5 days Trekking to Machu Picchu - Day 1 - Sep 23, 2009

Today was the first day of our five day trek to Machu Picchu. We have chosen to go on one of the alternative Inca-trails rather than the original Inca-trail. The main reason for not going on the original Inca-trail is that there was no availability to go on it until early November and we weren’t too keen on waiting until then. Also the original Inca trail has a reputation for being very crowded, just like shopping on Oxford Street during Christmas.

As the original Inca-trail is so popular, the government has limited the number of people that can go on it to about 500 people every day. Hence, it gets sold out very early on (hence the November availability) and it also gets very expensive (probably two or three times the price of our trek). Furthermore, it’s not allowed to have mules on the original Inca-trail meaning that human porters are used to carry loads of 30-40 kg along the trail everyday - this feels slightly inhumane.

Hence, after some deliberation, we decided to go for the five day Saltankay trek to Macchu Picchu. This is also a trail that dates back to Inca times and has been used since their days. It’s also the most challenging and most beautiful trek that is on offer. Since, we are such keen hikers and such keen adventurers we decided to go for this one. Another reason was also that the only other option involved a fair bit of mountain biking. And as Iris isn’t keen on biking it only left the Saltankay trek as the only option.

We woke up very early - around 3.45 in the morning - and got ready. This turned out to be a bit complicated as most everyone in our dorm was sleeping. However, we were a bit cheeky and turned on the light which made the whole process much easier. We didn’t feel too guilty about this as people regularly turn on the lights when they prepare to go to bed and we’re already sleeping.

We ended up waiting in the reception for 10-20 minutes before our guide - Hermano - came and picked us up. Whilst waiting in the reception we struck up a conversation with an American guy living in Brazil. He had quit his job to go to business school and before his term started he did some traveling. He was quite funny to talk to, possibly because he was a bit drunk after being out partying the whole night. He rightly guessed that Iris worked in the finance industry - he didn’t seem too interested in me…

Hermano walked us very quickly to one of the main plazas in Cusco. There we ended up waiting for quite a long time, probably close to one hour. It’s always annoying when all of these tour operators wake you in the middle of the night to have you waiting for no particularly good reason at an airport, plaza or terminal. We were also joined by four other people that were going on the same tour.

By 5.30 a bus appeared and we were able to climb aboard. There were already a fair few people on the bus that must have been picked up elsewhere. After we had boarded we started heading out of Cusco. To our great amusement and annoyance, they made a few stops in Cusco’s outskirts to buy various things. They bought a large canister of gas to be used for cooking and about two bin-liners full of bread. I guess that people are a bit more relaxed in South America - in Europe and most other places the staff would probably have prepared these things in advance…

After about two hours on the bus we arrived at Mollepata which was where we were dropped off the bus. Mollepata was a small town without anything to put it on the world map. It was located on 2,900 meters - slightly lower than Cusco’s 3,300 meters. We were able to buy a simple breakfast in a local restaurant (it was fairly expensive by South American standards at 7 soles per person). The toilets in this place were very basic but the last normal toilet to be seen over the next few days.

At the restaurant the main guide - Walter - gave an overview of the trip and went through some details. We also parted with the bulk of our luggage. This was meant to be carried by mules as it would have been too much for most non-Peruvians to carry their equipment themselves due to the high altitude. This is standard practice on most trails. However, on the traditional inka-trail, mules are not allowed, and they use porters (people) to carry all the tourist’s stuff. It feels a bit more humane going on this inka-trail where people are not used to carry all the stuff.

In total we ended up being 14 people on the trek. This was a pretty large group and it had a great many nationalities represented. There were quite a few Swiss-Germans, some Spaniards, some French, one American and us. There were two guides - the main guide Walter (we always struggled to remember his name) and Hermano. They were pretty nice guides and we ended up spending most of our time with Hermano as he was the guide that walked at the back of the group…

There were also three cooks that cooked all our meals, set up the campsite, did the dishes etc. We were quite impressed with them as they would wake us up in the morning with hot tea in our tents half an hour before breakfast. They would then serve breakfast (pancakes, omelets or similar) with bread, tea, coffee etc.

After breakfast (or any meal for that matter) we would then start walking. After we had left, the cooks had to disassemble the kitchen, do the dishes, disassemble the tents, pack everything and get it onto the mules. They then started walking very quickly, overtake the group somewhere in the middle, and get to the next campsite, and start cooking again. By the time we arrived at the lunch place they would then have already prepared food for us.

We are really impressed as they managed to cook pretty decent meals for us all the time. It wasn’t restaurant standard, but very good given the basic conditions. For lunch and dinner we always got a soup for starter and then some rice and/or pasta with a sauce. Very good going!

So at about eight o’clock we started walking. Everyone really started rushing as if it was a competition. It was very hard work to keep up with everyone else as they were very eager to prove that they were the best hikers. There were indeed some very good hikers around - the Swiss-Germans apparently hiked pretty much every month and were very used to it. Iris and me were struggling somewhat more. I think we were generally doing pretty well for it being our first hike every and everyone else being very experienced hikers.

We normally walked for about fifty minutes and then rested for ten. It was a fairly good pace but due to the group being so experienced, it was slightly hard work for us to keep up. The first day was also very hot so we got very sweaty. We hadn’t packed particularly well as most of our clothes were made of cotton and they got really soaked as we sweated. It was also very difficult on the trek to determine what types of clothes to bring as we walked through quite a lot of different regions with different temperatures.

At about one o’clock we got to Cruzpata located at 3,400 meters. We were served our first lunch here and it had a fairly nice view. It was pretty nice to sit down and rest for a bit and chat with some of the other hikers. However, it also got fairly cold. The walk up to Cruzpata had been along a very windy road and we had made a number of short-cuts that were fairly steep. This had been fairly hard work and we were already quite exhausted when we got to Cruzpata.

After lunch we started walking towards the final campsite located at Soraypampa. Soraypampa was located at 3,900 meters which meant that we climbed 1,000 meter over the first day. It was located some 19 km away from where we were dropped off in the morning.

The walk to Soraypampa was very scenic. As we walked, we had wonderful views over the Saltankay glaciers and snow-capped mountains. It was a pleasure to see this and we really enjoyed the views. The road we walked along wasn’t too inspiring though. It was a dirt road that cars could drive on. In fact, it would have been possible to go by car all the way to Soraypampa if we had wanted to. However, the views were really amazing and it was a real pleasure to be surrounded by the high mountains and the glaciers.

We got to the Soraypampa camp site at around six in the evening. We had then walked about 19 km and climbed 1,000 meters in a day. We had also been awake since 3.45 in the morning and we were pretty tired.

All campsites used along the trip were semi-permanent sites. There was normally some sheds that the cooks could use to prepare food in, some very basic toilets, and some sheds where we could have dinner. The Soraypampa campsite was beautifully located at the next to a high mountain with a beautiful glacier on it. Unfortunately, this also meant that it was cold as hell and windy like crazy here.

We ended up sitting waiting in the shed for food for quite a long time. It’s apparently custom on the inka-trails that they serve hot chocolate and pop-corns before dinner so everyone can socialize. However, it was so cold this day that we would have preferred not having to endure this and go straight to dinner. However, the dinner eventually turned up and after this we were quite happy to go to bed.

We ended up going to bed at around eight in the evening and we were very tired after all the walking and the long day. As it was so cold we had to pretty much put on all the clothes we had. I had the following on as I slept: fleece, alpaca-jumper, long-sleeved t-shirt, tank-top, thermal trousers (langisar), trouser, two pairs of socks, hat and gloves. I also had a pretty good sleeping bag. I think Iris may actually had slightly more clothes on…

At the end of the first day I had unfortunately developed some small blisters on my feet. Iris was fine but was very tired from the walking.

We ended up sleeping pretty well although it was very windy and it rained somewhat during the night. We also managed to sleep very well despite the height - 3,900 meters - as we’re only used to Cusco’s 3,300 meters.

Marcus