Salkantay to Machu Picchu

I had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. Gladly it was the great experience I was anticipating. I originally signed up for the Classic Inca Trail hike to Mach Picchu, but after doing some reading I decided to do an alternative hike. There were two main reasons for the change. One was that it saved me about $150, and the second is that there are a lot less people on the alternative treks. I am extremely happy with my decision. There was only one other group (16 people) that we saw routinely on the whole trek. On the Inca Trail there is over 500 people daily, and sometimes up to 1000. It definitely takes away from the experience when there are a bunch of crazies running around. I couldn't´t imagine having to share all the views I had with 100+ other people. It made me think a little about the orangutans in Borneo.



My only concern going into this trek was the same as anyone...were the people in my tour group going to be fun or not. Anytime you do a tour it is a gamble. No matter where you go or what you do if you are with a good group you can have an amazing time, but if you are with a bad group it can be hell. I must be doing something right because again my tour was great. Unlike my jungle trek there was more than just two people, but everyone on the tour was great. We all got along amazingly. We had people from Germany, SPAIN, Holland, Australia, Israel, Ireland, and I was representing Texas, USA. It is funny...almost every time I tell someone I am from Texas they say something about two things. Most of the time it´s good ol George Bush. If not him...it is damn Chuck Norris in Walker Texas Ranger. All I can do is laugh (lol).



It was tough being prepared for this trek because it would be super hot, then in a matter of minutes it would be freezing. The trek started out in the village of Mollepata at about 2900 meters. 7 hours later, 1000 km higher, and 19km closer to Sulkantay Mt. we reached our first camp. It was quite miserable. The wind was blowing about 25mph and it was freezing. I was kept asking myself why did I pay for this. We basically ate dinner and got into our sleeping bags as soon as we could. Although it was miserable...our campsite was amazingly beautiful. Especially when the sun went down. We were camped at the base a huge glacier and it was just beaming in the night. I wish that my camera could have picked it up...it is probably one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. The diversity of this trek was incredible. Day two we woke up at the base of a glacier. We trekked for 4 hours or so and reached the 4752 meter mark (the highest point of the trek). We hiked for another 3 hours and we were in jungle. I couldn't´t believe the change in landscape, vegetation, weather...everything was different. It was like hiking from Colorado down to Florida in a couple of hours.



Each place we camped was nice and unique in its own way, but one place in particular was special to me. Santa Teresa on the third night had a special little critter that was living there. For those of you that know me you could guess...a little 2 month old squirrel monkey that loved to play with people. I really thought about stopping my trek there. His name was Pancho and he was the cutest little monkey I have ever seen. Santa Teresa also had one other perk to it. I made the trek much harder than it really is. I didn´t want to spend the money to get the right equipment (most important was shoes, socks, and underwear) because I will only use it for the next couple of days. To me it would have been a waste of money. Besides having a resident monkey Santa Teresa had a natural hot spring where we could soak and clean up. We all spent over 2 hours soaking in the natural pools hoping that our bodies would recover for the following day.



By day 4 my shoes had completely failed me. On my right foot my pinkie toenail had fallen off from being squished. The last day of trekking and the whole day at Machu Picchu was done in my flip flops. All together I probably did around 30km and 18 hrs of trekking in my flops. I was surprised at how comfortable my flops were during the trek, but after all that walking even my flops were hurting. We finally made it to Aguas Caliente the base town for Machu Picchu were we got to stay in a proper hostal. It was nice to have a bed and a hot shower ;o)