Salkantay-ke you to Machu Picchu

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!

Barry Manilow woz ere (or not...)

At the Copa...Copacabana...but not THAT one! After an immense kerffuffel involving bus times leaving La Paz our journey to Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca was finally underway. The bus had to cross the lake on some weird floating flat thing, but we arrived safe and dry after all.

You can just about see our bus in the middle of the lake

"Hooray we have made it Inca Brother!"

We arrived at Copabana (which was a bit like a Bolivian Barry Island) just in time for the Good Friday/Easter Sunday celebrations, so the small town was filled with tour busses and pilgrims from all over Bolivia, as well as tourists like us. The best view of the town was to be had at the top of a nearby mountain, so we joined the pilgrims in hiking up to the top, an also in the perilous scramble to the bottom!

The people hiked up to the top of the mountain (even really old women and men with crutches) 

to light incense and put flowers near the Catholic icons at the top

Bowler hatted lady eatin´ ice cream with a view out to Isla del Sol, 

the supposed birthplace of the Inca religion

Argh! Don´t look down

Celebrating hordes and a surprising number of duck pedalloes (duckalloes) on the lake shores

In the evening we joined the crowds and walked up to the cathedral for the Good Friday procession, which was a little bit sinister, with hooded and robed figures carrying a graphic model of Jesus´ corpse to the hill. The band played a creepy dirge and the whole procession stopped every few metres to read the Lord´s Prayer.

We didn´t follow them for very long.

As the crowds dispersed we booked ourselves on an overnight trip to visit the famous Isla del Sol, for a hike over the island and a visit to some Inca ruins.

Chincana ruins

Sacrificial table

Matt made his own Inca ruin

After a good night´s sleep we missed going down the Inca Stairs, and opted instead for a donkey filled mud path to get us to the boat launch! But here is a picture of the stairs anyway.

(not us)

The boat back to Copacabana was a bit over filled and tediously slow, but we got there eventually. The town was almost deserted now that the weekend Easter hordes had gone, so we thought we´d join them and jumped on a bus to Peru!