No sooner had we arrived in Cusco when we were caught up in the excitement of Ben and Vicky´s trek to Machu Picchu, so we signed up to leave with them at 5.00am the next day! The trek was a 5 day hike through various terrains including a struggle up to the Salkantay Mountain Pass at 4,600m. We made sure we were stocked up on coca tea for the altitude, warm woollens for the cold nights and big sticks for the treacherous terrains.
With two lovely nurses Jo and Katy and our jungle born guide Edwin we had a quick breakfast at Mollepata and began the trek.
Ready to go: The porters and Edwin watches benevolently from behind
Superhikers! Katy, Jo, Matt, Jen, Vicky, Ben. And sticks.
The first day was pertty gentle, we walked for roughly 9 hours (including lunch break) and admired the scenery.
Salkantay in the distance
Eventually it started to get dark and we picked our way over waterfalls and dodgy bridges to our first night´s camp at the foot of Salkantay; "The Savage".
As night descended the temperature dropped dramatically. We sat in the dinner tent sipping hot chocolate when we realised that Edwin had forgotten the sleeping bags...We survived til the morning buried under a pile of blankets and clutching boiling water in our drinking bottles. It was a close call.
Welcome dawn
After breakfast we steeled ourselves for what Edwin had warned us would be the hardest day of the trek; an 800 metre climb up to the Salkantay Mountain Pass and then 800m down to our jungle campsite. We were ready.
A well deserved rest
Finally we made it to the top of the pass...
... and with a hot cup of coca tea, we settled down for Edwin´s talk about the Incas and watched an avalanche.
Avalanche
So began the long trek down into the cloud forest.
We thought it might rain...
...but it didn´t. We walked downhill through the jungle, which quickly turned out to be as hard as going uphill, and it started to get dark. We still had 5 hours until we reached our campsite. Due to the recent landslides in the area, which had closed the trek for the whole of February and March, the ground was harder to navigate and it was a lot harder to reach our destination. Ben´s whole foot pretty much fell off.
After dinner we spent the night eating popcorn and scaring ourselves with horror movie plots so no-one wanted to use the toilet alone until it was time to get some sleep. Tonight we had sleeping bags and it was delicious!
Day three was supposed to be the easiest day; Edwin´s Jungle Adventure day and we had an afternoon off to look forward to. The day started full of promise.
And then we started to lose heart a bit.
But it was alright, because we were nearly home! Tonight we were to stay in a village and the porters made us a cake to say goodbye, because it was also our last night camping.
But it wasn´t this cake
Day four got us up at dawn for the biggest climb of the trek. We left just as it was getting light, and crossed a gushing waterfall before we began our ascent of 1,000m to visit an Incan ruin. We did it in two and a half hours. Woop woop!
Sneaky Peeky of Machu Picchu from afar
The descent felt a lot shorter than it actually was due to Katy´s amusing stories about her mum and a Greek hotel owner called Stavros. Very Shirly Valentine. We spotted Huayna Picchu (the mountain over-looking the big MP) on the way down.
We stopped to bathe our feet in the river.
Just a few minutes more and we arrived at Hidro Electrica station for our lunch. We were undecided about whether we should walk the last few kilometres to Aguas Calientes (where we were spending the night) or not, when we noticed Edwin getting a little edgy. He darted off muttering something about our bags and we didn´t see him again for a good few hours. By now we were starting to get a bit nervous, as it was too late to walk and the train would be leaving in just 5 minutes, and there was still no sign of Edwin!
Just as the train was pulling out of the station Edwin appeared carrying all six of our rucksacks and sweating having run up and down the mountain to get them. We all leaped onto the speeding train just in time, barely making it to Aguas Calientes with our lives, let alone our belongings.
After dinner that night we fell gratefully into our beds and slept peacefully, dreaming of the big finale of our trip that was to come.
Machu Picchu
Todo bonito!
Here is the sundial, in the temple of the sun, one of MP´s feature pieces (even though it only works on one day of the year!) Several years ago a local beer company filmed an advert there and dropped a crane on the sundial, knicking a big chip off it. No-one is allowed to film there anymore.
To climb up Huayna Picchu you have to be one of the first lucky 500 visitors to get to MP. We got there in time and decided that the extra 360m was worth the effort. It was steep and a bit scary sometimes.
It was definitely worth it. We decided it was time to leave Machu Picchu now and relax our aching bones in the hot springs in Aguas Calientes. We may have drunk several Mohitos as well, but that was solely for medicinal purposes! We also had to say goodbye to Jo and Katy, who were getting an earlier train. Bye guys!
We made it! Yey!
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