The highs and lows of the Salkantay Trek
Unlike any other part of our trip, we booked our Machu Picchu trek 6 months ago. We were told by many sources online that the government only allow 500 people into the cultural site every day, so we wanted to get in early to make sure we got what we wanted.
What we found is that that original Inca Trail is now incredibly popular with hundreds of people walking it every day and in an attempt to avoid crowds we booked up the lesser known route the Salkantay trek, which is designed to take you closer to the mountains and especially Salkantay mountain, which the Incas revered greatly.
There are several other options to get to Machu Picchu, but they were either not challenging enough or extremely difficult. Rose and I wanted to feel a sense of achievement on completion without being so exhausted we don’t enjoy it at all.
On Arriving at Cusco, to begin our altitude acclimatisation, we discovered that every trekking shop was selling our trek, and for a lot less than we paid. We chatted to people in our hostel who had bought it, and it sounded very similar, so we were fairly disappointed that we had felt compelled to buy so far in advance, when it was cheaper and easier to buy there. We even found someone who had bought a Machu Picchu entrance ticket the day before heading up. Clearly the 500 people per day is more of a guideline.
Nothing was going great. Then we met our guide…
We had heard rumours that may of the local guides hardly care about the mountains. It’s a job which they get paid for and they have a set plan which they follow. Not for us.
Nathan popped over to our hostel to run us through his plan. An American mountain climber, Nathan has climbed 10 of the 11 6000m+ mountains in the Cusco area. He led the first team to climb Salkantay since the 80’s and he’s a really nice chap to boot. He loves these mountains and was insanely excited to share then with other people. It also turned out that it was just us 2 and him on the trip — we were getting the tourist free hike we wanted. Worth all the extra money.
Day 1 we stayed in a brand new lodge that one of Nathan’s friends had started up, with incredible views of the mountains. A quick 300m hike up to a lagoon got the legs warmed up and got us used to hiking at 4000m altitude. Your legs feel strong but if you move a little too fast you run out of oxygen and start panting, so you take small considered steps and work on putting one foot infant of the other. Nathan took us higher up the lagoon for an amazing view back down the valley.
Day 2 is known as ‘the hard day’. It starts off at 5am with a 700m hike up to the Salkantay pass. The mountains were absolutely stunning. Huge white tipped monsters which change colours as the sun rises. The clouds move around at your height which adds this magical element to it all.
2.5 hours of hiking and we hit the top. At 4630m, the air is thin but our warm up hiking in Costa Rica and the Colca Canyon were clearly having an effect as we stood on the top feeling strong.
The benefits of having a small group came in to play as well, as we took a detour to get closer to Salkantay (and a beautiful lagoon) and hike down the trail-less mountain rather than the over-used main dirt track trail.
It turns out that the hike up isn’t the challenge. It’s the 22km of downhill plodding which gets the legs and Rose had started falling back and by lunch she had really taken a turn for the worst. Like a trooper she carried on, but clearly not at 100%.
6 hours later we pulled into our lodge for the night and Rose, white as a sheet, flopped into bed, a fever had set on.
Crossing off what we thought it wasn’t, we ended up agreeing that it was the flu; pretty great timing. Maybe we shouldn’t have played those Canadian air hostesses at beer pong the night before the trek!
The morning of day 3, Rose jumped into a car, which drove her to our lodging that night so that she could rest up. It didn’t matter about the rest of the trek, just that she was well enough to ascend Machu Picchu.
To be honest, I wish I had gone with her. Day 3 is the jungle trek part of the route, and because 100 people walk it every day, it is a well trodden route with very few features. The countryside is also littered with pylons and cables, which is a real shame. I was hoping for untouched wilderness and got a 15km walk through (what looked like) the British countryside. With concerns for Rose and the uninspiring landscape working together, Nathan and I pretty much ran the trail, completing the 4 hour hike in 2hr 20mins.
Rose was feeling world’s better when we rolled into Santa Teresa, so we went out to a local chicken place for a proper feed to giver her energy to fight it over night. We also went to the local hot springs, which was absolutely incredible and cost a whopping 5 soles (£1).
Day 4 was another disappointing day. The scenery was great, but the trekking was distinctly average. It’s a 3 hour walk along a railway track, not what I was expecting. On top of this, tiny flying bugs ravage any bare skin you have showing. As a group of 3 we could move quite fast and keep them mostly away but some of the bigger groups we passed were eaten alive, everybody with 50–60 bites on each leg.
Feeling slightly depressed, we arrived at Aguas Calientes, but my mood flipped as we were shown around the stunning town. Our accommodation for the night was an amazing American-Indian style abode with a view through the valleys and the food in the town was exceptional.
Machu Picchu day. Our guide is more of a mountain expert so left us to do the ruins ourselves. He arranged for a private guide to take us on a tour of the ruins at 10am but we were keen to get up there for first light.
We had also signed up to climbing the Machu Picchu Mountain, which is another 700m above the ruins, so with a 7am entrance, we met up with an Ozzie friend and climbed hard.
The route was incredible. The ancient stairs wound around the mountain, offering incredible views with every turn.
Reaching the top, we were rewarded with the whole mountain to ourselves. Honestly the best climb I’ve ever done with the best views from the top. Smiles were beaming and our laugher likely woke some sleepy creatures many valleys over.
Machu Picchu ruins itself were incredible, even though it pissed it down all day. I was expecting that it would be a littered tourist trap, but it was incredibly well looked after. No point in me elaborating, I would implore anyone to see this incredible town.
Knackered and happy, we descended from the ruins in the early afternoon to board our train back to Cusco. Tick that one off the bucket list.
