have managed to run the entire trek and go to the gym every day, I find this laughable and respond, "did you really just say fuck us up?" - "yes, I'll fuck you all up". Brilliant. What. A. *******. I can't contain my laughter but head to the back anyway as we stand open-mouthed at the fantastic example this man has set to his kids. Thankfully it doesn't matter as we all get our tickets for Waynu Picchu. Phew.

Once we get in, Fernando being the star that he is takes us to all the viewpoints while the rain is still tipping it down and you can't see a sodding thing. Idiot. We wonder around in the rain and mist and most of us fall asleep at one point or another listening to this 'guided tour'. Fernando finally leaves and we say goodbye and hope to never see him again, I really think we would have been better off without a guide at all and just a map. So we wonder around and make our way to Waynu Picchu as the weather starts to clear up for our 10am slot. This is another impressively difficult climb. Team America again bomb up it while I need breaks. It's another no end in sight scenario made all the more difficult by the people coming down the same 2 foot wide steps you're trying to cling onto. But man it it worth it. Another fantastic view. Another worthwhile slog. We get some brilliant photo opportunities looking out over the whole site and have a sit down. From Machu Picchu it doesn't look like anything on Waynu Picchu, but it's the same kind of ruin as you have in Machu Picchu but on a ridiculously pointy mountain side. A sneaky little look-out post that you really wouldn't notice at all. An hour up takes us 25/30 minutes. And the hour down less so. Stunning.

Now the weather has cleared we trundle around the rest of the site going back to the viewpoints we were previously at and take millions of photos and look around properly. I've been here before but it's still breath-taking. Then we have the cunning idea to go to the Sun Gate and get the view from there. It looks fairly flat and not steep from Waynu Picchu. It's not. At this point my legs are shattered and I've prepared mentally for a rest and not to walk/trek/sweat again. This mentality gets the better of me as the hour trek to the sun gate turns out to be more steps and more inclines and I've had enough. We eventually make it to the top but I'm shattered, wet, cold, sweaty and I've had enough of trekking thank you very much. Even so, another fantastic view from the complete other angle. We also notice at this point that the sun gate is at a similar level as the point we were at on Waynu Picchu. Crap. More photos done and we decide to return in time for some hot spring action and some celebratory drinks. So we head down, me slower than the rest, and eventually make it back to the hostel to change and head to the hot springs.

The hot springs are full of pervy gross Peruvian boys/men who use this opportunity to lear at western women and sleaze and make comments. The springs are very warm though and very sulphury. Quite nice to relax and wash after all the days filth! Then meet up with Team America for dinner before heading back to get the 21:45 train back to Cusco.

And that's that. Sorry it's a beasty. Keep me updated with how everyone is and what's new.

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