Just a heads up before we begin, this is a long post. I guess for me this post is somewhat of a journal entry for me to be able to look back on. A way of saving all the memories from the trek. I could’ve condensed it, but then what would happen to all those little memories that happened along the way that still hold the same sentimental value? If you’re up for the read, let’s begin!
If you are a hiker, Salkantay should be at the top of your bucket list. Salkantay is definitely at the top of my favorite hikes I have ever done. The hike is roughly 50 miles in total spread across 5 days in the mountains and jungle of Perú. Here is a map of the trail:
Before you go: If you want to do this hike, I highly recommend staying a few days in Cusco to get acclimated to the altitude. The first and second day you will be hiking at a higher altitude then Cusco which sits at 3,399 meters/11,150 feet. On the second day of the trek, you will be hiking to the highest point of 4638 meters/15,213 feet. If you haven’t acclimated to the altitude, there’s a high chance you could experience altitude sickness. Trust me, you don’t want to spend all that money to have to be shuttled back to Cusco.
Next, don’t book your tour before you get to Cusco. In fact, that applies to almost every tour in Perú. I know that sounds crazy. If you would have told me that before I left, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’m a planner. I often have everything planned to a T. Booking your tours when you get to Cusco will save you tons of money in the long run. When you’re ready to book your tour, you need to think about your needs and wants on this trek. This trek can cost you anywhere from $150 USD to almost $800 USD depending on how you want to do it. That’s a pretty big range, right? You definitely get what you pay for. $800 USD will more than likely get you hot showers at every campsite, a tour guide that speaks fluent English, and gourmet meals. I guess the best way to put it is that you’re going to be “glamping”. My friends and I went and checked out a few different agencies and the best price we got was around $200 USD. This included a sleeping bag. Overall, I thought our experience was great for what we paid for.
If you’re thinking about going, here is a recommended packing list:
Passport! (You will need your original passport to enter Machu Picchu)
Sleeping bag (Most agencies will rent you one for a fair price)
Travel size pillow (I used my sweater for the first 3 nights and it wasn’t ideal)
If you’re the type of person who likes to hike with walking sticks, you won’t want to go without them on this trek. I didn’t have any, but I think they could’ve come in handy.
A good hiking backpack (Chest straps, hip straps, rain cover) I took a 40L backpack with me. Most companies will either give you a duffle bag the night before you leave that the horses on the trek will carry for you, or will allow you 5 kilos to be carried by the horses. Keep in mind, after the second day, you will have to carry everything with you (at least that’s how it was with our company)
Waterproof jacket, boots, and pants
Sweater/Hoodie (Temperatures drop pretty low on the first and second night)
Gloves (I didn’t have any, and I wish I had brought some)
Hat
Good hiking socks (You don’t want blisters on this hike)
Sunscreen!
Bug spray!!
Sandals
Swimsuit (There are hot springs you can visit on the third and fourth day)
Flashlight
Sandals to wear around the campsite
Sunglasses
Snacks (You can buy snacks along the way, but they will cost you a little bit more)
Filtering water bottle/purifying pills (Most companies will not provide you with water, you have to buy it along the way or filter your water)
Portable Charger for your phone/camera
Medication/Personal Hygiene products
Somewhere between S/ 200 – S/ 300 (Peruvian money) In total I spent almost S/ 300.
Day 0:
The travel agency we booked with was pretty disorganized. Before you leave for Salkantay, agencies will ask you to come in for a briefing the night before where they explain everything. I had messaged the agency a few days before to ask if they could provide us with a recommended packing list and they told me I would have to come the day before we leave to find out what we needed. This was very strange to me, if I needed something I didn’t want to wait till the last minute to go out and buy it. Also, it was strange that the agency couldn’t provide us with a packing list in the first place. Thank god for the internet! The day before we left, we went in for our briefing where they explained everything to us. We were told to meet in the main square at 4:30 AM and they told me they would pick me up at my house at 5 AM because it was on the way.
Day 1 – Cusco to Soraypampa & Humantay Lake:
I decided to just go down to the plaza at 4:30 AM with the rest of my friends. I get pretty paranoid sometimes. I could just picture myself stressing out, thinking they had left me, had I just been picked up by my house. We all met in the Plaza de Armas at 4:30 AM eager to get on the road and go back to sleep. We ended up waiting there till 5 AM (for sure thinking we had been left). The tour guide finally showed up and we piled into a full 15 passenger van. In total, we started out with 14 people in our group. Two girls from Brazil, a couple from London, two guys from Australia, three guys from Denmark, one girl from the United States, and then the four of us from SUU. We then waited for a good 40 minutes while they put all our backpacks on top of the van and got everything ready to go. We finally left Cusco close to 6 AM. We drove for about 2 hours where we stopped and ate breakfast at this restaurant. I don’t want to complain, but everyone one in our group was pretty disappointed with the breakfast we got. The breakfast on the first day isn’t included either, so we had to pay for an overpriced crappy breakfast. We then drove for another hour where we arrived at the trail head. Everyone separated their 5 kilos and we officially began our 5-day journey to Machu Picchu.
We hiked for about 3 hours to our first campsite. The views were amazing! The hike wasn’t bad at all. It was a little steep for the first 20-30 minutes then quickly flattened out. We finally arrived at our first campsite, Soraypampa. We all were starving by that point from the breakfast we had had that day. The lunch was decent, not too bad. (Most of the meals during day 1 through day 3 were mediocre, nothing too spectacular. Like I said, we got a really good deal on this trek).
After lunch, we set up our tents and started the hike to Humantay Lake. This was arguably one of the hardest parts of the entire trek. The hike to the lake is about 2 miles with a 1,200 feet elevation gain. Basically, you’re walking straight up a mountain. The pictures don’t do it justice as to how steep it actually was.
The whole time we were hiking up, the clouds were pretty thick. I was starting to get nervous that I wasn’t going to even see the lake, but as we rounded the corner, the clouds disappeared, and I was in shock. Humantay Lake is definitely high on my list of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The water was a crystal turquoise blue that reflected the mountains and glaciers above like a mirror. Looking back at the pictures I took, amaze me. They all look like I pulled them straight out of a National Geographic magazine. We probably took more photos here than at Machu Picchu. We then went back down to the campsite once it started getting dark, had dinner, and went to bed after an exciting but exhausting day. That night we slept in these cool Andean huts that kept us surprisingly warm.
Day 2 – Soraypampa to Salkantay Pass to Chaullay:
Every morning on the trek minus the last two days, we were awoken at 5 AM to a knocking on our tent with some Coca tea. Coca leaves are a very common thing you will find in the Andean region of South America. Coca leaves acts as a mild stimulant and suppresses hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue. (It is also is what is used to extract cocaine! However, you would need a whole lot of coca leaves to make even a tiny bit of cocaine). After we finished our coca tea, we climbed out of our sleeping bags and began gathering all our things. We ate breakfast and began what was the hardest day of the trek! We ended up downsizing our group to 12 people. The two Brazilian girls got some bad altitude sickness and had to go back to Cusco. (Remember how I said acclimating to the altitude is important?)
The first leg of the hike that day was to the Salkantay Pass, the highest point in the trek. What made this day so difficult? Well, the only way to get to the highest point is to go up. The first 4 hours of the hike that day to the pass had a nice incline the entire way. It flattened out in some parts, but there was always a mild incline at the least. M’kala and I got through the first 4 hours by playing a “game”, if you wanna call it that. More like a coping mechanism actually. We would look ahead and pick a point we would have to get to without stopping. Once we reached that point, we would take a breather, and then pick the next point.
This really did help us get through the grueling four hours up the mountain. Unfortunately, once we got to the top, the clouds were so thick you couldn’t see anything. It was also freezing and sprinkling. This is the part where I wish I had had my gloves. We took a group photo and then started to descend back down the mountain. We finally arrived at our lunch spot about 2 ½-3 hours later. We had lomo saltado for lunch and I think the meat may have been alpaca. I can tell you that it definitely wasn’t beef. (Sorry to anyone who is upset about the poor alpaca I ate, I promise I didn’t know prior. However, just a heads up for anyone traveling to Perú, alpacas are cute and cuddly, but they are also on the menu at almost every Peruvian restaurant). After lunch, we walked for another 2 ½-3 hours to our second campsite Chaullay. This last stretch took us from the Peruvian mountains down into the Amazon jungle. In total we hiked for about 9 hours that day. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the campsite. We sat around for a bit, ate dinner, and then went to bed.
Left - Our whole group on top of the Salkantay pass.
Middle - Me with the Salkantay sign
Right - Our tour guide, Andy. (He snuck in a selfie as he was taking our group photo)
Day 3 – Chaullay to Santa Teresa:
Day 3 was definitely the craziest day in terms of adventure. We were again woken up at 5 AM by the tour guide for our morning coca tea, but, the majority of us had been up since 3:30 AM thanks to a lovely rooster roaming around our campsite. We then gathered our things and went and ate breakfast. The day before was the last day the horses would carry our 5 kilos; however, they offered to take all our things by car to the next campsite. This was really nice to not have to hike with a heavy backpack on. The first hour of the hike our tour guide stopped us several times to teach us about the different types of plants that were in the area. At our last pitstop, he showed us these Andean berries that the Incans would use for face paint. We all got some nice face paint that we all rocked the whole rest of the day.
The hike itself was very easy. All we did was walk along a dirt road. There are several little stores that people have set up along the trail that sell snacks and water. We stopped at a really nice one that made sandwiches, banana bread, sold fruit, and many other things. We all refueled our bodies with different fruits and snacks. After our snack break, we had to cross over this minor river/waterfall that was running over the road and then we reached a giant landslide that happened about a month prior. There was a path that some people had carved out that we could cross, but we decided it was too dangerous.
Therefore, we had to go down to the river where we were met with a basket and a cable that stretched across the river. Two by two, we each got into the basket and we were shuttled over the river. It looks super sketchy at first, but it turned out to be really fun! After we all crossed we were watching the workers up on the landslide and another tiny landslide happened that blocked the path they had already carved out. Luckily no one got hurt.
We continued along the other side of the river until we were able to cross a bridge to get back on the path. We walked down the road for a little bit longer, where we were met with yet another landslide that had happened about an hour before we had arrived. We watched as a bulldozer cleared a path for us. Then about 15 minutes later, we were met with another landslide that had happened earlier that morning! This one was right in front of a river that we all had to cross. Before we began crossing, apparently, our tour guide had told us to cross it fast. However, I think only 2 out of the 12 people in our group actually heard that. As we were crossing, some decent sized rocks started rolling down the hill. Immediately, our tour guide’s eyes got huge and he started yelling at us to hurry. Everyone was certain that another landslide was about to come down right on top of us. We all started running, the best a person can run across a river, with our hearts pounding out of our chest. Luckily, a landslide never occurred, but I’m sure another one came down later that day. After that scare, we thankfully were shuttled the rest of the way to our lunch spot. While we were in the van, we were met with, yes, ANOTHER LANDSLIDE. This one had just been cleared out, but the road did not look stable at all. We watched as a massive truck crossed over it, which apparently gave our driver the confidence to cross, because we went right after the truck. I was sitting by the window the whole time we were crossing getting ready to bail if the road had started sliding out from under us.
Lunch consistently got better as the days went on. That day we had tons of food that filled us all up. After lunch, we had about an hour of free time, so I decided to take a nap in one of the hammocks. It was amazing. After lunch, we drove for about another hour to our campsite in Santa Teresa. The weather here was so nice! It was really warm and felt great after being in the rain for 3 days. After we got everything situated, we went to a nice hot springs. As you can imagine, this felt great! After hiking for 3 full days and being able to soak in hot water couldn’t have been better. After that, we went back to the campsite where we had a fire, drank some beers, and listened to music. It was a relaxing night.
Day 4 – Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes:
The next day most of us in our group had added on ziplining to our tour package. We were all super excited to go, when we found out that our tour agency never called and reserved our ziplining tour after we already paid. My friends and I then spent the next hour trying to get a hold of our tour agency to find out what was going on. None of the numbers listed on our receipt were working numbers and the WhatsApp number I had was going straight to voicemail. Our tour guide ended up taking us to a Caja Cusco Agent, which is basically a store that is authorized to give cash back through the bank Caja Cusco. It was pretty sketchy, but it was our only option. Our tour guide then offered to write us up a receipt that proved that we paid for the ziplining, so we could get our money back once we got back to Cusco.
After all that was resolved, we met up with the rest of our group at the first cable where were given the usual safety spiel. The worker then explained to us that we would have to use our heavy-duty gloves to brake ourselves on each cable. This gave me instant anxiety. Why? I also did a zipline in Costa Rica where we had to brake ourselves, and for some reason I couldn’t get the hang of it. Just ask Vittoria who I nearly killed.
The braking turned out to not be too bad. I would still rather not have to brake myself though. The last cable I asked if I could go in a superman position mainly, so I wouldn’t have to brake, and the guide would have to do it for me. It was super fun! We did 4 cables in total and then had to walk across a suspended bridge. We were strapped to the bridge with two carabiners on the sides of our hips. There were about 3 or 4 places where you had to unclip your carabiner and move it to the other side of a bar. It was terrifying. The carabiners were really good, but that I also made it difficult to undo them with one hand. You had to take both your hands off the cables and balance your body, so the bridge wouldn’t tilt to far to the left or to far to the right. Then you had to push up, twist, and push the carabiner in to get it off the cable. On top of the whole fear of falling off the bridge as you were moving your carabiner, at one point there were these gnarly looking wasps hanging out around one of the bars you had to move your carabiner around. If you know me, I don’t hang with wasps.
After we turned in our harnesses, we were shuttled to the hidroelectrica where we had our best lunch. You should have seen all our faces when they brought out two little scoops of ice cream for dessert. After lunch, we were able to store some of our belongings at the restaurant, so we didn’t have to take everything with us up to Machu Picchu the next morning. I dropped off a few things, then we started walking along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes. A cool thing about Aguas Calientes is that it is only accessible by train or by foot. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get there.
We found our hostel, which was surprisingly a lot nicer than I thought it was going to be and got to take an amazing hot pressured shower. (Arguably the best shower I have had in 3 months). After we all showered, we took a power nap and then went and walked around the town. Aguas Calientes is also referred to as Machu Picchu Pueblo (Machu Picchu Town). The town is a super touristy, but so cool. It reminded us of Disneyland. There were super cool Inca statues around and really cool restaurants and souvenir shops. Everything is even 2x the regular price, just like Disneyland! We walked around for a while, then found a happy hour special on some Pisco Sours (famous Peruvian cocktail). Then we met back up at the hostel and went and ate dinner one last time as a group. After dinner, our tour guide passed out our Machu Picchu entrance tickets and a sack breakfast for the next morning. Since our scheduled time to enter Machu Picchu was 6 AM we wasted no time getting to bed.
Day 5 – Machu Picchu!
My alarm went off at 4 AM and the only thing that got me out of that bed was the fact that we were finally going to Machu Picchu! Otherwise, I could have slept for another 12 hours. We all met up in the lobby of the hostel at 4:30 and set out for the great Incan city. When we left, it was super dark and lightly raining. We walked about 20 minutes to the trail head checkpoint where we had to show our passport and entry ticket. Once we all made it passed the checkpoint, we began our ascent up to the ruins which consisted of walking up Incan stairs for 40 minutes. 40. Minutes. Of. Straight. Stairs. In the dark. I’m not sure why the Incans had such a fascination for stairs, but I’m constantly climbing them here in Perú. I started out in a t-shirt, sweater, and my rain jacket which I quickly shed. I figured I would be soaked either way whether it be from the rain or sweat. As we neared the top, the sun began to come out and you could hear people screaming screams of joy as they arrived at the top of the stairs. Once we made it to the top, we waited for everyone to arrive. We met up with our pre-arranged tour guide (our tour guide we had had the whole time wasn’t feeling good, so he arranged one of his co-workers to give us a tour of Machu Picchu). We were able to choose between an English tour guide or a Spanish tour guide. Since we are all good Spanish students, we all opted to go with the Spanish tour guide to get a couple extra hours of practice in.
As we rounded the corner and I saw Machu Picchu in front me, it was honestly something indescribable. I know that probably sounds so cliché, but after walking close to 50 miles for 5 days to see one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world in front of you was something pretty incredible, exciting, and emotional. No, I didn’t cry. But I think I could’ve easily let out a good one.
We all snapped our classic tourist photo and then went down into the city. The ruins were incredible. The Incas were so skilled when it came to architecture, considering the technology that was available back then. One of the crazier things we saw was the place where they would perform human & animal sacrifices. It was pretty surreal. We had two hours with our tour guide and then about an hour and half to explore on our own.
Picture on the left is where they would do sacrifices.
Picture on the right is your must have picture of llamas at Machu Picchu.
One thing to keep in mind about those who would like to go to Machu Picchu, the whole thing is a one-way path and they enforce it pretty heavily. Once you leave an area you can’t go back. FYI the only bathroom is outside the entrance, so plan accordingly. You also can’t eat inside which came as a shock to all of us who hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. We snuck a couple snacks in though when the security guards weren’t looking.
We left around 10:30 and waited outside the gates for the rest of our group to say goodbye to those who weren’t going to take the bus back to Cusco. We had to start going back down by 11 AM to have enough time to eat lunch and catch our bus back to Cusco at 3. For the last stretch of our 5 day journey, our legs and feet were fed up with us. The walk back to the hidroelectrica was brutal, but we powered through by jamming to music on my bluetooth speaker. We ate lunch at the same place we ate at the previous day and got to rest up for a little bit before going to catch our shuttle.
Around 2:50 we headed over to the shuttles going to Cusco. We were told the night before to look for the shuttle company named Viva. Every shuttle driver is given a list of people they are picking up by the agency. Their system of gathering their people consists of standing in an area with all the other shuttle drivers screaming out the names on their list. As you can imagine, this is a very confusing and a hectic way of trying to find your shuttle. I had found a guy that was with the same company we booked with, so I asked him if we were on his list and he told me no. I thought it was a little strange. After another 15 minutes went by and we still hadn’t found our shuttle driver, we got a little panicked. I decided to go ask the same guy again, who still hadn’t found all his passengers. I asked him if he was sure we weren’t on his list. Then he said, “Wait, how many people are in your party?” and I told him there were 4 of us. His eyes lit up, as we were the ones he had been scrambling to find for the past 20 minutes. See, the problem was that our tour agency never gave our shuttle driver our names. Just that he was picking up a group of 4 people.
Relieved to know we had a ride back to Cusco, we piled into a packed van. I lucked out and got to ride shotgun, since there were no other seats, next to a random girl and her pet rabbit we picked up in Santa Teresa. The bus ride back was a windy, grueling 6 hours. We got back around 9:30. I went home, showered, and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
This post is definitely my longest post I’ve written; however, after 5 days there’s a lot to write about! This experience is high up on my list now of one the greatest things I’ve ever done. 100% would recommend doing the Salkantay trek if you have the time in Perú to do it.
If you read this whole post, you’re awesome! If you just looked at the pictures, that’s fine too. I probably would’ve done the same thing. I hope you enjoyed it!
Tengas un buen día!
Alex
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