Jordy and Em South America Trip!

From Cusco we started the 6 day Salkantay Trek + Short Inca Trek to Machu Picchu!

Day 1 was a very early start from Cusco, with a pick up time of 3.10am! We took a 2-3 hour bus ride to the start of the Salkantay Trek. It was a 3 hour walk to our first campsite, Sky Camp, which were igloo style cabins! The camp sits at an altitude of 3900m (already 500m higher than Cusco). That afternoon we climbed to Humantay Lake, and despite a very cloudy morning got amazing views of the lake and surrounding mountains!

Day 2 was another early start (you’ll see this is a common theme for this post). Today we had to cover a total of 23km, starting with a steep climb to Salkantay pass at 4600m. The walk to the top was very steep and challenging, and we were rewarded at the top with hail instead of views! We then descended to 2900m (a very long afternoon of steep downhill hiking!) to reach the Mountain Sky View camp.

Day 3 was a slightly shorter day of hiking for us, just 10km to cover! We hiked for the whole morning with some beautiful views of the mountains and the Salkantay river. We visited a coffee plantation and got to help roast coffee beans before sampling our work! In the afternoon we arrived at the Jungle Domes camp and enjoyed a much needed afternoon off between two huge hiking days. Despite being in snow/hail only 24 hours prior, the jungle camp was so hot even the rooms were uncomfortable to spend time in!

Day 4 was another huge day of hiking, covering 25km! The morning was another steep climb from Jungle Domes to Llactapata Pass, climbing 800m in elevation over just 2 hours. Llactapata Pass is where you usually get your first glimpse of Machu Picchu in the distance, but unfortunately there wasn’t much to see for us due to cloud cover! After the pass we had a long hike to Aguas Calientes, the town situated just below Machu Picchu. The last 2 hours were along the train tracks into Aguas Calientes, unfortunately in the pouring rain! Despite being soaked by the time we arrived, we were really excited to have completed the Salkantay Trek component of our hike!

Day 5 was a really exciting day, hiking 16km from Aguas Calientes town to Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail! We started along the train tracks again before reaching the start of the Inca Trail. This track was used by Inca people to travel to Machu Picchu and other towns (there were several other sites of Inca ruins along our walk!). Our first proper view of Machu Picchu was entering the “sun gate” above Machu Picchu. We then descended to Machu Picchu itself and had some amazing views over the site with Huayna Picchu mountain in the background. After some photos we returned to Aguas Calientes to rest before exploring the rest of Machu Picchu tomorrow!

Day 6 was the day we finally got to explore Machu Picchu! Unfortunately, this also happened to be the rainiest day of our trip so far (even more rain than day 4 of our hike!). Despite this, we had beautiful views of Machu Picchu when the clouds cleared, and loved exploring the ruins even in the rain.

After our visit to Machu Picchu we return to Cusco to rest and regroup (aka wash our wet and smelly hiking gear), before getting the train to Lake Titicaca and crossing the border into Bolivia!