Jessica, Erik, Heather and I headed out on a 5 day Salkantay trek at 4.30am on Wednesday morning. It was a cold morning in Cusco. We walked 21km the first day to a height of 4300m. We camped in cold tents at minus 5 degrees but the view of the Salkantay mountain (the snow capped one above) made up for it. The next day was the toughest. 21km hike up to 4900m altitude. The long steep climb to the peak saw the best of us out of breath and the worst hyperventilating. It was a triumph to get to the top, but it was freezing.
The decent was pretty tough on the knees for me and we were going at such a speed that we arrived 1 1/2 hrs early. The guides said we made it in record time. I was exhausted.
The next two days are a bit of a blur. Lower, warmer, shorter. Then the fourth night we stayed in a hostel. It felt like luxury to have a shower and a bed but the 4am start wasn't so luxurious.
In order to get a pass to be able to climb Wainu Pichu - the tallest mountain at Machu Pichu - you need to ensure you're in the first 400 people to get to the entrance. This means climbing the 2000 steps to the entrance at speed at 5am. Not fun! WP was def. worth it though. The views were just spectacular. Hope the pic uploads this time!
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