The 2018 Blog / July 31, 2018
Most people normally opt for the Inca Trail which is the world famous one and a little less intense than the Salkantay Trek. The Inca Trail is for people who love their history, like ruins, and don’t want to climb any mountains. Oh, and if you’re anything like us and a poor planner then you have no shot of doing the Inca Trail as you need to get tickets at least like 6 months in advance (which we clearly did not do).
Okay, ill be honest. I don’t remember too much from what happened in Cusco, but ill give it my best shot. Here’s how it all went down:
· Checked into our AirBnB with our boy, David. Easily one of the cleanest and most organized places we’ve stayed.
· Immediately passed out and slept through the night.
· Woke up the next morning and took a cab into the city. (We were about a 15 min car ride outside the city)
· While we were in the cab, guess who we saw?!!? (Our teacher friends from San Fran! AGAIN) wow. We screamed out the window, said hi, talked for a bit and went on our way.
· Sarah and I wanted to get some breakfast, so we settled for this nice place called Jack’s Cafe . Which by far had one of the best breakfasts I have ever had!
· But guess who walked through the door?!?! Yes you are correct, again it was our teacher friends. Some could call it destiny, I would call a bit of stalking (lol JK). But really they were cool as hell and we sat down with them and had food before saying bye for real this time!
· Walked around Cusco and decided to take a cab to this place called (alright honestly i have no idea how to spell this place cus its absolutely absurd and I’m too lazy to google it which probably would have been much easier to be honest, but anyways we are here now.) SO this place was called something along the lines of what sounds like “sexy woman.” Apparently they were famous ruins.
· Got up the hill to the famous ruins, accidentally walked in the back enterance, got kicked out. Saw the price of 140 sols for this “sexy woman” and decided to bail.
· We then walked back down the hill to the same place we were just at.... BUT atleast found this great view of the city!
· Walked back down the hill, got some lunch and then decided to check out this free walking tour of the city
· Checked out the address *in front of the chocolate factory* and headed on our way! Waited a few minutes... five minutes... ten minutes.... finally checked google maps and apparently there are two chocolate factories in Cusco?!?!? Speed Walked through town to the other chocolate factory. Made it just in time before they left.
· Walked around town a bit, saw some churches, learned about some culture, all that jazz you know.
The famous Cusco market. Not too sure why it’s famous to be honest.
· Anywaysssss got some food and the greatest churros ever!!! FOR only two sols?!??! To my surprise they were filled with dulce de leche and i swear I’ve now been to heaven and back.
· Went home, and too be honest I don’t remember much of the next day because i dont think we did much. SOOOOO Here is our experience on the Salkantay Trek!
Day 1
Challacancha to Soraypampa
· Woke up at 4am and headed out to meet our guide and all the others who were going to be on the trek.
· Got breakfast, and by 7am we got to Challacancha where we would then hike up to Humantay Lake, some famous lake, and then back down to Soraypampa.
· Our naive little selves didn’t fully realize the the fact that we got up to 14,000ft elevation, the air was thinning out, it was all up hill, and it even started to snow. A pleasant little treat.
· Anyways, we sucked it up and made our way up the mountain (honestly faster than anyone else) but not without a little help from our new friend the coca leaf .
Sorry mom and dad, i mean EVERYONE does it in the Andes. So we haddddd toooooo....
· But really it’s not that bad.... You just keep it in your gums until you get all the juices out and then BAM no more altitude sickness. Who would of thought the answer to altitude is cocaine?!?! *COUGH* I mean coca leaves.... *COUGH*
· Anyways once we reached the top of the mountain, all of it became worth it. I mean look at this view.
· Sarah and I wandered up to the mountain as you can see above, only to realize that we went over the time limit and our whole group was waiting for us. (As seen in the picture above)
· It was then we made our way back down. About an hour of walking to our first campsite. Where we definitely had a bit of a luxury with where we were staying. I mean check out these tents?!??!
· They then made us dinner and we went right to bed to rest up for the hardest day of the trek which was the next day!
· Hiking up and over the Salkantay Pass.
Day 2
Soraypampa —> Salkantay Pass —> Chaully
· The next day we got up at 5am and we all gathered for a nice hearty breakfast.
· We met this cat, that really liked to accompany us for our meals and would sit on our laps.
· I accidentally dropped butter on it... But you know... its the thought that counts.
· Our guide, Tupac, then gathered up the team to explain what we were going to be doing for the day, and headed off to start this next day.
Tupac is in the yellow Jacket. Thats not his real name, but i think it was just too hard to pronounce so he went by Tupac. Tupac and I grew pretty close throughout the time of the trek.
· from here, we hiked from 12,000ft all the way up to 15,000ft in the cold. It was probably about 0-5 degrees Celsius. And yes, for all my Canadian readers (Shoutout to you Mike and Sandy) I know thats not that cold, but for a small naive Asian boy from California, i might as well of become a frozen popsicle at that point.
· The walk up was pretty beautiful as you can see:
· And just like that... your favorite Halfies made it up to the Salkantay Pass!
Dont let our smiles fool you, we were definitely still out of breath and freezing cold from the altitude.
· After we got to the top we then had to wait for everyone. (Yep thats right, we were the first one’s up (also atleast like five years younger than almost everyone else).
· This is when we started to make our way back down the mountain about five times faster than back up. About every 15 minutes we had to take another layer off because we went from snow mountain top to the rainforest?!?!? YES you heard that right. IDK How but we put bug spray on and everything so you know its official.
· Anyways after lunch and a few more hours of walking we finally made it to our campsite where we stayed in ACTUAL tents.
· This one might of been my favorite because of this ONE reason:
I MEAN LOOK HOW CUTE. WOW.
· We then had dinner and pretty much rested up for the next day which was definitely the easiest of them all.
Day 3
Chaully to Lucmabamba
· So we started off the day by trekking with our assistant guide: Antonio. Sarah and I both agreed that we liked Antonio better.
· Anyways Antonio and I became good friends which little did I know would come to my demise because I was one of the only few in the group he actually knew the name of. WHICH MEANSSSSSS when he wanted to get some people to paint their face with this red poopy berry I was chosen. I don’t even think he did that great of a job, but let me know what you think!
· Anyways, we then walked for about 12km down this dirt road in the blistering heat. I would talk to Antonio and ask him things like “Hey Antonio is it this way?” And he would reply with remarks like “ummmm, yea i think so” then whisper in my ear “honestly i don’t really know. OKAY ANTONIO WHAT. But he was still a great guy so i trusted him as my fearless leader.
· We then made it to a breaking point where they had a soccer field and ball. Sarah and I got a game going three v. Three. We agreed first one to two. In which case we miserably lost 0-2, howeverrrrr we then kept playing and eventually came back to take the victory!
GOAAAAALLLLLLLL USA WINS THE SALKANTAY WORLD CUP.
· Anyways, my friendship with Antonio then came to fruition when I asked him if it was possible for a human to cross over the river in one of those little carts that is held on by a string and goes about 60ft over the 50ft wide river. (They use those things to carry food across).
· Of course, the legend Antonio said yes and gladly obliged to push me out to the middle of the river on this very unsteady platform held by a string. It was honestly so much fun.
· Luckily I didnt die either!
· We then walked a bit further where we made it to the final camping spot. Had dinner and went to sleep.
Day 4
Lucabamba to Hydroelectrica
· Alright y’all, because not too much happened on day 4, I think i wanted to take this time to introduce you to our Salkantay All Star Team.
Head Coach (Guide) - Tupac: Tupac was a very interesting and weird guy, but thats why i think we bonded so well on the trek. He told me a great joke. “Que Pescado tiene leche?” “PESSSSSSons” HAAAAAA Get it!??!?! Wow gets me every time.
Assistant Coach (Assistant Guide) - Antonio: Really nice man, only in the business for a year, but had no idea what he was doing which I loved.
Starting 5
· PG - J-Buns Cash $: No explanation needed
· SG - Slynch Money Productions: The half ethnic princess
· SF - Jesus: His real name is Matthew, but he looked like Jesus so everyone called him that. He was just finishing up 24 months of traveling! Great guy
· PF - David: A Frenchmen that was obsessed with soccer. We loved him and his fiancé
· C - Manu: David’s Fiancé who honestly barely spoke any English at all but thats why we loved em.
Bench
· The Australian Canadian Couple: A couple of Aussies who moved to canada recently. Very loud and interesting people. They had some good stories though
· Two couples from the Northern European countries that I honestly cant tell the difference between: honestly we really liked them. Sweet. Innocent. Naive.
· Brazilian group: Left early, never spoke a word to them. Seemed like great people though.
· Aussie family: A 56 year old and a 60 year old badass with their daughter. The 60 year old climbed Everest base camp last year too?!?!? (Should of put her in the starting lineup, but I’m too lazy to change anything)
· Alright, so on the start of day 4 we walked 10km on all dirt road.
· We then made it to our lunch spot at the start of the train tracks. We had lunch and then were on our way! Got excited when we saw some Machu Picchu signs. I mean finally?!?!? Only had to walk 75km to get there.
· Walked 12km along the train tracks to the closest city to Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes.
Aguas Calientes
· Anyways, got to our hostel for the night which was surprisingly nice!??!?! Then decided to walk around town before they provided us with our dinner.
· Found a happy hour. 4 drinks for 1?!!? Sign us up. Twice....
· Yea we went to happy hour for the 4 for 1 and then we went again... oops
· We then had dinner and went to bed for the next morning! Machu Picchu!
Day 5
Machu Picchu
· So day 5 started with the early wake up call of 4am to get in line at the bottom of mountain which doesn’t open untill 5. We got in line, probably about 40th or so. We then waited until 5 to trek up to Machu Picchu. See something I did not really know before coming here, was that you have to walke up about a thousand steps to just get to the base of Machu Picchu. This normally takes about an hour or so.
· We then finally got to the top. Where we waited for the entire team.
· Got our Machu Picchu Passport stamps. (I got 2, you can ask me about that on your own time though).
· Then we entered Machu Picchu just in time for sunrise!
· Tupac gave us a bit of a tour and then his duties were done and we said goodbye! Sarah and I hung out for a bit longer to really take in the view.
Sarah taking in the view at macchu picchu.
· But all jokes aside, it was a pretty unreal experience to finally see this place in person. Sarah, and I walked around took some pictures and really just spent a lot of time to take it all in.
· After awhile, of walking around at the main viewing point we made our way down into Machu Picchu to get up close and personal with the ruins and even make some new friends along the way!
· I mean, obviously we made friends with every llama and alpaca that we saw.
· But for real this was a truly unforgettable experience and the number one thing on my bucket list and I’m so glad that I finally got it checked off. So to anyone contemplating if the trip was worth it, no matter how many times that we couldn’t breathe, or almost died.
And there you have it folks! That was our experience with the Salkantay trek and Machu Picchu. So stay tuned for the next blog post which will be our misadventures at the Ausangate Trek!
Originally published July 31, 2018 / See the Salkantay gallery
