Two Backpacks One Couple

Our pick up was at 3am for our 7 day backpacking trip. We tried our best to sleep in the van with the other hikers until we arrived in Mollepata for breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet with lots of options and juices. Our van was full and one of many heading to the same trailhead. The Salkantay trail is one of the most popular trails in the area and we could tell. Luckily for us, apparently not many people do the Salkantay & Inca trail combination because 7 days is too long. That meant there were only additional hikers on the trail with us on the first day. Our group was also just Nick, myself, a South African guy named Jason, and our guide. It was much nicer than the other groups of 12+ people each.

After breakfast we headed to Challacancha which is where the trailhead was. The hike started at 7:30am and we arrived to Soarypampa Sky Camp at 9:30am. The trail followed original and renovated Inca canals used for directing water. There were some plants, but nothing that interesting (yet). Once at camp we left our bags to do a day hike up to Lake Humantay. The hike up was gradual with views of the surrounding mountains and glaciers. The path was incredibly busy since there were both overnight hikers like us and people who were only doing the lake as a day trip. Some people were not well adjusted to the altitude and opted to ride horses up, making the trail crowded.

Once at the lake, the views were blocked by mist and fog. We watched the massive groups of people take their photos then have to head back down to their vans. Since we only had lunch on the agenda for later we had the option to keep waiting. It still wasn’t perfectly clear, but we eventually got some pretty nice views of the lake. I unfortunately waited so long up there that my journey down was a run to the bathroom. The trail had no places to hide for an outdoor bathroom break.

Lunch was served inside the main cabin at camp. We had passion fruit juice, avocado salad, rice, chicken, trout, potato pie, and soup. We would soon learn that every meal would be massive, we definitely never went hungry. After a quick nap in our igloos and exploring around camp it was time for fika. Fika was wontons fried with sugary banana, popcorn, and tea. Dinner followed, which included soup, fried trout and vegetables. Dessert was a wine poached pear. Nick skipped fika and dinner as his stomach had started not feeling well the day before. Our guide made him a special tea in hopes it would help. I was just glad it wasn’t me this time (unusual).

In the evening we had a spectacular view of Salkantay glacier (spoiler alert it would be so cloudy the next day we would never see it again). Our igloos were definitely more cool than functional. The lights at camp were so bright that we couldn’t see any stars from inside. Nick and I had one to ourselves. Nick tried covering the closest light with his shirt, but there were enough others that it did not help improve the star gazing. Once the camp finally turned off the outdoor lights our igloo was full of condensation from us being inside. Star gazing had to be done outside, but it was pretty cold so I just stayed in bed. We were pretty exhausted after the early pick up and thankful that the hiking day 1 was so easy. It was off to a smooth start.

Day 2 was the hardest day on the trail according to our itineraries. Breakfast was served at 6:30am and included both eggs and pancakes. We were on the trail by 7:00am, making our way slowly up towards Salkantay Glacier. That day was the day that our trail split from the other Salkantay trail; we went right and they went left. That meant it was finally just our group hiking, which was such a big difference from the day before. The views back towards camp were stunning with mountains half covered in fog. The view looking ahead was supposed to have Salkantay Glacier for several hours, but unfortunately we never saw it due to fog.

There were many horses on the trail carrying belongings for different camps and hikers. Salkantay Pampa was our first stop of the day, which is typically a good photo spot but that day was a view of just white. After that we continued up slowly to Pampajaponesa, the spot where our chef and horse porter set up for lunch. An extremely friendly sweetheart of a dog followed us here and loved getting pets from Nick and I. The stop was gorgeous with views of mountains all around us.

While lunch was cooking our group did the short hike to Salkantay Lake, a turquoise blue lake not quite visible from the lunch tent. We took photos there as soon as we arrived with the snow covered mountain in the background. It was lucky we did, because the fog rolled in and visibility of the lake disappeared completely within 5 minutes of us arriving. The three of us walked to the end of the lake where there was a beach area with fresh glacier water flowing into the lake. Nick did a pushup over the stream to drink it. Jason then did the same. I’ll admit that my attempt at a pushup all the way down to the stream at 4750m was not as successful. We have a video over 1 minute long of me trying, though. A for effort.

Lunch was quinoa soup, meat, rice, potatoes, vegetables, and tea. Our new dog friend took a nap on a nearby rock and the horses grazed with the tall mountains in the background. It was picturesque. That is, until it started raining. It was pretty cold being wet for the rest of the afternoon, but we still enjoyed ourselves. After lunch was the last push up Inca Chiriasca to 5100m. That was our tallest pass of the 7 days. We did not have good views on either side of the pass due to the weather. It even hailed and snowed for a few minutes once we started our descent.

Eventually it stopped raining long enough for us to enjoy the valley portion of our hike. There were many small streams, rocks, and mosses. Our guide gave us some coca leaves to chew on; they were bitter but fun to try. Being dry was short lived as it started raining again just before we arrived to camp. It was the only day we beat the horses, which was a shame because it meant there were no tents set up to shelter in. Nick opted to lay on the ground in the rain, much to our dog follower’s delight once he was spotted. He was an easy target to run to for pets.

Once the horse porter arrived Nick helped set up the cooking/eating tent. It was much nicer hanging out in there. For fika we had popcorn, crackers, and tea. Then dinner was another soup, pasta, fried chicken with elderberry sauce, and vegetables. That was one of our favorite dinners. It’s hard to tell if it was actually the food that was really good or if it was because the hike had been hard and cold. We slept in tents that night, and all the following nights. No more fancy igloos for us.

Day 3 was a super short and easy day, which was appreciated after the big day of up the day before. It started off great with no rain, and a breakfast of plantain, eggs, cake, bread, and sausage. How our chef made a cake with just two burners is a mystery. The hike was mostly downhill with the occasional minimal uphill. A lot of the day was flat, which was fantastic. We started with a valley going down from camp, then through forested areas and near farm fields.

During the hike we saw a few wild chinchillas, a hummingbird, and some cool flowers. They have so many types of flowers in Peru. There were many cacti all with bright red flowers on top, too. Near the campsite our trail ran parallel with another large Inca canal. We made it to camp pretty early in the day and enjoyed a lunch of chicha morada, pork, rice, potatoes, salad, noodle soup, and corn with cheese. Camp was by a tiny village, and had a small building we got to use for cooking and eating in. There were even real squatty toilets.

A man who lived next door to the campsite offered hot showers for 10 soles. The shower was super sensitive. If I shut the door too hard or touched the nozzle, the water went ice cold. I had to walk out in my towel about 4 times for the man to fix it. Eventually I got to have the hot shower, though, and it was fabulous. Nick, of course, had no problems with it. The man also had his guinea pig shed nearby which we got to go inside. He had an absurd number of them in there running around freely. There were also higher up closed off areas for the moms to be with their adorable babies. The squeaking was non stop and super cute.

To get into our campsite we passed by Paucarcancha Inca ruin. When in camp we had a lovely view of it and some mountains. In the afternoon we went and explored the ruins all by ourselves for an hour. There were so many terraces, buildings, and walls. The view of the valley from up there was super nice. We learned later on that the ruins were both pre-Inca and Inca. We said goodbye to our horse porter, who was very nice. The Inca trail doesn’t allow horses so instead there were 9 porters who joined us the next afternoon. The company we hiked with really bring a lot of food, cooking supplies, tents, etc. We couldn’t believe how many people they needed for just the 3 of us.

Dinner was vegetable soup, chicken breast with passion fruit sauce, cauliflower quiche, and macaroni. After dinner our guide gave everyone a cup of ‘Inca tequila’. It was like tequila, but much sweeter and smoother. Nick offered his to mother Earth to be respectful and the rest of us followed our guides lead with the Spanish chanting and shot-taking. It was pretty yummy. We were convinced that our guide and chef finished off the bottle that night because we didn’t leave camp the next day until the afternoon. It rained all night, but our tent stayed relatively dry inside.

Breakfast was ham, cheese, bread, and cake. In the morning we got to see more hummingbirds come to the giant flowers by our tents. It was a clear morning so we had better views of the snow capped mountains than we could see the night before. Since our hiking day was another short one (and maybe our guide was a bit hungover) we went and explored the nearby ruins one more time. This time our guide came with us and told us more about the architecture and purpose.

That day we would be joining up with the Inca Trail, which meant stricter check points. We had to stay at camp until a ranger came to the checkpoint office to review our paperwork and passports. After that we had our lunch of rice soup, potatoes, fried chicken, and vegetables. It was only 1.5 hours of hiking to get to our next campsite. The hike was a gradual uphill past farms, jungle-like cloud forest, and a cool river. There were many flowers and on one farm right off the trail was a giant metal pot. Inside the pot was chicha de jora, a beer made from fermented corn. The man served us a giant cup of it to try. Jason and I tried one sip each and our guide had to drink the rest. I am not a big beer fan, but it was fun to try a local drink.

Nick was feeling a bit restless from the two easy days. He decided to leave his big bag, take his daypack, and hike the pass we were scheduled to do for the next day on his own to burn some energy. Meanwhile back at camp, Jason and I found some cool flowers and chatted. I had sunburnt my scalp the day before and my head was peeling like crazy. I had to put my head upside down in the freezing cold camp sink and try and wash it. It was cold but necessary. Fika was sweet potato chips (homemade, my favorite), popcorn, and tea. Jason and Nick always had hot chocolate, too. Dinner was corn soup, potatoes, chicken with orange sauce, vegetables, and pasta. For dessert we got a jelly made from purple corn.

Day 5 was the hardest day on the Inca Trail with lots of up. For breakfast we got peeled soft boiled eggs in a tomato and onion sauce. It was super good, definitely the best breakfast of the hike. It came with a price, however; Nick’s farts were deadly. I had to have him hike minimum 6 feet behind me at all times for the first pass. The first pass was long and gradual. It started with going through the jungle with lots of moss, flowers, and other hikers we passed. I don’t know how it happened, but our group was the fastest group on the Inca trail so we would usually passed all other groups in the first hour even though we started last.

Eventually the pass opened up and there were views of the valley behind us. That section we nicknamed hummingbird alley as there were so many hummingbirds there. Some of them were huge, the size of pigeons. Peru has many species according to our guide. It took us about 2 hours to get up to Dead Woman’s Pass at 4215m. It was neat how the trail changed from a dirt path on the Salkantay section to neatly laid original Inca stones. After the pass it was a quick descent down to Pacaymayu camp for our lunch of passion fruit juice, avocado salad, noodle soup, salmon trout chicharron, rice, vegetables, chicken and potatoes.

After our very early lunch we continued along the trail, which then continued to go up stairs. We saw fog partially cover mountains, flowers, and waterfalls. After about 30 minutes we made it to our first ruin, Runkuraqay. It was small, but from above was a neat shape. We continued and made it to the top of the second pass after another 30 minutes. Eventually we made it to Sayacmarca ruins, which were some of our favorite. The ruins had many stairs, rooms with everything but the ceiling remaining, ceremonial rocks, and a great view of the valley. We saw stones with holes in them, used for attaching doors. Nick even found a beautiful green snake that we watched for a few minutes.

Our group passed a 3rd ruin, Yanacocha, on the way to camp. We had a nice view of it from above from the previous ruins. We made it to camp at 2:00pm, beating the next fastest group by 1.5 hours. Our theory is that we had more days climatizing and being a smaller group our breaks were much shorter, but who knows. Other groups were still getting in past 6:00pm. After our usual fika we had a dinner of vegetable soup, chicken, Russian style salad (beets), pasta pie, and mashed potatoes. Slices of peach covered in chocolate were served for dessert.

It rained all night and we woke up to an extremely foggy campground. The plants all had water droplets. Breakfast was cake, plantain, sausage, bread, ham and cheese. That day’s hike started with continuing through the jungle along Inca stones, parallel to a cliff edge. I assume if there aren’t clouds that there might have been a nice view for that section, but we’ll never know. My favorite part was seeing a sign for a viewpoint but behind it was a curtain of white.

The trail had a really gradual up and occasional Inca tunnels. Those were short, but very cool. In total we saw 3 Inca ruins on the way to camp. We saw the best flowers of our entire hike; there were so many types at all levels of the jungle. Some were on the ground barely above the moss, others were on vines hanging over the path, and some were even higher up almost hidden in the leaves. Many trees were covered in thick mosses, too, reminded us of Olympic National Park in Washington.

The 1st ruin, Phuyupatamarca, was small and barely visible due to the thick fog and mist. There were some terraces and our guide told us it was used as a resting spot for messengers and for growing. Not too long after we arrived at the 2nd ruin, Intipata, which was super stunning. There were so many terraces and steps, a view of the valley and river below, and several multicolored llamas foraging on the terraces. I decided (stupidly) to ascend all the stairs to see the view from the top. It was so misty that the view from the top looking down was just white, but from the sides I could see the cloud forest peaking out from the fog. There were some ruins of buildings at the top, but it was 99% terraces.

There were several opportunities for me to take amazing photos of the llamas, but our guide ruined those each time. Although he does this hike every week he went in front of us and did selfies with each llama until they turned around. Very annoying. Nick seemed to get better ones since he was hanging out in the back and waited for them to re-position themselves. On our way past the ruins we saw an Andean turkey in one of the trees. The view from the bottom was fantastic, as well, we could get a better sense of how many stairs and terraces there were.

We arrived to camp early and dropped our bags. After that we headed about 10 minutes past camp to our 3rd ruin of the day, Winay Wayna. According to another group of hikers we had just missed a toucan (pretty bummed about that one). Winay Wayna was my personal favorite of the entire hike (including Machu Picchu). The structures were the most intact we had seen, with just the doors and ceilings missing. Essentially anything built from stone was nearly perfect. The terraces were round and not straight, which was also pretty. Our guide told us that the Incas built with the mountain shape so many terraces are adapted to the mountain they are on. The ruins had many flowers and a waterfall in the distance. It was pretty busy with hikers coming up to Machu Picchu from the other direction, the trail that was just 2 days rather than 4 on the Inca trail. We ended up hanging out there after lunch, too, and then we had it all to ourselves (like usual).

Lunch was mushroom ceviche, chicha morada with apple, pasta soup, beef, quinoa, corn and cheese, and stuffed mashed potatoes. Later in the evening our fika was popcorn as usual and a full cake with icing and all. The campsite had showers so we each bravely took our glacier fed ice showers. Nick had to hold the door closed for me as it opened on its own. The process reminded me of the childhood song “The Hokey Pokey” as only one body part would be in the water at a time before immediately coming out, followed by intense shivering. Dinner was semolina soup, fried eggplant, fried chicken, and vegetables. We went to bed early as our wake up for the next day was 3:30am. At first I was shocked because it sounded like our porters were watching porn next to our tent, but then it became obvious it was just a Soap Opera. Eerily similar sounding at times, though. Luckily they didn’t watch for long so we could all get some rest.

Every morning up until Day 7 the routine had been the same. We get up, someone brought us a cup of coca tea, we would pack our belongings and leave them on a tarp, eat breakfast and then head off on the trail. The morning of Day 7 was supposed to be only slightly different. The wake up was of course much earlier, and instead of eating breakfast in the tent we would get a packed breakfast for the trail. Although the porters had several hours (more than enough time) to catch their train located at the bottom of the trail from camp, they were in a huge rush. To be honest, it made the last morning extremely unpleasant. I got my coca tea, left to go the bathroom and when I returned they had already dumped it and taken the cup. I was gone maybe 2 minutes. The stress continued as I sat in our tent packing my belongings (with still over 30 minutes left before our scheduled departure time). The porters constantly came and shook the tent, saying in Spanish it was time to go and I needed to hurry up.

Our departure time was scheduled to be 4:10am but due to the morning pressure on us we left earlier. We joined the already long line in front of the ranger station; the trail leading to the Sun Gate is strictly monitored as only a certain number of people may enter in a day. Behind us the line grew longer and we waited over an hour for the ranger to arrive at 5:30am. We really don’t understand why lining up that early was necessary.

The trail to the Sun Gate, the first area where we could theoretically see Machu Picchu, was short and easy. In front of us were many large groups moving at a snail’s pace so we passed them whenever the trail allowed. Most people didn’t mind that as it was the same as the rest of the hike. There were others, however, who really didn’t like that at all, who probably felt like since they were ahead in line they should be first to the gate. Thankfully those people had a guide who made them stop at a rest place, which allowed for us to go past. It took us about 40 minutes to get to our destination and the rainy season reputation was accurate. The view where we maybe could’ve seen Machu Picchu was completely white with clouds. The Sun Gate was also packed with people, all of whom had done the Inca trail. Sitting up there taking a break wasn’t all bad, though, as there was service so Nick was able to check on his fantasy football just in time for the upcoming games.

At 7:15am we called it quits (after about an hour) on waiting for Machu Picchu to appear. We made our way down the trail, which occasionally gave very foggy glimpses of Machu Picchu. Our guide had permits for Circuit 3-B, but on the way from the Sun Gate we had to go through Circuit 1 to exit. Exiting was apparently necessary for both toilets and getting our permits checked. That portion of our experience was disappointing however, as only Circuit 1 & 2 have access to the iconic postcard photo spots. Our guide never said a word about that and since it was foggy (at the moment we were there) he urged us to continue to the exit. Once past it there is no going back so we missed our opportunity to take photos there. Nick and I had permits to go back the next day, but Jason, our hiking companion, was only there that day so we felt bad for him.

Circuit 3-B went inside Machu Picchu. The fog cleared once we were down inside, which was great because we could see all the ruins perfectly. The ruins felt similar to many others we had been to, just much bigger and with more buildings. To be honest, I think the surrounding mountains are what made the place feel more special and beautiful rather than the ruins themselves. I think some of the ruins we saw on the trail were more interesting. One big downside of Machu Picchu is the crowds, wow, so many people! It was very cool to see another Wonder of the World, though. We enjoyed our time there a lot.

By 10:25am it was time to catch our bus down to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu. The shuttle was about 30 minutes of switch backs down the steep mountain. We said goodbye to our guide and Jason, who would both be taking the train and shuttle back to Cusco that afternoon. I had booked us a hotel in town so we could have an extra day in Machu Picchu for additional hiking. For lunch we had some amazing burgers from Fruti Rolls, with plantain and eggs on top. Nick had a frozen limeade and I had a frozen passion fruit drink. They made them by just blending the fruits with sugar and ice. They were so refreshing.

The town had a certain charm to it, surprising for a town that is 100% tourism based. Our hotel was a 1 minute walk away from the local hot springs, but was also at the very top of the town so getting there involved lots of uphill walking. Nick and I soaked in the various hot springs for about 1 hour. The views from there were spectacular, with many plants and mountains nearby. The water, however, was not super hot. They were more like slightly above room temperature springs. They were pretty crowded, too, but a fun experience after 7 days of hiking.

The day before, we had asked our guide about if the shuttles to Machu Picchu had long lines during October. He assured us they did not and even told us not to show up too early and have a sleep in. Wow was he wrong. I haven’t mentioned it much in the blog thus far, but we had a ton of communication issues with out guide. It felt like he memorized the script for the hike, but then couldn’t answer any follow up questions. It was frustrating to say the least. Our permits were for 8:00am and they allow for a 45 minute grace period to enter. The shuttle line lasted about 45 minutes and luckily we showed up early at 7:10am just in case. Once the shuttle arrived to the entrance, we joined the next line of 40 minutes and were able to get onto Circuit 1-A before our cut off, thank God.

We started our day by doing a quick loop of the classic Circuit 1 trail that everyone with a Circuit 1 permit has access too (there are various Circuit 1 permit types). We took some foggy photos with Machu Picchu at the postcard spot (that we missed out on the day before). By 9:00am we started our hike for the day, Machu Picchu Mountain. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to the top. The trail was made of stone steps of various steepness levels the entire way up. On the ascent, Machu Picchu was rarely visiible due to the amount of clouds rolling in. The trail itself was pretty, though, with only a few groups on it. We also saw a tarantula wasp, big and blue, super scary.

Once we made it to the top the clouds rolled out and we could see the tiny Machu Picchu below. Photos had to wait awhile though as a bug flew into my eye and there was a hilarious 10 minutes where I was one-eyed eating my snacks. Eventually, my eye stopped hurting enough for some photos (although I couldn’t get the bug out). A nice stranger took great photos of us together, too, which was super nice. The moment we turned to descend the trail, clouds rolled in and completely covered the view yet again. The weather changes so fast in the mountains. On the hike down we saw a few nice flowers, and finally stopped dripping sweat like we had been on the way up.

Since we had time after the mountain hike, we continued along Circuit 1 for a second time. I don’t think that’s typically allowed; we were happy the permit checker was on his phone and waved us through. The weather was much nicer than it was earlier in the day so we got much better photos. At one point a school group came down to the platform we were on and each wanted a photo with both Nick and I. Everyone took turns and we posed for dozens of photos, they were all so excited. After that wholesome experience it was time for us to join the long shuttle line to get back to town for a quick lunch.

Lunch was at the same burger spot before heading to the train station. There were many scenic trains with lots of windows heading to Ollantaytambo. The train ride was about 2 hours long and the process to board was pretty smooth. Our train car was us and about 40 people all 50+ in a group tour with matching T-Shirts. They were super energetic and seemed to be having a hoot together. The views were of jungle, farms, cacti, flowers, berries, corn fields, ruins, mountains, and some glaciers in the distance. Once we arrived we had to wait about 20 minutes for the next train, which had the rest of the people sharing our company’s shuttle back to Cusco. For dinner we had passion fruit soft serve ice cream and amazing beef hearts on a stick from a food cart. After that we were so happy to check back into our hotel and sleep in. It was an incredible 8 days of hiking, that’s for sure.