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| Birthday start to my Machu Picchu Trek |
Monday May 20,
2013: Cusco/Day 1 of Salkantay Trek
I woke up bright and early for my 5:00-5:15 pickup. Well, by
6:00, I was starting to get a little bit nervous that nobody was
coming. Finally someone arrived to get me and it turned out that the group of 7
“others” had been picked up 1st, but they hadn’t finished paying for
the trip yet and thought they could pay with credit cards on the Monday
morning, apparently?!? There was no point in the whole process that you could
pay with credit cards! It was quite obvious that they were a bit of a shitshow
group from the very beginning, which didn’t bode well for the trip in my
opinion. The group ended up being Justin and Artur from Boston, Chris from
Miami, and the 7 special kids Laura, Marielle, Joey, Will, Matt, Brandon, and ???
(can’t remember)!
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| Getting ready to head out |
Anyway, we finally got on the road and stopped for breakfast
in a small town ~1.5 hours from Cusco. After that, we drove a little further
along and then got all sorted with our duffle bags and our personal bags to
carry all of our stuff. Our duffle bags, which would be carried by the horses,
were meant to weight 7 kgs (~16 lbs), max. 1 of the girls’ bag weighed 13 kgs!!
Between the brosef-y frat boys and the clueless girls, I could tell my
annoyance levels were going to be high! L
I knew my task was to try to avoid the annoyances and just enjoy the amazing
adventure!
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| Roger swears he used to be my colour! |
We walked along a dirt road for the 1
st part of
the day. It was slightly uphill, but definitely not hard. From here, we setup
camp at a little community and had a little rest. We had our first lunch here
where we got our first taste of what a magician our cook was in the kitchen!
Cristobal and his brother created some amazing soups as well as some
absolutely amazing dishes. We had a short siesta period after lunch before
setting out on our “warm up” hike for Day 2.
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| The mountains in Peru aren't small |
We hiked directly up the mountain
behind us to the run off lake formed by the receding glacier. The hike was
definitely steep and strenuous, but the amazing colour of the lake made it
completely worth it!! It was such a brilliantly turquois blue!! I think that
this was also the guides way of gauging who was going ot really struggle up the
mountain on Day 2!
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| The beautiful wee glacial lake |
We returned from our mini-hike just in time for happy hour,
which consisted of popcorn, hot chocolate and a 50 minute National Geographic
documentary about the Spanish conquering the Incas from the guy who wrote Guns,
Germs, and Steel. It was a really great way for us to get our heads around how
so few Spaniards could have conquered such a huge, powerful nation right where
we were doing our Trek!
Anyway, unfortunately I got stuck sharing a tent with the
two other girls, Laura and Marielle, who were both very whiny and annoying.
Both of them skipped happy hour to sleep and it took a lot of convincing for
them to come eat dinner because they didn’t feel well. Their symptoms had
altitude sickness written all over it, in my mind, but Laura was convinced she
was sick and needed antibiotics. Anyway, we had another fantastic
meal for dinner and then it was off to bed early for our early start the next
day.
Happy Lonely Birthday to me...there were definitely a few
lonely tears shed today not having anyone I care for to share my birthday with. L C'est la vie!
Tuesday May 21,
2013: Day 2 of Salkantay Trek
We got up bright and early for a delicious breakfast and got
all of our stuff packed up and ready for the day. The horsemen and porters took
our tents down for us, so all we had to do was eat and get ready, EASY!
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| Christobal and his brother, our Chef Magicians |
As a
side note, luckily, my traveler’s diarrhea finally decided to go away just at
the right time, YAY!! Anyway, we set off at ~7:00 for our 3 hours of uphill
adventure to reach the top of Salkantay Pass. From the very get go, we were
treated to amazingly beautiful views of snow capped peaks around every bend! I
could not have thought of a better way to spend the day! It was nice to just
amble along at a leisurely “there’s not much oxygen up here pace” and make good
progress. It became apparent at 1 point that Marielle was really going to
struggle to get to the top! I honestly don’t know what possesses some people to
sign up for things like this with absolutely no preparations or prior
experience (let alone any sort of pretrip “training”).
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| Never actually alone as a solo traveller |
Anyway about an hour
into the hike, Justin and Artur decide that everyone on the mountain would like
to listen to music! They get their Ipod with armband speakers out and start
blaring techno/dance music! I’m not gonna lie, it was music I normally quite
enjoy listening to, but I DO NOT want to hear it being blared out when I am
trying to enjoy being at 14,000+ feet in the Peruvian Andes!! My annoyance
level quickly escalated! I wanted to hear the waterfalls and streams and birds
chirping and the horses hooves on the rocks, not a bad dance remix of a bad
song to being with! I tried my best to let them hike away from me so I wouldn’t
have to hear it, but they kept stopping so much it was driving me insane!
Finally, Willie stopped, and so did they, at what seemed like what might be a
regroup point and I asked if I could just keep going and meet everyone at the
top! Yea freedom!!! It was great, I could hike at my slow, consistent, not
stopping every 30 seconds pace and be free of the noise!! Ahhhhh, blissful! It
was such a beautiful day and I was so happy to be experiencing such an amazing
and beautiful place!
I had taken the advice of our guides and had wrapped the
coca leaves around some of the charcoal catalyst and had been sucking on it in
the side of my cheek the whole time. I don’t’ know if it worked or not, but I
knocked out the 3.5 miles and 2600 ft of climbing 25 minutes faster than anyone
else in the group! Although there were other groups at the top when I got
there, it was nice to be away from the chaos and whining of the rest of our
group!
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| Hard earned! |
Chris and Matt arrived about 20 minutes after me and we all took the
compulsory photos for each other. 15, 301 feet is definitely the highest I’ve
ever been before...it felt great!! No altitude sickness just a big huge smile
on my face taking it all in.
J
Turns out I got to take it all in for nearly 2 hours, as that’s how long it
took for Marielle to finally make it to the top. Bonus for me, as getting to
sit and enjoy the beautiful mountain views was amazing.
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| Chris timed the shot almost perfectly...almost! |
After trying to fix
Marielle’s shoe...the sole had come off (!!), we headed downhill for 2 hrs to
our lunch stop. Along the way, Laura apparently ran out of water and kept
complaining that she had never been so thirsty in her whole life. Ahhh, amateur
hour!. This coming from the girl who was active duty Army stationed in the Middle
East for 5 years!
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| Epic mountains surrounding the pass |
After lunch, we had ~4 more hours of descending,
at which point we started descending into the could forest eco system. It was
amazing to see the scenery change so drastically in such a short period of
time! Everything became so lush and green with beautiful flowers and lovely
butterflies!
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| Pack horse stampede |
I stayed at the back with our other guide, Roger, so he could help
me try and spot orchids. We only found 3, but they were beautiful pink ones!
There were tons of Bromelias, which are, apparently, the favourite food for the
Spectecled Andean black bears!
We made it to camp, which was in a small community where
families offer hot showers for a fee. It was all that the 2 other girls could
talk about all day long! They whole trip was as if none of them actually wanted
to be in nature! I quite happily took my tidy wipe bath, put on some deodorant
and called it good!
We were again treated to an amazing HH and dinner, and I
even treated myself to a large beer as a good job for killing it up the climb! J The beer here sucks,
though, so I’m not sure how much of a treat is actually was!
Wednesday May 22,
2013: Day 3 of Salkantay Trek
I know it might sound like I am whining now, but these girls
that I had to share the tent with were the Queens of whining! The 1st
night they were too cold and the 2nd night there were too hot, like
Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, only there was never a just right...I guess maybe
that was me, actually! J
I sure wasn’t going to be sad to see the backside of them when their lot left
our group a day early!
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| Soaking sore feet in the freezing river |
Today was a short day...3 hours to Santa Teresa on Peruvian
“flat” terrain. We passed a lot of coffee plants, bananas, and avocados as well
as loads of wild strawberries, which were delicious!! We even got treated to some
delicious fresh passion fruit growing right next to the path. It was amazing,
as soon as we 1.) weren’t at altitude anymore and 2.) the girls got to get all
of their stuff carried for them, and 3.) they got threatened with having to
take the bus to Santa Teresa, suddenly they were able to keep up! After lunch,
we drove to Santa Teresa and headed for the hot springs!!
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| Possibly the nicest hot springs I have ever been to |
I absolutely love hot
springs and getting to go to these particular hot springs was one of the
reasons I selected this Trek! It was 10 Soles for the bus ($4) and 5 Soles ($2)
to get into the springs. I have been to quite a few hot springs, and I can
honestly say that these are some of the nicest, cleanest, and most beautiful
that I have ever been to! It was the perfect way to relax after 3 days of a
fair amount of hiking. We got to prune ourselves in the hot springs for about 4
hours. I was 1 happy kid! After that, we headed back for our nightly happy hour
and Chris and I decided to split a box of red wine. I had definitely had enough
of the shitty beer! We had popcorn and yucca chips and got to watch the top
Cusco football team play
Columbia for the South American League Championships.
It was really fun to actually get to see our cooks and guides let loose a
little, laugh and smile, obviously escaping from the work mode for just a
little while whilst cheering for their favourite team! Unfortunately, the Cusco
team lost, but there was a generally celebratory vibe anyway. Another box of
wine was purchased over dinner, then the bon fire was lit and the party got
started. There were probably 30-40 people who were all camping there who were
singing and dancing and having a grand ole time. I decided to call it a night
at about 10:00 as we had a 6:30 wake up. I think that all 3 boys pulled, or at
least gave it a good effort, which was absolutely hilarious to me to watch
unfold. Anyway, I finally got a good night’s sleep having the tent and all of
the space all to myself!
Thursday May 23,
2013: Day 4 of Salkantay Trek
Today, Chris, Willie and I set out to do the “boring”
stretch from Santa Teresa to the Hidroelectrica Dam. It’s all along a dirt
road, so it can be a bit dusty with all of the passing cars, but it was only
7km and we knocked it out in just under 2 hours. Justin and Artur (who now has
9 blisters on his feet because he brought winter “packs” as his hiking footwear
for the week...like I said, amateur hour!) decided to do the zip line, which
then included a drop off at the Hidroelectrica Dam, supposedly at 10:00 a.m. We
got there about 9:30, but they didn’t show up until after 12:00! Sitting around
waiting for these boys became a constant theme for the trip. Unfortunately, I
think someone from the Frat Brat Pack got us all sick, as I started to get a
sore throat and started coughing which isn’t the best way to start a mega day
of hiking at Machu Picchu the next day!
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| This one makes me smile. :) |
Once we met back up with the late boys,
we had about a 3-hour hike (Peruvian Flat!) along the railway line that runs to
Aguas Calientes. It was a beautiful walk with loads of banana and avocado trees
along the way. We would occasionally have to get out of the way of the trains
coming through, but other than Artur’s constant moaning about his blisters, it
was an absolutely enjoyable afternoon walk. We actually circumnavigated the
entire base of the mountain that Machu Picchu sits on.
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| Balancing act |
At one point, Willie
point out a position of the ruins that we could see from the path. I’m not
gonna lie, the thought of hiking all the way to the top of the Huayna Picchu
mountain the next day seemed all together daunting staring up at it form the
valley floor!
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| Aguas Calientes |
We finally arrived in Aguas Calientes, and I was pleasantly
surprised at its quaint beauty. It sits right along an absolutely gorgeous
river and although it is quite obviously a tourist town, wholly serving people
coming to visit Machu Picchu, it has a charm I wasn’t expecting based on the
guidebook’s description of it. I would have liked to have spent another day
there, just walking around and also visiting the butterfly sanctuary and
botanical gardens, which apparently have a lot of varieties of beautiful
orchids.
After a quick shower and nap, we met up for our farewell
dinner and to set our plan for the next day. We were treated to a lovely dinner
including a nice Pisco Sour...maybe my new favourite frozen mixed drink!
Anyway, the plan was that Chris and I were going to start off at 4:30 and hike
to the ruins, and everyone else was going to try and get on the 1st
bus up in the morning so we could get some good photos before the hordes of
train tourists arrived about 7:30. After trying my best to help Artur with his
numerous blisters (some people are just too stubborn to let someone who
actually knows what they are doing help them!), I set my alarm for 4:00 a.m.
(gahhhhhh!) and called it a night.
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| At long last! |
Friday May 24,
2013: Day 5 of Salkantay Trek...Machu Picchu!!!
Ahhhh, Machu Picchu day...worth getting up at 4:00 a.m. for!
After a quick shower to try and help clear the congestion from my head and
downing some yogurt, I set off at about 4:30. It’s about a 30 minute walk to
the Entrance/1
st checkpoint, which didn’t actually open until 5:00
a.m. Anyway, so there was a huge queue of eager beavers waiting to hike up to
be the 1
st to see the ruins for the day. It was much warmer than I
expected, which meant that I started sweating...instantly! After passing
through the checkpoint, I started the “Pilgrimage” up the stairs to the top of
the mountain all the whilst wondering how many people had trekked there vs. how
many people had gotten the train and had fresh legs for the plight ahead. With
our headlamps on, we plodded on as those less fit eventually accepted their
reality and pulled over to let the rest of us pass by. After 1728 stairs, plus
or minus a few, I reached the top, sadly about 20
th of all of the
hikers and even more sadly after the arrival of the first bus load of non hikers.
J Either way, it was
barely light out, still before 6:00 a.m. and it was a bit foggy, so there wasn’t
going to be a “seeing the sunrise” experience anyway. I met up with some of our
group, but as per usual, we were waiting on Justin and Artur, so our tour from
Willie got started about 20 minutes late, which is a bummer since we had to
start climbing Hauyana Picchu by 8:00.
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Benefit of being one of the first into the ruins...
photo sans people!! |
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| So glad I made it to this beautiful place |
Either way, Willie gave us a good
account of why Machu Picchu is where it is, how the aqueducts collected water,
why the Spaniards never found M.P. and how Hiram Bingham came to find the
amazing ruins in 1911, led there by a a 12 year old little boy from a village
nearby, when he was actually looking for the “Last Civilization of the Incas”
in the jungle. He later returned with a team of researchers from Yale and spent
5 years discovering and uncovering many, many artifacts, etc....may of which
were taken to the U.S. for analysis, and very unfortunately never returned to
Peru.
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Willie explaining the counting system...there was
no written language in the Incan language. |
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| Part of the door locking system |
Anyway, we made it to our 8:00 Hauyana Picchu entry time and
started climbing up and up and up! This climb is not for the feint of heart,
especially not for those scared of heights and it shouldn’t be for those not
fit enough to make it to the top, but they don’t really mention that to people
as you check in at the bottom...leading to some people who probably shouldn’t
be up there giving it a go.
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| Looking down on the ruins and the road up |
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| So worth it! |
I’m pretty sure that hike to the top of H.P. was
harder than the 1728 stairs up to M.P. from Aguas Calientes, but it sure as
hell was worth the view once you got up there!! I was pretty psyched to just
relax, enjoy the view and eat the giant avocado that I’d been carrying around
for the last 2 days. It was really peaceful just to sit at the end of one of
the viewing terraces, overlooking the beautiful ruins, whilst eating my
“brunch”. Starting at the tail end of allotted “time window” to climb H.P.
meant that most people had already gone from our group and not many people from
the next group were up yet, so I had the place to myself for about 30 minutes!
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| Brunch |
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| Air stairs |
After I was done, I noticed that there was a man who seemed
quite hesitant to climb the “ghost” air stairs up to the top of the terrace. He
told me he was very scared of heights, but he couldn’t see the amazing view from
where he was, so I offered to take his camera and take some photos for him, which I did, but, in
the end, he figured out another way to get up, which seemed way sketchier to
me, and I ended up sticking around to help him get down and then also had to
help an old man cross a decent gap and get down to try and find his wife. I
felt like the Scared of Heights helper for the day! Christoph from France
followed me around for about 15 minutes thanking me profusely for encouraging
and helping him accomplish something he never would have if I hadn’t been
there.
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| On top of H.P. |
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Climbing down ladders to get to
the Temple of the Moon |
I didn’t really want a tag along for the rest of the day and luckily
Christoph wasn’t keen to go to the Temple of the Moon, so we parted ways and I
returned to my solitary, blissful M.P. experience. I was very excited to visit
the Temple of the Moon, as most people don’t bother to add on the extra 2 hours
of hiking, AND the moon holds a very, very special place in my heart, so I was excited
to visit this sacred Inca Temp.
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| Inside the cave at the Temple of the Moon |
The Temple is actually tucked into a small cave
that was very peaceful, cool and relaxing, partly because there were very few
other people there. It was a bit of a trek to get there and get back out,
including sets of cool ladders to go up and down!
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| Salkantay peak (Day 2) hidden in the clouds |
After returning to M.P. from H.P. I was determined to hike
to the Sun Gate as well. It looked like a normal hiking trail in comparison to
hiking H.P., so I was sure I could get up and back in time for my 3:00 p.m. bus
down deadline.
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The path of the sun through the Sun Gate and
the entrance of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu |
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A lone Bromelia...safe from the
chance of being eaten by a bear |
It was cool to get up to where the Inca trail enters the ruins
and see where the sun shines through the gate and into the window of one of the
buildings in the ruins during the summer solstice. On the way down, a random
girl I’d seen a few times throughout the day asked me how long she had to get
to the top of the Sun Gate and then asked if I’d been to the Inca Bridge.
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| Trying to "blend in" |
I
told her I didn’t think I had time, but she said it was literally 10 minutes
from the check in gate, so I picked up the pace and decided to try and make it
happen! By god, I probably wouldn’t be back here in my lifetime, so I power
hiked past all of the elderly Japanese tourists also making their way to see
the bridge.
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| Incan Bridge |
Basically there are stairs piles up on the side of a sheer rock
face (over 1000 ft drop) that are connected by some wooden logs which could
easily be discarded in the event of unwanted visitors. It was pretty cool to
get to see that side of M.P., as that was the shear rock face we were looking
up at for a good portion of our hike along the railroad tracks the day before.
I am really glad that I decided to check it out, and in the end, I made it back
to the gate just in time to get the bus down, 2:57, 3 minutes before Willie’s
3:00 get on the bus deadline. I felt damn proud if myself, as I left absolutely
no energy in reserves, I gave it all to that beautiful sacred Incan site!
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Thank you Machu Picchu...one of the
best experiences of my life! |
As soon as I got off of the bus, I ran into Artur and Justin
who kindly offered me their last piece of pizza and ½ of a beer that they
didn’t want...it was definitely welcomed and much appreciated! After that, I
hustled back to the hostel to take my customary tidy wipe bath and change into
the cleanest clothes I had for the train ride home.
J Somehow we got booked onto
the more expensive, nicer tourist train back to Ollantaytambo where everyone
gets off of the train and transfers to a bus for the rest of the journey back
to Cusco.
Once we arrived in Cusco,
Salkantay Trekking had someone waiting to take us to our respective hotels and
hostels. Somehow 3 of us managed to get on the 1
st bus, but the
“always having to wait for boys” ended up on the last bus and kept saying how
they were so confused about how everything was supposed to happen: train to
bus, bus to transfer, even though Willie literally went over it 5-6 times at
dinner the night before. I guess most people just don’t actually listen like I
do. Who knows?
!? I finally made it to my
bed, by which point I was feeling pretty damn sick again...coughing, snotty
nose, etc... Boo!!! At least it held off till the end of the day!
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| Goodbye amazing sacred place, it's been surreal! |
