Salkantay trek and Machu Picchu

So I think I've finally solved the issue with the photos uploading. Trying to write and post from Holly's iPad (Thanks, Holl!!!) the last 2 weeks has been a little frustrating. Finally got myself to a real computer, so hopefully the photos are showing up now.

The night before our hike, we were all a little riled up anticipating a 3:45am wake up. There were a few disruptions overnight, including 2 people coming into our room around 2am, which we all thought was the tour guide coming in because we were not out waiting for him! Finally, alarms went off and we stumbled around trying to get ourselves together.

Day 1: our guide, Braulio, picked us up from our hostel in a van around 430. We drove about 3 hours, Kaitlyn and Holly slept most of the way (the smart move considering our wake up time and the task for the day: climb a mountain with little oxygen). I took in the views, which were amazing once the sun came up. We drove through tiny, sleepy towns, around mountains, looking down into valleys. I saw a village cemetery marked with wooden crosses and we almost knocked a cow who standing in the middle of the road down the mountain. Finally arrived at the base of the Salkantay Pass where we met the team that would be accompanying us in the daylight and had some breakfast. Cusco is around 10,000 feet in altitude and we started our morning at about 12,000 feet.

View of Salkantay from our breakfast spot

Our helpful horses, carried our gear the entire way!

The morning trek would take us through the Salkantay pass at 15,000 and then back down to 12,000 for our first campsite. Braulio outlined the day and told us about another group he had guided who had been the quickest. Of course the competitiveness came out and we were determined to beat those mythical Germans who had been, I'm sure, training in the Alps their entire lives.  I don´t know how to describe the feeling of walking so slowly and still sucking down air, anytime my body was in motion. The landscape up here was mountain highlands. We felt the temperature of glacial streams and Braulio told us about how Salkantay was one of the last mountains with snow year round, thanks global warming.

At 15,000 feet!!!

The downhill in the afternoon was tough. Lots of pebbles and gravel, which made the going slow. We saw almost no other people, except locals with horses in tow. We finally reached our campsite, where our tents were set up and dinner was on the way.

Kaitlyn and myself, sitting down after 15k up a mountain

I'm not super sure where Day 1 ends and day 2 begins. I got little sleep, listening to Holly also toss and turn, and the altitude sickness got much worse. Headache became a stabbing migraine, add chills/sweats and nausea, and there you got it, full blown altitude sickness! Wild. Luckily, we all had prescriptions for this, so first thing in the morning, I took some Diamox, and filled up my camelbak. Dehydration  makes altitude sickness worse, so I threw in some rehydration salts just to have my bases covered. The nausea was pretty awful, so no breakfast for me! Even the smell or sight of food made me want to vomit. Our chef came out to check on me and I was able to practice my baby Spanish with "mi cabeza es ok, pero mi estomgo es no bueno." He proceeded to make me some tea concoction with celery root in it and told me to drink it all up. It tasted nasty, but I did anyway! On the plus side, as everyone else sat in the dining tent eating delicious breakfast, I saw the sun rising over the mountain pass, probably one of the most beautiful memories of my trek. It was just me, some rogue chickens, our horses, and the sun cutting through the clouds to illuminate the snow capped peak (of course, my photo of this view is on my camera, and not Holly's phone, which is where I am getting all my photos, so I cant share it!).

Day 2: today is the longest day in terms of mileage, and all of it down hill. If we impressed Braulio yesterday, today we nicknamed ourselves los tres tortugas. Sometimes we are lentas tortugas, other times fuertas tortugas, but always tortugas. Today we descended from the mountain highlands to the jungle.

More mosquitoes, we discovered within the first half hour, and quickly showered ourselves in DEET, but also vegetation and flowers. We walked through farms with grenadilla (my new favorite fruit) and passion fruit trees, coffee farms and banana trees, most of the time hiking by a trail that feeds into the Amazon River. Braulio showed us different ferns and orchids, and everything was so different from day 1.  My appetite finally returned to normal by the evening so I could enjoy the 3 course meals prepared by Chef Jualberto and his assistant, Aber. Arriving at our campsite at a mere 7,000  feet, I did not know I could walk as far as we did! Every joint is exhausted and oh my feet, I thought they were going to fall off. Kaitlyn, claiming that's she is oh-so-delicate, kicked my butt, keeping up with Braulio and almost making the walk-with-walking sticks look almost sexy while Holly was reduced to the hysterical laugh/cry for no particular reason the last hour of her day. Hopefully everyone will be ready to go tomorrow - 6 more miles and all morning uphill.

Waterfall in the jungle

Day 3: last day of hiking!! I feel fantastic today - muscles mildly sore, but being at the lower altitude for most of the day makes a world of difference. Before we even left our campsite for the morning, Braulio got his friend, Fredy to show us around his farm. We ate bananas right from the tree - small ones that were a little orangey in the middle, harvested avocados, and picked coffee beans. Fredy walked us through the coffee process, and then we roasted (Kaitlyn gave a nice burn) our own beans and ground them for the freshest coffee I have ever tasted.

Harvesting coffee beans on Fredys farm!

Trekking downhill in the dust...

Uphill all morning, kicked butt (almost, caught those Germans!). We really are killer at the uphills. Once we got to the top of the mountain, we caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu from afar - luckily, I had my binoculars!!! Story time with Braulio revealed that many archaeologists think there are even more ruins that haven't been discovered (maybe larger than Machu Picchu) because the jungle in Peru is so thick. The Incas built over 350 trails in their empire, to connect cities across Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile and trained "runners" to carry messages and some small goods in between cities. He also showed us some plants they used in the mummification process. Then 2 hours downhill, which is not the strong suite of the tortugas, lemme tell ya. Also, no rain (thank goodness), meant SO MUCH DUST! It was literally everywhere. We finally got to the city of Hidroelectrica after the afternoon of downhills and hopped a train to Aguas Calientes, named for the hot springs in the town. Our final amazing dinner with Jualberto and Aber before an early bedtime.



Day 4: another early rise - the latest we've been able to sleep in this whole time is 530 and today was not sleeping in. Holly had some more nights terrors along the lines of "[profanity, other profanities] Noooo, I can't go any more, is he serious?," apparently dreaming that Braulio wouldn't let us stop hiking! There were many other nights in which Holly had some interesting and vocal dreams, they may be referenced in future posts... Met Braulio in the hotel lobby at 5 and stood in line to make it up to Machu Picchu by 6 for the sunrise.

The site was extremely humbling. Braulio told us about the architecture, engineering, and culture of the empire - incredible. Terraced farms outside the city with impressive irrigation systems. Inside the city walls, we saw the last remaining sun temple of the Incas (all others destroyed by Spanish in search of gold), a compass (perfectly oriented to n, s, e, and w), a sun dial, homes, storage areas, bathrooms, compost rooms, and the Condor Temple. Scholars believe that Machu Picchu was a university of sorts where people came to train in their craft. Most of the remains that were found here were women (about 60%). What a bummer, after 3 days of seeing almost no one but our own little group, the thousands of tourists were kind of a shock, overwhelming, and unfortunately I think really took away from my visit. We meandered around this incredible city until lunch, then headed beck to Aguas Calientes for our train ride back to Cusco.

Lots of interesting insights from Braulio about Peruvian culture and society today. We all had some reservations about Peruvians waiting on us - setting up our tents, cooking for us, heating water so we could wash our hands. Likely comparable to the Shirpas that guide in the Himalayas. I'm not sure what my expectation of a guided trek to Machu Picchu was, but having local people do all the work for me while I just walked along this pass was definitely not it. However, Braulio explained that many highly educated Peruvians (lawyers, accountants) can't find jobs, so end up driving taxis, etc. This made me think about the tourist industry in a much more nuanced way. It cant be boiled down to exploitation of natives vs. job support for natives. As with everything in life, it's not as black and white as it seems.