The Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

Where do I begin on this one...The Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu or my version The Salkantay Trek to hell and back.
I sit here now with just 42 mozzy bites, minus my 2 big toe nails and another one, a bit of a limp, a bruise on my right hip, traumatized by toilets on the trek but with a very happy feeling of completing the 88km, 5 day trek at a maximum altitude of 14,927 feet to Machu Picchu.
Pretty much 2 hours in to the trek I was thinking, what the hell were we thinking. We decided to do the Salkantay as an alternative to the Inca trail. The Salkantay is a longer version of the Inka, really what were we thinking!
We were picked up at 4.15 am on Day one of the trek, we had a three hour drive to the start of the trek. Peru do not know what tarmac is so at home it would have probably been a half hour drive but due to the roads, or lack of, it was a long three hour drive to the start. But the perfect opportunity to sleep. We picked up the rest of our group, another couple Sharline and John an Aussie and a Londoner. It was a relief to have others in our group as we thought we would be going it alone. Our next pick up was a kiwi called Tim who had only got in a few hours previous after a night out on the town...all aboard and we were off.
We got a puncture about 10mins before the start point so the walk started slightly early. we walked to our breakfast stop where we were having an american breakfast. Out came the Coca tea and some rolls with butter and jam. I didn't really fancy bread and was holding back for the rest of the breakfast. I picked up half a bit of bread which was rock like and nibbled away on it. Half hour later nothing else had showed up, that was out breakfast...a hard roll. Mmmmmmm. So I thought we're off there are toiletrs here...I'd better make the most of a quick wee...so off i went toilet roll in hand....within half a second i was back. This was the worst toilet I had EVER EVER seen in my life. There was no seat and sh*t (excuse the language but there is no polite way for this) every where...GROSS! Disgusted I went back to Brett and the others to begin the walk. It began with a nice up hill stroll with our guide pointing out items of interst along the way. the first one being the parasite that live of cactus plants, if you sqeeze them they bring out a natural colour which is used to make make up, very interesting!
We continue at a nice pace with our guide doing a few steep short cuts along the way which nearly killed me off which is when the ´what were we thinking began´! Struggling with the breathing we made it to our lunch stop. Our porter and chef were there already with a table set up for us and were cooking away. we had a lovely hot asparagus soup followed by Trout, rice and potatoes. I just had mine minus the trout. It was so nice to stop and have a rest and actually breath for a bit! Our guide said there were ´facilities´so I though they look OK in a small building I'll use these. So off I went....These were the WORST toilets (if u can call them that) that I had EVER EVER EVER seen. There was no toilet...just a hole in the ground, not like the ones in Europe, a milion time worse! Instead of people using the hole to do their business in they had used every where but and again there was sh*t and worse every where, all over the floor, up the walls, enough to make me gag and I'm not one easily fazed by stuff like this. Back to Brett I went who couldn't believe I was still not going to use the loo...I could wait!! So, off we went on the afternoon trek, another 4 hours of walking to our camp for the night.
The afternoon walk wasn't too bad, we saw some lovely scenery along the way and finally arrived at our first camp site. We were just by a glacier and even with the sun still shining you could feel the chill of it. Our tents were being put up by our porter, who had packed up lunch, got every thing together, overtaken us and set up in time for us to arrive.
I apologise if you really aren't intersted in the ´toilet´ theme going on here but I just need to share this as it has traumatised me slightly...Brett is sitting with me now and has just said ´what do you expect in the mountains...first class Princess toilets'? My response is if they say there are toilets I expect a toilet with some standards...its different for men. So, we're at the campsite, the guide again says there are ´facilities´ and points me in the direction of a bit of blue tarpauline, no roof and if u stand u can be seen...so I go to investigate...I think by now the others in the group were thinking ´we've got a right one here´. A toilet this was not, it was a bucket and again the sh*t was all over the shop, I wouldn't have stepped in there for a million quid! I wish I had taken pictures of these toilets so you can fully understand what I went through here. You wouldn´t send your worst enemy in here! Brett refused to use the toilets so it wasn´t just me! So, I stood back for a bit and watched the other group arrive and wondered what they would make of the ´facilities´ as the guide liked to call them, a few girls ventured over and ra back in disgust - good it wasn´t just me! There were a few brave desperate fellas who ventured over and went in, you could hear them gagging whilst doing there business!!! Arrrrrgh!!!!
As the only facitlities were toilets which I wouldn´t be using we went in to our home for the night for a quick change for dinner. My legs were black from the dust from all the walking so I used my baby wipes to clean up and put my cosy tracksuit bottoms on for dinner. Our dinnner was served in the dining tent, basically a bigger tent with a timy table for us all to sit round. Popcorn and hotchocolate was served and was lovely. The sun had set and the temperature had dropped massivley. I had on my tracksuit, 2 orthface extra warm tops, my waterprrofs, 2 pairs of socks, hat, gloves and a coat and was still freezing. Those of you that know mw know that I am never cold! We had a lovely warm pasta, vegtable soup to start followed by chicken, rice and veg and dessert! Every ting was served very quickly and was lovely and hot. By the end of dinner we were all so cold and tired we went of to bed. Brett and I kept all our clothes on and got in to our sleeping bags and were so cold. We had an interesting night sleep, it was so windy as well. But what did we expect on a mountain at the side of a glacier! During the night we heard the horses eating grass by our tent and a dripping sound, which we later discovered was the tent leaking on to our bag! We found out that the porters slept in the dining tent, which didn´t have a base layer and was up half a foot from the groud so they had a nice draft flowing through all night, poor guys!
We were woken up at 5.45 by the porters with a nice cup of Coca tea. We drank this, got ready for the day and were in the breakfast tent at 6am. We were served pancakes with toffee, coca tea and fruit. All very nice but a bit too early for all that food. They all clearly knew what was a head.
By 6.30am we were on our ay on day 2, they had already wared us that this would be the hardest day and boy were they right. We started with a full stomach (and bladder) on a nice steady climb upwards. I think my first mistake was to look up and see the other group up above me on a very high ledge....I had to get there yet! My breathing (and all the others) was hard. We were at about 11,000 feet and were climbing up another 3000 feet. Every few steps killed my breathing, it was such a struggle! I found one of the nicest loos so far on the trip, behind a rock, clearly nature is the only option!
The rest of the group plowed on with just me and Brett left at the back, plus a few other straddlers from the other groups at the back! This was one of the most physically challenging things I have ever done, if some one had told me to strip naked, use all the awful toilets and dis-own my self of every thing I own to jump in a heleicopter and go to a nice hotel i would have jumped at the chance!
We were climbing so steep and high and on the edge of ledges it was hard and scary, especially with my weird fear of heights...where I want to get to the ground below so Brett had to keep a close eye on me! I´m sure we should have had rock climbing equipment, with the lack of oxygen it made your muscles weak so climbing up some times was a real challenge. We kept on climbing and when we thought we were at the end, another steep bit was round the corner. We had 5 hours of contunuious steep up hill walking, it was so hard but eventually we made it there and of course there were tears...Bretts very emotional...ha ha no from the Princess of course, not many but some! It was so nice to get to the top which was a grand 14,997 feet above sea level, the views were amazing and it was a massive achievement to get there. We got high fives from the group and the guide and then we were of to our lunch stop....what goes up for 5 hours bust go down for 5 hours ahhhhhhhhhhhhh I-m sure we could have gone round the mountain instead of up and down!
So, the down hill began, which was fine for the first hour or so but then the old legs turned to jelly and it was hard, but at least we could breath! We were walking on small stones that kept slipping which was rather annoying, I think I fell over about 5 times that afternoon! We made it to our lunch stop for the day, had a much needed rest before the afternoon trek.
The afternoon of day two was a nice trek, with just the down hill hurting slightly but knowing the hardest part was over, was such a relief! As we got to the final hour of the day, I had throbbing feet and aching legs, our guide pablo had said we were nealry there and as we turned the corner expecting to see the campsite, we could see the other group, miles ahead up a steep hill, there was no way we would be there in the hour....it was Brett that had the tantrum this time, not me!
Lucky for us the other group were staying at a different camp site for night 2 and ours was before theres - YAY!
We were cmaping in the garden of a family that live in the mountains, they had converted their shed in to a little bar so we could have beer and coke, a real treat! We were greeted by cookies and hot chocolate, thank goodness day 2 was almost over AND they had an actual toilet, with a seat, it was pure white and clean YAY!!!!
Our campsite was based on the edge of the mountain. The people whos hoem we were camping on was about the size of a gagrage, but built with sticks and grass with a semi thatched roof. They cooked outside and slept on grass like beds. We had a look in their house and there were guinea pigs running around, not as pets but as free range food for when they wanted one for dinner. They also had chickens, hens, pigs, horses wanderign around and in the middle of the night we had the pig oinking next to our tent. It was a lovely little place for the night and an eye opened on how these local people live, what I was having to do for 5 days which I had wanted to do and paid for was a way of life for them, including the toilets!
On foot inspection that night, I noticed my toe nails were blue and weren´t quite in the right place, so gross, they were coming off. I taped them up as best I could ready fro day 3 of walking. Night 2 was much warmer as we were lower down. we still slept with all the layers but didn´t spend the night shiverring!
We were woken on morning three at 530am by the porters with our Coca tea, this tea helps with the altitude and is perfectly legal in Peru. The leaves are used to make cocaine, but at this leval are Ok to use, although if we were tested for drugs we would come up as positive to cocaine!
On Day 3 we started walkig over a suspender bridge which had lots of planks of wood missing so we had to make some pretty accurate jumps! Our legs were aching and my toes were hurting. Our guide had told us that today would be ´Inka flat´ which means up nad down like a camels back! Brett and I were walking at a nice slow pace today as my topes were killing me. The others in our group wanted to get there so sped off ahead. We were walking 6 hours to lumch today and that would be our walking for the day, we were then taking a side walk and going to the hot springs, so we had a lot of motive today! The walk today was mainly along the river, it was a very pretty walk, with ups, downs and flat. We had to walk up and down streams and across them on not very sterdy bridges with huge drops the other side. We also had to walk along some very thin ledges which scared me slightly! We finally made it to our lunch stop which was a relief as there would be no more walking for the rest of the day! My feet were swollen and throbbing. I washed them in the stream and taped them up further with my first aid kit! We had a lovely lunch and it was time to say good bye to the porter who was going back to the begginning of the walk...poor man with the 4 horses who had been carrying our back packs! And all on is own! We tipped him well and I sent him of with some of my precious cadbury chocolate, they love uk chocolate so he was thrilled.
From this point, we had to get a bus to our campsite. I was un able to put my shoes back on so had to walk bare foot with all the local staring at me! I got a nice spot on the bus so i could put my feet out, there were 6 of us and 8 seats so lots of room...so I thought! One of the local women came over and in Inca talk insisted I move and put my foot on the bit over the wheel. I did this, then one by one locals boarded our mini van which could seat 10 including the driver. The local lady told every one that boarded tro watch my feet, they all stared in disgust but were careful not to kick me. Finally all aboard...22 people on the 10 seater bus, 2 people were hanging out of the window! On route we picked up 2 more people! We drove down a one way mountain at quite a speed and cam across lots of vechiles with just as many people coming the other way it was a case of keep going keep going until one of you gives in and stops, very scary! We finally made it to our campsite, got our tents up and headed over to the hot springs. They had changing rooms, toilets and showers a real treat. I stepped out of the changing room and ran to the hot springs (all my eergy had returend) on looking down at my legs the were covered in mozzys...this is where the 42 mozzy bites had come from!!! (its now 2 weeks since the walk and they still itch like mad). We spent a lovely couple of hours in the hot springs a real welcome treat.
Back at the campsite the had a bar and music blaring, there was a real party atmosphere as we were getting closer to Machu Picchu. All the groups from the salkantay were at this campsite so there were loads of people here and it was a fun evening.
On Day 4 we had a short walk to the train which wasn´t coming until 5pm to take us to Aquas Calientes, the town below Macchu Picchu. We arrived to the start of the line, which was lined with locals selling water, beer and food. It turned out that they lived here too, God knows how, they were basically a table full of stock, protected by tarpauline! These people are amazing. As soon as the last train left for the day, all two of them, they close up for the night.
We spent most of the day here and to say i was suffering was an uunderstatement, my 42 mozzy bites were out in full, my feet were swollen and my nails or lack of them were killing me! The train arrived about 4 hours early and we had to sit there and look at it for three and a half of them.
When we were finally allowed to board we did so, looking forward to our hotel for the night! We arrived in the middle of the street of Aquas Calientes, it had shops and bars either side and was so normaal for the locals to have a train going through the middle of the street!
It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice to arrive at hotel and have a hot shower and change before heading out for dinner with the group.
We had an early start the next day, 430am for our final part to Macchu Picchu!
Macchu Picchu is a truly amazing place, the views were amazing and its so hard to imagine the Incas building this city all those yeas ago! The photos speak for them selves on this one.
As hard as this trek was, it was an amazing experiance. I am so glad we did it and it will stay with us forever, unlike the aches and pains we got a long the way. I will NEVER moan about a public toilet again!! :-)