18/09/2012 - 21/09/2012 - Salkantay baby!

T-Bird and A-bomb keeping warm in the morning

Our bible for the next 5 days

A rude awakening at 4am was the start of our 5 day Inca trek, which was a sign of things to come. The following 3.5 hours were spent trying to get back to sleep on a minivan, frustrated by the driver’s repeated horn-honking, keeping his window open to the stiff breeze and the dodgy Peruvian roads… Upon arriving at Mollepata, during our breakfast Hipolito (our guide, a.k.a. Hippo, or ‘lito) told us that the first day was a boring 6 hour walk over dusty roads. Great. Fortunately, there was an alternative – a 45 minute journey in truck for 5 soles each then a ‘delightful’ walk up to a lake where he’d pay us the money back if we didn’t like it. Sounded like a no-brainer, right? Wrong, obviously:

And...stuck! At least we had a good view

 - Took almost 2 hours to organise the truck, during which time we had no clue what was going on and the only entertainment was watching someone in another group doing the same thing get more and more annoyed with the situation. The guy happened to look like Michael Phelps as well, which increased the amusement!

 - The truck drive was 20+ people crammed like cattle into the back of an open top van typically used for carrying equipment, and you had to cling on to the sides for dear life to avoid falling onto the floor and sustaining serious injury. One girl shouted out ‘can we walk instead’ after less than 5 minutes. She wasn’t joking.

 - If that wasn’t enough, the road was narrow, so you had to either take your hands off the side to avoid oncoming foliage and increase the aforementioned risks, or literally take it head on…

 - After 30 minutes in the truck, we caught up with our supply vehicle (basically the same thing, but with our additional gear, food, and tents in, along with the cooks and assistants) stuck at a point where there were roadworks. This took approximately an hour to get through as the truck was stuck in mud!

The view of the lake made it worth it!

 - We arrived at our lunch stop at the same time as our lunch, so had to wait longer than usual for that to get set up. 4 ½ hours since we’d arrived at the so-called start of the trek, and still not a single step walked…

 - Due to the delay, we had to get back in the truck after lunch, and were stopped shortly after following the driver scraping a parked vehicle. The vehicle owner proceeded to throw a punch at our driver through the window (providing some much needed entertainment!) prior to extended negotiations of how to deal with the fallout. Unreasonably, according to Hippo (but totally understandable from where we were standing), compensation was requested, but denied…

Reflecting on the journey

Thankfully, we got to the campsite shortly after, and could actually start walking! The ascent up to the lake was a slog, particularly given the altitude. The lake was superb though, with stunning reflections and a superb view of the surrounding snow-capped peaks. 

Back at the camp we were served up a gourmet 4 course meal (so much for losing weight on the trek!) and then into our tents. It had been a while since we’d been in a tent – felt like home!

     

Mixing it with the snow-
capped mountains

After no small effort, reached the pass

Second day was the toughest of the trek – a climb from the campsite (c. 3,900m) to the Salkantay pass at 4,629m, then about 18km downhill to c. 2,600m. The uphill section was tough, but this was rewarded with awesome views and a fun Incan salute to the snow-capped mountain gods at the pass. 

A traditional salute

Feels like home

The long descent to lunch proved the back breaker, with altitude sickness unfortunately getting to one member of the group. Luckily the break proved to be the necessary tonic, and as the mist descended further, so did we for the remainder of the day, ending up at camp at dusk. Walking through all daylight hours meant a Cusquena (local beer) was well deserved over dinner, and Adam introduced us to another card game – Asshole. Basically the equivalent of Lemon, for any Sturge family readers. Needless to say, Tony was in the presidential seat for the whole game!

Waterfalls galore

Not our usual
shopping centre

Dodgy bridge action

 

Coffee time

I love a bit in the morning!

Day 3 was a morning spent enjoying the delights of the upper jungle, with Hippo pointing out the remaining 4 out of 5 naturally growing orchids in the area. Tony’s still not quite sure how it happened, but he ended up being involved in a bet of who could spot these orchids first. Amazingly, the guide won, and was a beer better off that evening!  Got to the campsite straight after lunch, then spent the afternoon is the Santa Teresa hot springs, an amazing tonic for weary legs! Could have done without the giant cicadas, a scorpion (dead in the springs, fortunately!) and the multitude of biting gnats around the springs though…  A quick lesson in making coffee was given by the locals before another healthy feed and then wrapped back up in our tents.

Time to rest those weary limbs

llactapata with the gang (L-R: Siew,
Poh,Adam, Shilpa, Aliza, A-bomb,
T-dog, Li Li)

You can see it, promise!

Inca steps - remind us
again why we wanted to get
onto this trail?!?

A bit clearer now...

We got involved with a proper Inca trail on the fourth day – slightly controversially given we’d been told we wouldn’t be doing it at the end of day 2. We put a massive guilt trip on Hippo following that news, basically bullying him into doing it, but getting to the Inca settlement at Llactapata made it completely worth it – we just hoped the rest of our group felt the same way! The descent was another knee and thigh killer, and relief all round when we were able to get a cold drink at Hydroelectrica. Not wanting to do things in half measures though, we plowed on for another 7km alongside the train track to get to Agues Calientes where we had the joy of a bed and a hot shower! Annoyingly, we hadn’t been told we wouldn’t be getting our main bags until later that evening, much to the disappointment of the ladies, who had to postpone their shower… Restaurant food also awaited – we decided the tourist menu on offer wasn’t quite enough, and a family size pepperoni pizza was dispatched with ease by the group!

Llatctapata - surely that's in
a MJ song?!?

Key Learnings:

1. Orchids and strawberries are frequent friends in the upper jungle.

2. Llactapa (yakta-pahta) is great fun to say aloud, and ended up being Adam's favourite word.

3. Asking a tour group for feedback at the end of a long day of walking is not always advisable.