After a week in Cusco we were excited to get away from the busy city and to see more of the countryside.
We’d booked a 4 day trek with Wayki that takes in the edge of Salkantay and carries on to Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Pichu. The problem was, it was raining.
It had rained heavily over night and it was still raining by the time we got to the start of the trek. Oh well, it made me almost feel at home.
Despite the rain, the scenery was still very beautiful.
Our first camp was at about 4200m. It was hard going, despite the long week acclimatisation that we’d had in Cusco. The rain turned to snow, and then back to rain, and then it stopped, for an hour or two. At the 6am wake-up call the rain had returned.
About an hour after breaking camp we made it to our highest point, Abra Salkantay, at 4600m. Unfortunately the promised views of Salkantay remained elusive, but it was still a great experience.
Now for the very long way down. We had about 2000m of descent before we hit camp 2. The scenery was beautiful, we even got some sunshine, as well as more rain. Yes, just like home.
Unfortunately the rain has caused some serious land slides which meant the trail for the 3rd day was closed. Instead we took the rough road that ran parallel on the other side of the valley. This was still a good option, passing crazy bridges, many beautiful flowers and grenadilla farms.
We continued the long descent, eventually making it to Playa where we had lunch. After lunch, we had agreed to make a change to the normal trek and to take a bus to Santa Teresa where we could enjoy the natural hot springs. They were very good for our aching muscles.
Our final trek took us to Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Pichu. We took a bus to the hydroelectric station and then started along the railway lines. Again, the day started wet, but it soon dried up and we had a wonderful walk along the tracks, seeing more beautiful flowers and some parrots.
After a few hours we made it to Aguas Calientes. This is a sprawling town, totally devoted to the tourist and still expanding.
Series - Cusco
- The Sacred Valley
- Mountain Biking – Moray and Maras
- Salkantay to Aguas Calientes – Solpayki
- Machu Picchu
Some great atmospheric pics :love: Lucky you live in Cumbria and are used to a bit of damp weather 🙂