Salkantay to Aguas Calientes – Solpayki

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.

Peter sheltering from the rain on the way up to the first camp

A misty view - it reminds me of home! — A misty view – it reminds me of home!

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.

A cairn - the Quechuan peoples use cairns as religious shrines to the indigenous Inca goddess Pachamama. — A cairn – the Quechuan peoples use cairns as religious shrines to the indigenous Inca goddess Pachamama.

Our group on the way up to Abra Salkantay

Hayley & Simon on the way to Abra Salkantay

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.

At last, some blue sky descending from Abra Salkantay

The ground begins to steam in the sunshine

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.

Yum! Looks like frog spawn, tastes yummy!

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.

Laetitia in the rain at the Santa Teresa Hot Springs

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.