The Salkantay Trek And Machu Picchu
The Salkantay trek was a nice one, I went with a group of 10 people aged between 18 and 42, a Swiss couple, a young Swiss guy, 3 Dutch girls, a German women, an Argentinean women, an Australian Indonesian girl (of Chinese origin) and me. The Swiss people seemed to handle it the climbing and the height quite well, me and the Argentinean women generally managed fine, the German and the Australian found it rather hard, but the Dutch girls really struggled to cope with it, two of them get sick during the trek, and they complained all the time about how hard it is, it might have to do with the fact that they come from a very flat country. Though towards the end of the trip they were more happy about, it looked like they adapted, and were enjoying it more.
The first day was a good taste of things to come, it was a lot of walking, in the midst of beautiful mountain scenery. We walked from 8 until about 5:30 in the afternoon, with a couple of breaks on the way. My legs were quite tired when I got to the camp site, and I had a couple of blisters, one in each foot in the back of my heels, but it seems this is part of the experience, since almost everybody else had them as well. The camp spot was quite a wild one, in the middle of one of the valleys, next to a couple of water streams, at an altitude of 3500m, with nothing around except the camp site of the other group that was doing the same trek. At these heights very little trees live, and they are generally around the streams, and the sun is very strong but once it sets down, it starts to get very cold, and we didn´t have a fire to warm us up, I think it would have been difficult anyway, with so little wood around. I slept with four layers of cloth, inside my sleeping bag with an extra sheet, even then the coldness was barely tolerable, I did not sleep well.
The second day was the toughest, but at the same time offered the most spectacular scenery. In the morning we had to climb 1000m in four hours, to get to the highest point in the trek at 4600 m, next to the Salkantay mountain, which could have easily portrayed the mines of Moria mountain in the Lord of the Rings. If at 3500m little trees live, at 4000m and above there are none, the landscape consists of wide spacious valleys, covered by green grass, surrounded by snow covered mountain peaks, with small streams running all over the place, I really loved the feeling of having so much space. Anyway this was the toughest part of the trip, at 4600m there is almost half the oxygen compared to see level, one of the Dutch girls got sick just before the steepest part, there couldn´t have been a worst timing, after realizing that she really could not walk anymore, they put here on one of the horses, that was used to carry some of the gear, and she made it all the way up on the horse. As we were approaching the top I started to get a headache, height sickness, which increased the more we got closer to the top, at the top it was very cold, and you could hear the sound of cracking ice on the close by peaks. We didn´t stay there long, and started heading down for our launch site, once we got there everybody was so tired that they just lied down for nap. I felt a bit sick and still had a headache, but I managed to eat my launch. After launch we did not have much time to rest, as our next camping site was quite a distance away, and we needed to make it there before it gets dark. While walking the group became split into two a fast one and a slow one, since I was not feeling well I ended up in the slow group. But as we went down more and more , I was feeling better and better, at some point my height sickness was gone, and regained all my energies, and I was walking much faster, but since the fast group was out of sight, I had to stick to the slow group. We did not manage to make to the camping site in day light, and we had to walk the last hour in the darkness, we finally made it to the camping site just before 7 pm, considering we started at 8 in the morning, that was a very long day.
The camping site in the second night was not as wild as the first night, there is family living there and maintaining the site, and you could by drinks, it was much warmer as well, as we where at lower altitude and surrounded by rain forest.
The third day was a breathe compared with the second day, the path was mostly flat or going down, and we made it to the camping site at 4pm. But I found the scenery less interesting, as everything was covered with rain forest. Anyway after 3 days of walking and no washing, I was feeling very dirty, and I was determined to bath no mater what, I went down to the river, with a few others from the group and we washed in the freezing cold water of the river, which gets comes from the melting snow, but I felt much better after that. This camp site was run by a family as well, with very friendly children, who were very eager to to meet and talk to the visitors.
Fourth day we did little walking, we traveled mostly but train and bus, but we had to cross a couple of rivers by foot. The first had a wooden bridge, which would swing when you walk on it, definitely not for the faint hearted. The other one did not even have a bridge, just a cable cart, capable of carrying two people at a time. Since we used the bus to travel instead of walking, we got to the train station too early, and we had 4 hours to kill before the train left. Though for a change this time the launch was excellent, unlike during the whole trip the food was no more than adequate. The train took us to Machu Picchu Pueblo, were we were going to stay for the night. We went to from a dip in the thermal baths, before having dinner, and going to bed early.
In the morning we had to wake up at 4:30, have breakfast at 5:00 and head for the Machu Picchu. We had two options to walk up or take the bus which costs 6$, quite a rip off for a 20 minute bus ride. Anyway I was feeling good after a day of rest, and I decided to join the group going up on foot. We made it up there at 7, then we had a guided tour for 2 hours. After that we had only two hours free, because our train was leaving at 1:30 from the town bellow, anyway I decided to climb the Huayna Picchu, a high view point, above the Machu Picchu, some of the other decided to go for the sun gate on the other side which is an easier walk, the others were not in a hurry to go up, since they were not leaving in the 1:30 train, but were going to stay for the night in town, and take the train the next day, anyway I was in a hurry so I went on my own. According to my guide it was an 1 hour climb, but I did it in 38 minutes, though this is still far from the record of 22 minutes. Anyway I got a full view of the Machu Picchu, but rather a far one. Since I made it quite fast up and down the Huayna Picchu, I had time to climb to the there side of the Machu Picchu, and view it from there, which I think is the much more beautiful view point, though I did not make it all the way to the sun gate. Anyway I rested there for half an hour enjoying the amazing view, before heading down to the town by bus, I could have spent a whole afternoon there though, just lying and enjoying the scenery.
The first day was a good taste of things to come, it was a lot of walking, in the midst of beautiful mountain scenery. We walked from 8 until about 5:30 in the afternoon, with a couple of breaks on the way. My legs were quite tired when I got to the camp site, and I had a couple of blisters, one in each foot in the back of my heels, but it seems this is part of the experience, since almost everybody else had them as well. The camp spot was quite a wild one, in the middle of one of the valleys, next to a couple of water streams, at an altitude of 3500m, with nothing around except the camp site of the other group that was doing the same trek. At these heights very little trees live, and they are generally around the streams, and the sun is very strong but once it sets down, it starts to get very cold, and we didn´t have a fire to warm us up, I think it would have been difficult anyway, with so little wood around. I slept with four layers of cloth, inside my sleeping bag with an extra sheet, even then the coldness was barely tolerable, I did not sleep well.
The second day was the toughest, but at the same time offered the most spectacular scenery. In the morning we had to climb 1000m in four hours, to get to the highest point in the trek at 4600 m, next to the Salkantay mountain, which could have easily portrayed the mines of Moria mountain in the Lord of the Rings. If at 3500m little trees live, at 4000m and above there are none, the landscape consists of wide spacious valleys, covered by green grass, surrounded by snow covered mountain peaks, with small streams running all over the place, I really loved the feeling of having so much space. Anyway this was the toughest part of the trip, at 4600m there is almost half the oxygen compared to see level, one of the Dutch girls got sick just before the steepest part, there couldn´t have been a worst timing, after realizing that she really could not walk anymore, they put here on one of the horses, that was used to carry some of the gear, and she made it all the way up on the horse. As we were approaching the top I started to get a headache, height sickness, which increased the more we got closer to the top, at the top it was very cold, and you could hear the sound of cracking ice on the close by peaks. We didn´t stay there long, and started heading down for our launch site, once we got there everybody was so tired that they just lied down for nap. I felt a bit sick and still had a headache, but I managed to eat my launch. After launch we did not have much time to rest, as our next camping site was quite a distance away, and we needed to make it there before it gets dark. While walking the group became split into two a fast one and a slow one, since I was not feeling well I ended up in the slow group. But as we went down more and more , I was feeling better and better, at some point my height sickness was gone, and regained all my energies, and I was walking much faster, but since the fast group was out of sight, I had to stick to the slow group. We did not manage to make to the camping site in day light, and we had to walk the last hour in the darkness, we finally made it to the camping site just before 7 pm, considering we started at 8 in the morning, that was a very long day.
The camping site in the second night was not as wild as the first night, there is family living there and maintaining the site, and you could by drinks, it was much warmer as well, as we where at lower altitude and surrounded by rain forest.
The third day was a breathe compared with the second day, the path was mostly flat or going down, and we made it to the camping site at 4pm. But I found the scenery less interesting, as everything was covered with rain forest. Anyway after 3 days of walking and no washing, I was feeling very dirty, and I was determined to bath no mater what, I went down to the river, with a few others from the group and we washed in the freezing cold water of the river, which gets comes from the melting snow, but I felt much better after that. This camp site was run by a family as well, with very friendly children, who were very eager to to meet and talk to the visitors.
Fourth day we did little walking, we traveled mostly but train and bus, but we had to cross a couple of rivers by foot. The first had a wooden bridge, which would swing when you walk on it, definitely not for the faint hearted. The other one did not even have a bridge, just a cable cart, capable of carrying two people at a time. Since we used the bus to travel instead of walking, we got to the train station too early, and we had 4 hours to kill before the train left. Though for a change this time the launch was excellent, unlike during the whole trip the food was no more than adequate. The train took us to Machu Picchu Pueblo, were we were going to stay for the night. We went to from a dip in the thermal baths, before having dinner, and going to bed early.
In the morning we had to wake up at 4:30, have breakfast at 5:00 and head for the Machu Picchu. We had two options to walk up or take the bus which costs 6$, quite a rip off for a 20 minute bus ride. Anyway I was feeling good after a day of rest, and I decided to join the group going up on foot. We made it up there at 7, then we had a guided tour for 2 hours. After that we had only two hours free, because our train was leaving at 1:30 from the town bellow, anyway I decided to climb the Huayna Picchu, a high view point, above the Machu Picchu, some of the other decided to go for the sun gate on the other side which is an easier walk, the others were not in a hurry to go up, since they were not leaving in the 1:30 train, but were going to stay for the night in town, and take the train the next day, anyway I was in a hurry so I went on my own. According to my guide it was an 1 hour climb, but I did it in 38 minutes, though this is still far from the record of 22 minutes. Anyway I got a full view of the Machu Picchu, but rather a far one. Since I made it quite fast up and down the Huayna Picchu, I had time to climb to the there side of the Machu Picchu, and view it from there, which I think is the much more beautiful view point, though I did not make it all the way to the sun gate. Anyway I rested there for half an hour enjoying the amazing view, before heading down to the town by bus, I could have spent a whole afternoon there though, just lying and enjoying the scenery.
posted by DiagonalMind at
8:59 AM
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