El camino Salkantay

hungover guide number 1
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I set out on this trip with very few plans besides taking classes and going from there, but when I finally got to Peru I realized that I had to hike to Machu Picchu and that taking the train was simply not an option. Unfortunatly I was a couple months too late to sign up for the limited spaces on the Inca train, but the result of this deficite was one of the most amazing five days I have ever had.

There were two alternatives to the tradational trail, and when I chose Salkantay, the longer and more difficult of the two it was because my roomate insisted that the other was far to easy. Unfortunatly by the time I departed my roomate was in the hospital with salmonella (the result of a school trip) so I was left to hike with a dutch couple, two guides, a cook and the horseman.

hungover guide number 2
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While there are far to many details to write about, there are highlights that I can attempt to  do justice. The first day had us hiking along a road up into the mountains and cutting off corners by staggering up the cliffs between the switchbacks. By the time we reached camp eight hours later I was pretty sure that I was not gonna make it for five days, the dutch couple could barely walk and the guides were laughing and insisting on reminding us that the second day is by far the most difficult.

the view from our first campsite
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On the morning of day two we woke up at 5:30 AM to eat and get on our way. Five grueling hours later we arrived at the pass, at an altitude of 4600 meters. After a short break we began our descent into the fog and continued down for about three more hours. By the time we reached camp I had four square inches of blisters on my left foot alone.

Unfortunatly night two is where my image of a healthy adventure was changed. The guides had conveniently brought along bottles of Pisco and the small stand at the campsite sold liters of beer, so needless to say our 5:30 AM wakeup call and the ensueing five hours of hiking were not the easiest.

finally at the pass at 4600 meters
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Day three, however, did end with hotsprings and it was at that point that I discovered that my legs had been eaten alive by small flies that you can not feel bite and as I learned have ways of getting into thick wool socks. We spent night three just outside a small town and woke the next morning to discover that our tents were not as waterproof as they had promised.

Drenched we set of on the last day of hiking. This was by far the easiest and shortest day, as we were simply following the train tracks to Aguas Calientes but it was made slightly more difficult by the fact that my foot was at this point a giant cankle that could barely fit in my boot and that we stopped at every trailside stand to drink a beer (the dutch have a very unique vew on hiking norms).

Mt. Salkantay
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After a rainy night in town and an attempted early start I arrived at Macupicchu at around 8:30 AM to find thick cloud coverage and rain. Since I was unable to get my foot into my boot I wore sandles and hobbled around in the wet mess trying to imagine this place as an active civilization.

The four hour train ride  back to Cusco on the backpackers train was not as smelly as I had imagined and a great rest after all the walking but I am so happy that I chose not to take the train roundtrip.