Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

After a TON of pestering from my mom for an update, I figured I'd try to take a break and get some pictures up here. Life has been moving very quickly during the past few weeks. First of all, we had all of the gringos over (and some Peruvians too) for a party at our apartment. Beto and Beth wanted to host a party in their new apartment, so we had our friends over and had some Maracuya (passion fruit) Sours, which are made from maracuya, pisco (a Peruvian liquor made from grapes), jarabe de goma (sugar syrup), and egg white. Delicious.

Maracuya Sours at my apartment

My friend Rob Pletscher arrived in Lima about three weeks ago, and we have been on-the-go ever since. As he puts it, there is never a day when people don't want to make plans with us. He is staying for a total of four weeks, and we didn't really have anything planned, other than an 8 day trip to Cusco. Everything else that we've done, we just decided to let happen.

For the first week that he was here, we stayed in Lima. I introduced him to most of my friends down here, and showed him around different parts of the city. Every day, we did something different, whether it was coming to my work at the hospital, going to teach English lessons to Beto's dad, Luis, or hanging out with different friends. After 5 days of this, we were exhausted and the trip to Cusco came at a perfect time.

Cusco was the center of the Inca empire several hundred years ago. The name Cusco literally means "navel" in Quechua (the language of the Inca people), as they figured that it was the center of the world. The city is filled with ruins from the Inca, but sadly many of them, including most of the largest temples, were destroyed when the Spaniards conquered the area in the 1500's. An interesting fact is that the original Inca buildings are able to withstand the frequent earthquakes that Peru experiences, and many of the Spanish buildings continue to fall.

We spent two days in the city taking pictures, eating, and resting as we needed to adjust our bodies for the Salkantay Trek. This trek was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done in my life. Having already seen Machu Picchu in January, I wanted to find a better, more adventurous way to see it the second time. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning (what would start to be a common occurrence), to take a three hour bus ride to the city of Mollapata (2830 meters (9300 feet) above sea level). Our first day of hiking was about 8 hours uphill to the city (and by city, I mean there was tents set up for us, and a building that had "bathrooms" in it...) of Soraypampa, 3700 meters (12100 feet) above sea level. Below are a few pictures from the first day. If you take a look at my Picassa web album, you can see all of the pictures (more than 400).

View of the mountains during the first day of hiking

Rob with Umantay Mountain in the background

Rob and I approaching the mountain

After spending that night in below-freezing temperatures (reminding me of last years' hunting/camping trip in November with Greg), we woke up at 5:00 to start the day's ten hour hike. Each morning, our guide would wake us up by opening up our tent and giving us coca tea. Unlike its powdery neighbor that you might be thinking of, the coca leaves are not considered a drug (at least, not in Peru...). It is a natural way to help suppress your appetite and thirst, while giving you more energy and trying to get rid of your headache. I'd bring back some of the coca leaves for you to try when I get home, but I don't think that the customs agent would be so happy with me...

This second day would be the hardest day of the trek, as we were all (except for the Spanish triathlete that ended up in our group) somewhat tired from the day before, and the first four hours of the trek were very steep and uphill. Rob and I switched off carrying the backpack, so before you go making fun of me that he is always wearing it in the pictures and I didn't do anything (looking at you sis), just keep that in mind. Here are some pictures of the second day of the hike.

Sunrise over Salkantay Mountain (6271 meters (20,574 feet) above sea level)

Panoramic view of the sunrise

Proof that we made it! The highest point of the trek: 4650 meters (15256 feet) above sea level. To put this into perspective, the summit of Vail is at 11,570 feet... over a half-mile lower! My parents back home in Arden Hills, MN are sitting at 980 feet...

The second night was slightly more enjoyable than the first. We had descended to 2850 meters (9350 feet). The only thing that resembled the cold from the first night was the beer that we had to celebrate making it over the highest point. However, the worker that set up our tents thought that it was a good idea to put them on a hill. Sleeping while slanted is not that easy.

We got to sleep in the next day (until 6:00!), and were still woken up to more coca tea. The third day was an "easy" day. Only 6 (read 8) hours of hiking, and it was all downhill. After about an hour of hiking, we were walking behind a young boy riding a horse when he suddenly fell off. There were no doctors around and it was clear that he had broken both bones of his forearm. We had to think fast and create a brace and sling to immobilize his arm, and gave him some ibuprofin for the swelling and pain. I gave his parents additional ibuprofin to make sure that he would have enough for the several-hour trip to the nearest doctor. Looking back on it, we should have given the family some money as well, at least enough to get to the doctor, because the people that live in the area are so poor, that it is possible that they couldn't even afford to seek medical attention on their own.

After the boy went on his way with his parents, we continued our hike. It was generally a very easy day, and we ended up in a town called Playa. From there, we took a 20 minute bus ride to Santa Teresa to visit some natural hot springs for some R&R. A hot spring had never felt so incredible in my entire life, than sitting in there with the group, drinking a beer, and trying to get our bodies in shape for the next day. Below are some pics from the third day. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the boy's arm before and after the brace or the hot springs (pics I found online...), but I'm sure you can imagine what they look like!

Rob and I with clean clothes on (something that wouldn't happen again until day 5...). Note to self: bring more t-shirts when I do the Inca Trail in October...

A waterfall along the way

Day 4 was definitely more difficult than the third day. We woke up early again (more coca tea), and starting from 2200 meters (7200 feet) above sea level we hiked 3 1/2 hours up (up to 2700 meters), and 3 hours down to a town called Hidro Electrica (even those of you that don't speak Spanish should be able to figure out that translation...). Along the way, we caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. We also had great views of a waterfall, and generally the best pictures of the trip up to this point. After lunch in Hidro Electrica, we walked another 3 hours in the hot sun along a railroad track to Aguas Calientes (aka Machu Picchu Pueblo). Below are pics from the fourth day.

Our first view of Machu Piccu (the valley in the middle of the picture)

Group picture from a lookout point over Machu Picchu (my head is actually covering the city of Machu Picchu... sorry!)

Rob and I crossing a bridge along the trek. The water was FREEZING but felt incredible when we decided to hop in!

The fifth day of the trek is what we had all been waiting for. We all woke up at 3:00 to go wait in line at the base of Machu Picchu. There were hundreds in line, waiting for them to open up the gates at 4:45, when there would be a mad rush up the mountain for 45 minutes. Think of the land rush in Oklahoma back in the day, when the first person there wins. In this case, the first 400 people won, but there was still a mad dash along an old Inca path. The reason for the rush is to get a ticket to be able to climb Huayna Picchu (they only allow 400 per day), where you can see the most incredible views of Machu Picchu that you could ever imagine.

We got up to the entrance of Machu Picchu and were about 30th in line (not bad considering I haven't worked out since.... ummmm.... a while...). The first person to the top: the triathlete from Spain that was in our group. I can only imagine that if my sister Katie was on the trek (also a triathlete), she would have been competing for his spot. When we entered Machu Picchu, there was clouds and fog everywhere, and we couldn't see anything! We still got some pretty neat pictures, but we were hoping that we'd actually get to see the great views that you see in postcards and on the Discovery Channel! 

At 11:00, Rob, Pablo (another one of the Spaniards that was in our group), and I started our ascent (more stairs - except these ones were even steeper) of Huayna Picchu. I'm still unsure how the Inca people were able to run along these stairs... some were as high as 3 or 4 steps combined back home, and the Incas were not a very tall group of people. We reached the summit about about noon, just in time for all of the clouds to clear out and give us great views of the entire "Lost City of the Incas". Although I had already seen this in January with my other sister, Annie, it was still just as incredible. Possibly even better, after all of the hard work that was put into getting there. 

Our guide wasn't very informative, so the group just followed me around the city for a while and I explained things that I remembered from my first time here. After I see the city again for a third time in October, I should really just apply to become a guide... Anyways, here are the pics from the fifth day.

Waiting in line before the rush to the top

Our first view from inside the entrance

The reason my mom thinks that I don't have a girlfriend...

Staring contest

The view from the top of Huayna Picchu (and probably the only thing that can get me out of bed at 3:00 in the morning to go run up a mountain)

Looking down at the ancient city

Why did we just do this again?

Our new friend Pablo, a medical student in Spain. We convinced him that his next trip is going to be to MN to check out the boundary waters...

Great view on the way back down Huayna Picchu

Panoramic shot from the guard tower

Stereotypical postcard picture of Machu Picchu. The tall mountain in the middle is Huayna Picchu.

Rob and I in what seems like a photoshopped picture

We've just been trying to recover ever since we got back. We still have blisters on our feet and our knees still are bothering us, but it was an absolutely incredible trip! Make sure to check out the rest of my pictures for many more incredible views of the mountains, a few condors, and lost inside the city of Machu Picchu. 

We are going to go to Huacachina this weekend to go sandboarding, so I will have another update soon with pictures from that!

That's all for now!