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For reasons including altitude, lack of match fitness, and my aversion to camping, I wasn't sure whether signing up for a 4 day/3 night Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu was a good idea, so in a moment of folly, I signed up for the longer, higher, and tougher Salkantay trek instead.
As before, the pictures from my camera phone don't really do the scenery justice, but you can click any image to make it larger.
Day 1
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| The start of things to come. I gave the hat away btw. |
Day 1 was designed to break us in gently, a 7km walk to our first
"campsite" at Soraypampa, but it also included an extra 2km climb to Humantay
Lake, which was pretty spectacular and looked quite inviting (but you're not
allowed to swim in it sadly).
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| Humantay Lake |
I was also pleasantly surprised that we weren't sleeping in tents. The
accommodation for the first three nights consisted of a small wooden hut /
pod, and there were plenty going round which meant I never had to share. And
despite wearing practically every item of clothing I had with me, I was
absolutely baltic on the first couple of nights.
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| A rather fine view from my "tent" |
There were 15 people on our tour, as well as two tour guides, and two chefs
- who sprinted past us each day to prepare our next meals. But everyone was
in bed early on night 1 as tomorrow was supposed to be the toughest day...
Day 2
Another 5am start, and not soon after, we were climbing to the highest part
of the trek, Salkantay Pass, at around 4,600m above sea level.
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| Salkantay mountain |
Near the top of the pass, we slowed down to a snail's pace, with the
high altitude having an effect on most people. Despite it only being 7km in
distance, it took us over four hours to get there. Still, everyone in our
group made it, and we spent a while at the top - taking pictures and
learning about some Incan cocoa ritual (sadly, I don't really know much more
than that, as some of us struggled to understand our guide's English. Not
that I'd have understood any more if it had been in Spanish).
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| The top of Salkantay Pass (4,600m) |
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| The rest of the gang |
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| Too exhausted to smile |
We then had to descend the mountain again which wasn't a great deal of fun.
Tired legs and the rough steep terrain meant that the risk of injury was
high. In the end, I got down safely (after taking a slight detour avoid a stampeding cow)
for lunch.
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I'm in there somewhere
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Descent into the Amazon |
What was fascinating about day 2 was the dramatic change in
scenery. From the snowy peaks in the morning, to the desert-like
mountain descent, to being surrounded by jungle and greenery at
the end of the day. We finally arrived at our accommodation in
Chaullay after 22km of walking and a hefty amount of ascending and
descending,
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| Camping pods for day 2 |
Day 3
To our surprise, we were then bundled into a minibus and taken to our next campsite at Lucmabamba. Nobody was complaining - until of course we realised that the minibus was driving on a narrow cliffside road with no crash barriers. Still, at least the driver was happy to turn up the tunes.
At this point, our group split into 2, as some of them were doing a condensed version of the trek. My half of the tour went to swim in a lake while I spent the afternoon hiding from the mosquitos. How they managed to get through THREE layers of clothing remains a mystery.
Day 4
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| Clouds |
Despite the trek taking us through some really remote locations, little shops were
dotted along the way, selling snacks and drinks at a reasonable mark-up (considering most of them weren't on a road). If you
ever get the opportunity, you should try Inca Cola, which tastes a bit like
Irn Bru and looks very much like piss. Anyway, after a huge climb, one of
the shops even had a horse that sadly didn't go anywhere ...
The view at the top of the mountain was nothing short of spectacular and
you could even see Machu Picchu in the distance. As I was taking some
short videos, some chap was battering out a tune on his pipe, which only
added to the ambience.
Our tour guide also talked at length about the Temple of the
Constellation, but sadly it might as well have been in Swahili for the
amount I understood of it.
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| Not sure why we thought this was a good idea. They're supposed to be love hearts btw. |
Anyway, time for another descent, and this one was relentless. Everyone was in agony when we reached the bottom but we still had another 10km uphill walk to go.
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| The view from the path on the way down |
The entirety of the last walk of the day followed the railway to Aguas Calientes (the village/town at the foot of Machu Picchu).
Along the path, there are signs everywhere telling you to keep away from
the railway, which was physically impossible.
Finally, we reached Aguas Calientes, which is a funny old place. The entire
village/town only exists because of tourists visiting Machu Picchu, so it
was filled with hotels, souvenir shops, and overpriced food and
drink.
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| The railway also ran through the middle of the town |
But one thing that Aguas Calientes had going for it was that we were staying in an actual hotel rather than a plastic hut. The shower and subsequent comfy bed were an absolute godsend after what I thought was the toughest day of the trek (25km). Sadly, I didn't get to see enough of the bed as we had yet another early start the next day.
Day 5
I actually got a lie-in until 5:15am on the final day. Four others in my group and I needed to be at the gates of Machu
Picchu between 7am and 8am. However, it suddenly transpired that we
needed to be there for 7am sharp otherwise we wouldn't get a tour
guide, which meant we had only an hour to walk the 1.5km to the bottom
of the mountain AND then climb 400 metres up a gazillion steps to reach the
entrance. I don't think I've ever been so sweaty or exhausted in all
my life but we made it with literally seconds to spare...
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| This picture fails to convey the exhaustion we all felt |
... only for me to be told by my tour guide that because I had a ticket to climb
Machu Picchu mountain afterwards, I wasn't allowed a tour guide. This made
absolutely no sense since we were all going in at the same time, but I was
too tired to argue. Turns out I might not have missed much, since half the
tour guides were difficult to understand, and others just read tracts out of
a guide book.
Anyway, Machu Picchu is absolutely spectacular. I'd imagine if it was at
sea-level, it wouldn't be half as impressive, but it is a lovely place to
walk around. What I didn't know was that quite a lot of it had been rebuilt,
but I didn't know this at the time since I was tourguideless.
We made a brief stop on the way to admire some sun-bathing llamas. I even witnessed one fall off a wall and nearly crush a woman, although sadly, I didn't get a video of that.
After four and a half days of brutal exercise, the last thing I was
needing was to climb another mountain, but I'd already paid for it, so I
was determined to get my money's worth. No-one else in my group was doing
it, but luckily I bumped into a Dutch couple I'd met on the Peruhop bus so
we set off together.
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| Daisy and Martin, a very pleasant Dutch couple |
We made a brief stop on the way to admire some sun-bathing llamas. I even witnessed one fall off a wall and nearly crush a woman, although sadly, I didn't get a video of that.
The steps up to Machu Picchu mountain were incredibly steep (and over 500
years old apparently) and didn't feel too safe, so we made an executive
decision not to go to the top. We were also absolutely knackered, so we
walked back to the town (which still took a good hour and a half of
descending), where I had the world's most rubbish burger (wish I'd taken a
picture, it was truly awful), before getting the train to Ollantaytambo,
where I was lucky enough to get chatting to the butler to the billionaire
father of F1 racing driver Nicholas Latifi.
Arriving at Ollantaytambo, the station was a bit of a scrum. Dozens of drivers holding
up signs with names on, and mine is nowhere to be seen (despite the fact
that other people in my group were all named). So I had to "bribe" the
driver to be let on the bus, and we weren't on the road five minutes
before I received a text telling me my driver was looking for me. Oh
well.
And that was the Machu Picchu tour. Absolutely brutal, slightly
disorganised in parts, but well worth every penny, not to mention meeting
and making friends with the other people in my group (from Germany,
France, Canada, and Colombia). In fact, we got on so well, we went out for
dinner when we get back, but you can read about that in the next part (not
that there's much to say, we went out for dinner. The end).
Anyway, here's the obligatory cliched picture of me at Machu Picchu!
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