bunchberry
New member
Having recently quit my job without the next one in place, I knew I was craving an experience out of the ordinary – something that would feed my delightfully curious nature and snap me back into heightened sensation. An epic travel adventure was in order, and Cusco, Peru was the destination. I wrote a lot about various experiences during my mid-August to mid-September travels, but as this is VFTT and not just a generic travel writing website, I’m just going to post my most VFTT appropriate journey, a trek to Machu Picchu by way of the Salcantay Mountain (not the traditional Inca Trail). The following is taken from an email I wrote to friends just after the trek. Enjoy!
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I’m currently in Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu Picchu in the Andes! I am heading back to Cusco in a few hours, by train and then by bus. Last Friday, I began the 4-day Salcantay trek with a great group of people from around the world, including Israel, England, Ireland, Germany, US, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Australia (represented by my friend from Spanish school, Angela), Brazil, and Finland. How’s that for a multi-cultural excursion?? Then, for the past 2 days Angela and I set off to explore and fully take in Machu Picchu, the most famous Inca archaeological site. Let me tell you more...
Friday morning at 3:30am, my alarm goes off. Time to get dressed, make a quick Banana Nutella sandwich for breakfast, then wait for my taxi to take me to the bus I’ll be taking with my group to the start of our trek! The night before, my host mom Marlina had walked with me outside to hail a cab and to ask the driver to pick me up at 4:15 the next morning. He agreed, he’d be there. Well, it was 4:10, then 4:15, then 4:20, and no taxista! I decided to head off to the main road near my house, I hoped I’d be able to find one on my own so early in the morning. Not to worry, I did indeed find a taxi driver with no problem (and a cheaper one than the taxista who was supposed to pick me up!) so off I went to start the day.
Angela and I got to our bus, the kind of big tour bus where you can store luggage in large compartments that open on the outside. In the next twenty minutes or so, more and more people kept arriving in groups of two or three, until finally the bus was full and we were on our way. I was feeling pretty sleepy, but gathered that the bus was packed with about 24 trekkers, 2 cooks, 2 guides, 4 men who would tend to the horses, and after just a short time on the road, about 5-8 locals hitching a ride with our group to Mollepata. All the seats were full when these locals got on, so several people had to stand for the three and a half hour bus ride as we wove our way through high mountain passes and roads with steep, steep cliffs off to one side!
In Mollepata, we found out that this huge group of trekkers was actually two separate groups, much more manageable! Our guide was Carlos, and I liked him immediately. We had time for a quick sit down breakfast while Carlos ran off to say a quick hello to his mother, and I was grateful for bananas and nutella, since the food available for purchase was several steps below my own breakfast brought from home
The trek began as a walk through the town, but soon enough, we were off into the countryside. Almost immediately, it was really clear that this trek was going to be a very challenging one...it was just the first day, at an elevation slightly lower than Cusco (which is situated at about 11,000 feet), and I was really feeling it!! But on I went...
We walked for several hours, then stopped for lunch at Cruz Pata, this beautiful outlook where suddenly the clouds shifted and an enormous snow and glacier-covered peak jumped out of the sky in all its glory and beauty!! It’s those little reminders that make it all worth it...from a place of complaining in my own head, I snapped back to reality and realized here I am, trekking in the Andes, heading toward Machu Picchu! It was a real awakening, thank goodness.
We stumbled into camp (called Soraypampa at 12,631 feet) just after sunset, and light was fading fast. And if light was fading fast, the temperature was dropping faster! We had been forewarned that the first night of camping would be the coldest, so fortunately I came very prepared with a huge down parka, a decent sleeping bag, hat, mittens, and even toe warmers! But some of my fellow trekkers were not so fortunate - two of the guys from Ireland had only one wool blanket each, and they were getting pretty scared. Don’t worry, everyone survived the night, but the joke of the morning was that sleeping bag ratings are pretty much a joke: they don’t rate it 0 degrees Celsius saying that you’ll be comfortable at that temperature, only that you’ll make it through the night! Most of the group didn’t sleep too well, but by the time we woke up in the morning to an incredible sunrise of brightly-lit pink and golden snow on both Umantay and Salcantay, we were all excited and the night’s trials were quickly forgotten.
(more to follow)
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I’m currently in Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu Picchu in the Andes! I am heading back to Cusco in a few hours, by train and then by bus. Last Friday, I began the 4-day Salcantay trek with a great group of people from around the world, including Israel, England, Ireland, Germany, US, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Australia (represented by my friend from Spanish school, Angela), Brazil, and Finland. How’s that for a multi-cultural excursion?? Then, for the past 2 days Angela and I set off to explore and fully take in Machu Picchu, the most famous Inca archaeological site. Let me tell you more...
Friday morning at 3:30am, my alarm goes off. Time to get dressed, make a quick Banana Nutella sandwich for breakfast, then wait for my taxi to take me to the bus I’ll be taking with my group to the start of our trek! The night before, my host mom Marlina had walked with me outside to hail a cab and to ask the driver to pick me up at 4:15 the next morning. He agreed, he’d be there. Well, it was 4:10, then 4:15, then 4:20, and no taxista! I decided to head off to the main road near my house, I hoped I’d be able to find one on my own so early in the morning. Not to worry, I did indeed find a taxi driver with no problem (and a cheaper one than the taxista who was supposed to pick me up!) so off I went to start the day.
Angela and I got to our bus, the kind of big tour bus where you can store luggage in large compartments that open on the outside. In the next twenty minutes or so, more and more people kept arriving in groups of two or three, until finally the bus was full and we were on our way. I was feeling pretty sleepy, but gathered that the bus was packed with about 24 trekkers, 2 cooks, 2 guides, 4 men who would tend to the horses, and after just a short time on the road, about 5-8 locals hitching a ride with our group to Mollepata. All the seats were full when these locals got on, so several people had to stand for the three and a half hour bus ride as we wove our way through high mountain passes and roads with steep, steep cliffs off to one side!
In Mollepata, we found out that this huge group of trekkers was actually two separate groups, much more manageable! Our guide was Carlos, and I liked him immediately. We had time for a quick sit down breakfast while Carlos ran off to say a quick hello to his mother, and I was grateful for bananas and nutella, since the food available for purchase was several steps below my own breakfast brought from home
The trek began as a walk through the town, but soon enough, we were off into the countryside. Almost immediately, it was really clear that this trek was going to be a very challenging one...it was just the first day, at an elevation slightly lower than Cusco (which is situated at about 11,000 feet), and I was really feeling it!! But on I went...We walked for several hours, then stopped for lunch at Cruz Pata, this beautiful outlook where suddenly the clouds shifted and an enormous snow and glacier-covered peak jumped out of the sky in all its glory and beauty!! It’s those little reminders that make it all worth it...from a place of complaining in my own head, I snapped back to reality and realized here I am, trekking in the Andes, heading toward Machu Picchu! It was a real awakening, thank goodness.
We stumbled into camp (called Soraypampa at 12,631 feet) just after sunset, and light was fading fast. And if light was fading fast, the temperature was dropping faster! We had been forewarned that the first night of camping would be the coldest, so fortunately I came very prepared with a huge down parka, a decent sleeping bag, hat, mittens, and even toe warmers! But some of my fellow trekkers were not so fortunate - two of the guys from Ireland had only one wool blanket each, and they were getting pretty scared. Don’t worry, everyone survived the night, but the joke of the morning was that sleeping bag ratings are pretty much a joke: they don’t rate it 0 degrees Celsius saying that you’ll be comfortable at that temperature, only that you’ll make it through the night! Most of the group didn’t sleep too well, but by the time we woke up in the morning to an incredible sunrise of brightly-lit pink and golden snow on both Umantay and Salcantay, we were all excited and the night’s trials were quickly forgotten.
(more to follow)
