Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

The coolest thing about being in Cusco was the fact that Em Willcox and Leece Clarke were there at the same time! We caught up with them a few times while we were on our Spanish course, and found out they'd booked an organised trek around the Salkantay circuit, which ends up in Machu Picchu. It's an alternative to the classic Inca Trail which is usually booked ahead months in advance.

So the day after we finished our Spanish course we were up at 4am for a 4:30am pickup outside Em and Leece's hotel. It was a 3 hour drive, and then quite a long hot walk of about 7 hours on the first day. The campsite was beautiful; you could see Salkantay mountain clearly that evening and also its neighbour which I'm not sure of its name.

Dinner was great, and the night was cold but luckily we had good sleeping bags with us. Unfortunately for our other Aussie mate Piffo, who had a very light 2-season bag and was sleeping in a tent by himself, the night proved very very cold and uncomfortable and he didn't sleep much at all, the poor fella.

Day 2 began and we had to be up for a 5:30am breakfast, ready to leave camp by 6:30am. Crazy stuff, but we had a big pass ahead of us (4600m) to head up, with 9 hours of walking in total planned.

Nice views of Mt Salkantay, on the morning of Day 2

We got going by about 7am, and it took us 3 hours to get to the top. Apparently, according to our awesome guide Edwin, it was a record time as it usually takes 4.5-5 hours to get up. Our group was super cool and most people were pretty fit. It was an unusualy mix of professions... of the 16 people, there were 8(!) doctors, a final year medical student, a an actor that played a doctor in a medical drama, 2 physios, an economist who worked for a drug company, an IT guy, an interior designer, and an ex-law clerk. Unfortunately, Ursula, one of the doctors, pulled out after day 1 citing "lack of fitness"... but she met us for Machu Picchu a couple of days later.

At the top of the pass, 4600m.

Top row, L-R: Heather (USA, ex-Law clerk), Brooke (USA, interior designer), Lauren (Holland, the economist), Albert (Holland, physio), Leece, Jen, Me, Em
Middle: Thomas (Czech, O&G registrar), Esme (Holland, a fellow in Paediatric Metabolic Diseases), Alesh (Czech, IT guy)
Front: Marketa (Czech, final year med student), Leo (Holland, who I can't remember what he does), Petra (Czech, a physio), Piffo (the fake doctor), Jenny (UK, GP who does cool work in Nepal and on the Amazon.).

After the pass, we headed downhill for 5 hours or so... hard work on the legs. During the descent we walked through a variety of beautiful and very different terrain - from bare rocky alpine valleys to the "cloud forest" to rainforest. Beautiful.

Day 3 was mostly following a river downstream, and was a long and hot slog. The river itself was a sweet, steep creek that Jen and I kept looking at (me in fear, Jen drooling) which looked grade 4-5 at the start, and eased to grade 3 towards the end (phew). It'd make a good river trip for sure. At the end, there were some hot springs! Much needed, and boy was it good fun to get clean, and to hop between the hot hot hot pools and the c-c-c-cold pools. Beers were had afterwards.

Soaking it up in the hot springs. L-R: Jen, Em, Brooke, Heather, Me, Albert (arms waving), Leo, Alesh, Petra (with hands on face).

Day 4 was another steaming hot day, and was mostly along dirt road following a river upstream. The views got better the closer we got to Aguas Calientes (the town at the foot of Machu Picchu), with steep mountains and limestone and granite cliffs dominating the scenery.

We reached the halfway mark where the railway began, and had lunch there. Esme, UK Jenny, Brooke, Heather, Jen and I decided to be slack (some for better reasons than others) and caught the train the rest of the way to Aguas Calientes; the others hiked the 3 hours to Aguas Calientes which in hindsight we should've done, as the scenery was just spectacular... beautiful jungle and towering cliffs on both sides, and a sweet river was followed all the way. We were craning our necks to try and see the sights from the train windows.

We stayed in a hostel that night (the hot showers were very welcome) and the next day we met the group at 4:30am and by 4:45am began hiking up to Machu Picchu. It was meant to take an hour or so to hike up the stairs to the top, but Jen was on a mission and I had to stick with her (of course) so we got up there in 32 minutes... Heather, Brooke, and Leo were next a few minutes behind, and the rest of our group managed it in under 50 minutes (except for a few poor souls who were hit with Ds and Vs overnight - they did well just to make it up!).

Machu Picchu is an amazing place. The stonework is, in some parts, incredibly neat and well constructed, and the atmosphere was unbelievable. We hiked to the top of Waynapicchu, which is the mountain you can see in the background of the picture below. We intended to do some more climbs, but it was just too bloody hot and we really couldn't be bothered. After Waynapicchu we sat down and ate some food whilst attempting to avoid the sandflies (luckily for us, tasty Leece was their favourite meal which meant less bites for us), and then headed up to the other end of the ruins for some of the classic views.

The view of the Machu Picchu ruins from near the top of Waynapicchu. It's meant to look like a condor, but I think it looks more like a puppy dog.

The classic shot of Machu Picchu from the guardhouse.

Team Australia: Me, Jen, Em, Leece, and Piffo.

We hiked back down the stairs and went for beer and pizza in Aguas Calientes. It was a long journey back, with a 2 hour train ride and then another 3 hours on the bus back to Cusco. Phew!