Salkantay Trek

We were on the bus at 4.30 in the morning headed for the town of Mollepata, and the begining of the trek. In Mollepata we handed over our sleeping bags and other gear to the horsemen, who packed them onto the mules. Mollepata is at 2900m, and our destination for the 1st night was Soraypampa at 3850m. The walking was steady, and the climb gentle in most parts.
As we ate lunch we watched the rain clouds gathering in the valley ahead, behind us was sunshine and blue skies. The first rain came as we pulled into our campground and settled into our tents. We ate dinner all the time watching the weather outside as the temperature gradually decreased.
The next morning we were woken with a cup of mate de coca at 5.30am. In the night the rain had turned to snow. SNOW, on the day that we had to cross the pass. We waited to see if the snow would clear, and when it became aparrant that it was with us for the duration we slipped into our bin liner ponchos and started the climb to the pass.
The initial trail had us gaining elevation quickly, but soon leveled out into a beautiful white valley where we stopped to catch our breath. The trail followed the river and dissapeared ahead of us into the clouds.
The next hour was a constant climb on switchbacks that zig-zaged endlessly. I ended up on my ass as a group of mules came barreling down the trail and tried to take me with them. We took a short break by a lake, a break that involved standing around shovelling biscuits into our faces and trying to stay warm. We built a snowman and talked about making snow angels, but it was too cold to lay in the snow.
After 4 1/2 hours of climbing in constant snow we made it to the pass at 4600m. On the pass our guide lead us in a ceremony to thank the mountain for our safe travels. All of us had carried a stone with us, we held it in our right hand. In our left hand we held a coca leaf. We faced the mountain and (in our best Quechua) said "Thank you Mountain Salkantay". One by one we placed our coca leaves on the ground with the stone on top of them, forming a small cairn. The passes in the Andes are marked by these cairns as travellers bring stones as offerings to the mountains. We had made it to the highest point on our trek. It was time to start heading down.
The trail descended from the pass into Cloud Forest, as we moved further from the pass, the snow turned to rain and the trail turned into a mud bath. The mud was inches deep. The Cloud Forest is beautiful. There are orchids and bromeliads in the trees, the sounds of birds overhead and the squelch of our feet below.
The second camp was in a beautiful valley, the air was warmer and we went to bed feeling warm (if not quite dry) and happy that the hardest day was behind us.
The third day continued through muddy trails in the forest. The rain had ended and given way to bright blue skies. It was a relatively short day (only 14kms) to our camp, and we made it in time for lunch.
In the afternoon I settled into a slow yoga and stretching routine. Michael and the boys decided to play 5 a side with the cooks and our guide. Two hours later Michael returned, cursing himself for getting talked into another game! We slept well.
Our final day of hiking was to take us to our first view of Machu Picchu. The original stones of the Inka trails are impressive and filled us with a sense of purpose. There we were, at an Inka checkpoint looking over the valley at our destination, Machu Picchu.