The Salkantay Trek Begins

Views are always better when you earn them. Stopping on the side of a highway to look at a scenic overview is nice, but when you climb the mountain to reach the view, it’s just somehow more majestic.

Fran and I at the trek's starting point

When we decided to travel to Machu Picchu, we wanted to earn it. The Inca Trail can fill at least six months in advance, and shockingly when we booked two weeks ago there were no spots available. We did a little research and discovered the “other” hikes to Machu Picchu, including one that gets rave reviews from many people and publications (including National Geographic).

That’s how we decided on the Salkantay Trail. A friend recommended Wayki Treks, a company run by indigenous people and that treats its staff well, along with giving part of each hiker’s fees back to the communities we traversed.

The trip started at 6 a.m., when a van picked up each of the eight hikers. The group was young and energetic – with perhaps the exception of an old man who was many years older than everyone else, including the guide, Ruben.

Old age be damned. I was ready to go.

After a two-hour trip through cloud forests and up to Mollepata, we loaded up our daypacks and started at 2,850 meters.

The first day was only about seven miles, but it was a steep climb up to the base of Salkantay glacier at 4,000 meters, where we would camp for the first night.

One big benefit of this trek over the Inca Trail is that our bags were loaded onto horses, and our tents were ready to go when we arrived at each campsite.

This site was beautiful, in a valley with glaciers rising all around us. There were chinchillas leaping around the rocks across the way. We ventured up boulders to the top of nearby cliff to watch the sunset.

Ruben warned us that we needed warm clothes. He wasn’t lying. The air was cool before the sun began to set, and that’s when the biting cold descended.

I’ve camped in some cold weather, but it got down well below freezing. It was easily in the 20s and may have slipped to the teens.

Camp viewed from above

We huddled in the dining tent, where our cook, Flavio, served up something way too delicious to be eaten while camping (we did not complain). At one point, we decided to head out to look at the stars. They were breathtaking. But we lasted about 30 seconds in those temperatures and called it a night around 8 p.m.

My sleeping bag is good to about zero degrees, but I still stuffed my fleece and several other clothes to the bottom in order to keep my feet warm. And my entire body was wrapped inside the mummy bag without so much as a breathing hole.

We woke to one of the porters offering us coca tea, which is supposed to help altitude sickness and, from what I understand, just about every other malady we might have been suffering. I have no idea if it works, but any warm drink at that moment sounded sublime.

The tents all had a coating of ice in the morning, and the ground was completely frozen. That second part was actually nice because we had hiked in through soggy mud, which was between us and some rocks that served as an ideal restroom. The guides set up a “toilet tent” in camp, which was literally two feet by two feet with a shallow hole in the middle. Let’s just say, I preferred the trip to the rocks, especially on solid ground.

The part of the group that wasn't sick the first day.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was kind enough to give Fran the cold I’d suffered through, and the cold night did not help. The rest of us got at least a little sleep during the 10 hours we were buried in our sleeping bags, but I’m pretty sure Fran suffered through the night, coughing and miserable.

That would not prove ideal for Day 2 of the hike. 

Getting ready for Day 2