The 5 day Salkantay Trek

Marco Whyte|2024-05-07 (8 months ago)91 views

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I'm still blown away by this experience. 5 days walking through the Peruvian Andes, leading all the way to the lost city of Machu Picchu. Hakuchu! (vamos/let's go in Quechua, the language the Incas spoke in this part of Peru)

A quick summary of this trip:

• 5 days
• 86km (53 miles)
• +2'300m / -2'600m (+7,546 feet / -8,530 feet) total elevation
• 35 hours of walking
• Max altitude of 4'600m (15,092 feet)
• Min altitude of 2'000m (6,562 feet)

Day 1

This first day was a tester to see who was ready for the next days ahead, vs those who would have to take the horses on the second day instead. Our guide Eder made sure we took plenty of breaks, because the altitude is no joke! Just a bit of movement would already get your heart pumping. We started at 4'100m (13,450 feet) and hiked with the view of Humantay Mountain.

It took around 12km (7.45 miles) to get to our camp, sky camp. The group made it well and we got to have lunch with a view.

We got a long break here, because up next was the real test to see who was ready for the journey ahead. This challenge is the hike to Humantay Lake, which we would take there and back to our sky camp. Our friendly guide Eder let us know that we needed to be able to do this in 1:30h to be good for the rest of the days ahead. It was funny because you could see the competitive people in the group hear this as a challange for who can get up the fastest. But the way up was intense. It is a sharp uphill, even if only 1.6km (1 mile). In this picture you can see the hike up, all the way to the base of the snowy mountain.

Conner, Logan and I were off to get to the top. After a couple minutes your heart would already start to race with the altitude, but we felt good. There were several points where we thought the hike was over, but each one showed a new stretch to incline. After 50 minutes, us three finally made it, we were the first ones up! It was tough, but totally worth it once we saw the view. We waited here until the rest of the group showed up. Here we all are!

A little hike more and you can see a viewpoint of the lake from above.

The hike down was much easier, and we made it down quickly to get ready for a good night sleep in our domes.

Day 2

Today we woke up early at 5 am. There was a long day ahead, which is said to be the hardest one. We all slept a little strange from the altitude, but I felt ready to get going on the day. We had a delicious breakfast and we were off. A special thanks to the horses that carried our duffles. 🐴

This day is 26km (16.16 miles), our longest of all 5 days. This includes hiking to Salkantay Mountain, the highest altitude of the hike and all the way down to a rainforest. After quite a bit of ascent, we reached the 7 Snakes, also known as the "Gringo Killer". It is a winding uphill that is quite steep! I actually didn't find this part too bad especially with the coca leafs given by our guide. These are slightly stimulating leaves that help with many things including digestion and bringing oxygen into your brain.

From here it was more incline till we finally made it to the Salkantay Mountain. Our chefs were waiting with sandwiches and Coca tea, a happy surprise! Spirits were high since the rest of the day was all downhill. Here we also learned the significance of this mountain to the Incas. Here many sacrifices were done previously, including children (crazy but part of the culture) by the Incas in order for good wishes. We also did a nice process of burying three coca leaves each in order to improve whatever we wanted in our lives. Coca leaves were highly sacred to the Incas.

The rest of the day was downhill. It is impressive how quickly the surroundings change, after a couple of hours we were in a tropical rainforest. This is also when it started to pour, which had to happen at least once on the hike 😄. It's hard to believe this was on the same day as reaching an altitude of 4'600m (15,092 feet).

After a really long day, we finally made it to our sky camp. Here we got to look forward to what Eder had promised us. "Pisco Showers then Pisco Sours 🍸". The camp was also by far the nicest, with warm water, a beautiful view and comfy beds.

Day 3

We've made it to the relaxing day, whew! While still with plenty of walking, it is relatively flat and we got multiple stops. The first stop was to try passion fruit (Granadilla). This was really interesting because it is much different then the one most of us know. Instead of being small balls with a purple shell and slightly sour seeds, they were bigger, had a yellow shell and were very sweet! All the acidic flavor is absent in this version. They made for a great snack and you could pick them off the vines growing on the trees.

The next stop was for a coffee experience. We walked through the whole process, from picking the coffee beans, to pealing them, toasting them, drying, grinding and finally brewing. There were several steps that we fast forwarded because it takes several weeks. Here I am grinding the beans with a rock.

After this we headed to our jungle domes. But the relaxing day wasn't quite done, what is in need when your muscles are all sore from so much walking? Thermal baths! This was a really fun experience. Firstly it took one hour driving to get there, which was filled with music and the bus singing Adele and many other hits.

We stayed here a couple hours and left fully relaxed. We were a bit too relaxed, as we indulged in many pisco sours and beers before heading back 🍻.

Making it back, we had an incredible dinner as it was the last day the chefs were with us. Like usual we had so many different courses, but this time with animals made of veggies!

When everything was done, we happened to look up at one of the prettiest skies I have seen to date. 🌌

Day 4

This day was probably the least exciting of them all, but was our journey to Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Picchu. It involved a long hike up a mountain, which did have an incredible view.

This was actually the first place you could see Machu Picchu from! It was very small, but with camera zoom you can see a little bit. I promise much better views on the last day 😉.

Day 5

This is what is has all led to. It's hard to believe after all we've seen, the best thing is still awaiting! It's time for Machu Picchu, another world wonder off the list.

Eder explained to us a lot of history about this place and it truly is incredible. Machu Picchu was a place where high up Incas lived, like astronomers, royalty and other elite members. I was surprised that they lived here year-round, being self sufficient from the spring water of the mountain and crops grown from the famous staircase structure. Some food had to be brought in through the Inca trail as well as supplies. When the Spanish started taking over Peru, the Incas went to great lengths to hide this city, as they couldn't survive with these routes being blocked off. They broke the bridge on the Inca trail that connects to Machu Picchu, which was partly why it was only rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American professor and explorer. It is also why it has its name still in Quechua, unlike most of the mountains and cities in Peru that are pronounced by the name the Spanish made when colonizing Peru. It was quite sad learning about how distructive the Spanish were to the Incas in Peru. When we first got there we were all worried about how cloudy it was. You could barely see anything! But Eder promised us it would clear out, and he was right.

The sun emerged, and I don't think you could ask for better weather to behold this amazing place.

After this experience that I'll remember for the rest of my life, it was time to head back to Cusco where it all started. Luckily we took a train to not have to walk everything we covered again!

This wraps up the 5 day experience, making amazing new friends, memories, and incredible views you could only wish to see.