Two weeks ago I went on a five day trek to Machu Picchu along the Salkantay trail. The first day was amazing and quite possibly my favorite day out of all of them. We went to our campsite and then had to walk about a miles up a very muddy and steep hill to get to lake Humantay. One wrong step and you would slide down at least 10 feet. Getting to the top was an amazing feeling. This place is probably the most beautiful place that I have ever been in my life, with the aquamarine colored glacier water. Walking back down was pretty sketchy because of all the mud still, but we eventually made it back to the campsite. I was with a group of 12 people total. There were 3 guys from Denmark, 2 guys from Australia, a couple from Great Britain, and a girl from California, and the 4 of us from SUU. It was a really fun group. We slept in tents every night except the last, but I will get to that later.
The second day we got up at 5:00, had breakfast at 5:30 and then left at 6:00 for what was our hardest day of the trek. We hiked a total of 17 miles that day straight up a mountain, and straight back down. It was so difficult, but the way up was a little more fun because we decided to make a game out of it. We would pick a landmark that wasn't too far away and then we would hike as fast as we could to that point. After we stopped and caught our breath we would chose another spot. It was a fun challenge. Downhill was awful though... every step down my legs were shaking from exhaustion and I had to be very cautious with my steps because it was so steep and the rocks were really loose. Not to mention, it was also rainy and cold on the way down.
The third day was probably the scariest day that I've had in a while. We didn't have too much walking that day, but the walking that we did end up doing was very dangerous. There were so many landslides along the trail that we had to cross to the other side of the river. We did this on a zipline-like thing. That part was kind of cool, but as we kept walking there were more landslides. We saw at least 5 or 6 landslides that day. The scariest one was a fresh one that had fallen off into a river that dropped off into a waterfall. There was only about 5 feet of walking room over huge unstable boulders. I was in the front of the group there were only 2 people in front of me. We were crossing the river and all of the sudden our tour guide yells at us to stop and I look up and see some good sized rocks falling down. After we had stopped our tour guide yelled at all of us to run. I was so scared because I knew that even those smaller rocks that I had seen falling could trigger something much bigger to fall. So I started running across these uneven boulders just praying that none of them would tip as I stepped on them. Every step that I took across that 30 foot danger zone, sad to say, resulted in some not very lady-like words. But can you blame me? After that section a bus came and picked us up because it was too unsafe to keep going on foot. Being in the bus didn't make me feel much safer, especially at one point when we had to drive over a river that was similar to the one we crossed on foot. I thought we were going to get washed away off the cliff with how much water there was. When we got across I literally had tears of relief in my eyes. I definitely feared for my life that day.
Thankfully that night we got to relax at the hot springs. It was a nice change from being muddy and cold. the majority of our group, excluding us 4 from SUU got so drunk that night off of the Incan Tequilla. I think the best part was going to breakfast the next morning and hearing all the crazy stories from the night before.
The 4th day was spent walking along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes (a town really close to Machu Picchu.) When we got there I was drenched with sweat because it was so hot and humid. We checked into our hostel and I got to take the first bath in 4 days after hiking nearly 45 miles in the mud.
The next morning, we woke up at 4:00 to be able to walk up the many flights of stairs to Machu Picchu and get there by 6:00 a.m. It took an hour and a half (with many resting stops) to finally make it to the top. By the time I made it to the top I was completely soaked from the rain (although I think a good portion of it was sweat.) We walked into Machu Picchu at 7:00 am. It was so cloudy that you could barely see anything, but after about an hour things cleared up enough to see. It was so amazing. We went off and explored while learning the history and speculated uses of all the different buildings in the ancient Inca City. When you go in you can actually walk through the entire city (which I had no idea about before) and it was such a cool experience knowing that I was walking where the Incas had once walked.
On the way home I ate something that made me really sick for about a week. I actually went to the hospital for it, but they said that they didn't have time to do an actual examination. So, they just asked me what my symptoms were and gave me a prescription for the stomach pain I was having and an electrolyte drink to re-hydrate me. The hospital was really sketchy. Most of the lights didn't work and there were huge holes in the floor. The examination room that I was in was full of people and there was fresh blood on the floors that no one seemed too concerned about... welcome to third world country hospitals.
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