5 days Trekking to Machu Picchu - Day 2 - Sep 24, 2009

We were awoken by one of the cooks delivering hot tea to our tent at 5.30 in the morning. It was certainly very nice with some hot drink first thing in the morning after a freezing night. Breakfast was served at six in the shed and they had prepared pancakes. I wonder how early the poor cooks had to get up to make a pancake for everyone.

We had also been instructed to put all our stuff and clear the tents before going to breakfast. Hence, it had been quite busy for us packing our bags before breakfast. We’re not used to sleeping in tents (in fact this was the first night ever for me) and so it was fairly messy in the tent. We managed to get everything packed though and put it outside our tent before breakfast.

The walking started at seven sharp and we had a very long day of walking ahead of us. Walter estimated that we would be walking for ten hours during the day. During the first four hours we would climb 750 meters up to 4,650 meters. After completing this, we would then descend 2,000 meters over the next six hours. In total we would be walking 21 km during the day. As we left the camp, there were no more roads for cars and the only way to move forward was by foot.

We were not off to a good start as Iris had problems with her socks within the first ten minutes. They kept falling down and it would have been impossible to walk with these as it would give her blisters. However, Hermano came to the rescue and gave Iris some hair bands to hold the socks up. Very clever solution.

The walk up the mountain was very beautiful. The landscape was very harsh and looked a bit like what the moon probably looks like. The surrounding mountains were very beautiful with glaciers and snow. It was fairly cold and it rained a fair bit as we walked up the mountain. It was also very cloudy and overcast making - slightly unfortunate as it would have been even more beautiful on a clear day.

The climb up to the top of Saltankay proved to be a challenge. The air was very thin and Iris really suffered from the lack of oxygen. I was surprisingly fine - I had actually struggled more the day before with the quick walking in the thin air. Maybe I got some extra red blood-cells yesterday?

As we walked up, Iris wasn’t feeling well but she kept on walking. I was very concerned but she has an iron-will. We walked next to each other and we just focused on taking baby steps. Towards the end, our steps were just the size of our shoes.

It was a great relief after four hours walking when we reached the tip of the mountain at around 11.15. It also felt like a great accomplishment having climbed so high up. The air was really thin and it had been a great struggle for both of us. But we had managed to get to the top and it was a great feeling! I think the guides were fairly impressed with us managing to get up - especially as the majority of people they take on the trip are more experienced hikers. But you get a long way with an iron will.

The top of the mountain was interesting for a number of reasons. Our guide explained that all mountains are gods to the Incas. Hence, a lot of people had brought up stones to the top of the mountain as offerings. Hence, there were big piles of stones on top of the mountain neatly arranged in piles. Apparently, these were offerings for good weather and fortune when passing the mountain top.

The other interesting thing about the top of the mountain was the poor guy that sat there trying to sell hats, gloves etc to passers-by. We were really amazed and amused that someone walks up the mountain every morning to try and sell souvenirs. We contemplated buying something off the poor guy but then decided that it was probably for the best not to encourage him to climb the mountain and try and find something more fruitful to do with his time than sit up there and freeze hoping for someone buying something off him.

After a rest and some scenic photos on the top we started walking down. I felt a great relief walking down and as we descended Iris’ breathing became easier and easier. It was still very cold and rainy but it got better and better the further down we walked. The scenery was very impressive with high mountains and very harsh landscape.

We kept on walking down for three hours until we got to Huayracpampa at around 14.15. This was located at about 4,000 meters. By the time we got there, Iris breathing was normal and that was a great relief. The cooks had prepared a nice soup which really warmed us. The main course was some spaghetti with a sauce - probably the worst meal throughout the trek. However, we were hungry and we ate greedily.

After some rest we started walking again. As we and three others were slower than the rest of the group, they had headed off before us. We (and the three others) ended up walking the remaining bit with Hermano in charge.

The descent turned out to be very hard work on the knees. The path wasn’t paved and only consisted of dirt and large rocks. It was a bit scary walking down fast as you might end up stepping on a loose rock and sliding. As a result, Iris and me took it very easily and decided not too stress too much. As a result the descent took fairly long time.

The descent was also interesting as the landscape started changing quite rapidly. Around the top, there was very little vegetation and very harsh. The further down we went, the more nature started looking much more like a rainforest and it got quite a lot warmer. We saw a fair few nice waterfalls and rivers as we walked along the path.

We got to the night camp at around six in the evening. It was located at Chaullay at 2,900 meters. By that time we were very tired and our feet were aching. I had developed some very nasty blisters and Iris was completely exhausted from all the walking.

When we reached the camp we had walked for eleven hours. We are quite impressed with the fact that we had managed to complete the trek in only one more hour than expected. We are not experience hikers and it is a great challenge climbing up to 4,650 meters and descending 2,000 meters in a day.

The cooks had prepared chicken burgers for dinner with rice for dinner. We had contemplated skipping dinner and going straight to sleep but we were happy that we didn’t. The food was very nice and we needed the energy after the day’s adventure. After dinner we headed straight to bed, took some pain-killers, and went straight to some well-deserved sleep sometime between eight and nine at night.

Marcus