The original plan was to do the famous Inca Trail hike up to Machu Pichu, but the authorities only issue 500 permits per day now and it was sold-out. Instead, we decided to do the Salkantay Trek a couple valleys over.
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The hike began at about 2900m in the village of Mollepata. We quickly started to climb up into the green hills of this area.
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It quickly became clear that some people in our group of six were not completely prepared for a tough three-day hike at above 3000m. This first break is only one hour from the start...
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Another 1.5 hours of hiking and we were starting to get some good views. Dianne was a little winded but still in good spirits :)
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This is our first glimpse of the big white mountains. I think this is Humantay which we could see from our lunch spot.
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A condor passing over.
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Most of this first day was actually on a decent dirt road. We didn't see many cars, but some do pass this road, and apparently some go over the cliff.
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Much better photo of Humantay as we approach our camp for the first night.
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A lone horse comes walking toward us along the road. We didn't see many other people on the trail this first day. In fact, there were a couple other groups, but they had driven partway up the road ahead of us.
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Dianne and Mei navigate he first water crossing.
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Humantay is beckoning us onward as the sky gets clearer as we approach the camp up on the right.
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Just in case you wondered… yes, I was there!
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As we came up to the clearing, Humantay, with an altitude of 5473m still looked pretty cool, but our target for tomorrow, Salkantay at 6264m started too look more impressive.
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This is one of a series of luxury Mountain Lodges on this route. Supposedly it costs $1000 a night to stay, but I think they only way to get in is to sign-up for the full luxury hike. Out camp is the blue tarp in the distance!
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I thought the tin roof and protection from the wind was kinda cheating, but it came in handy later in the evening when a ridiculous rain and hail storm rolled into Soray Pampa.
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Similar to my hike up Kilimanjaro, this three-day trek came with a five-star cook. We had popcorn upon arrival, followed by hearty soups, and really amazing camping food.
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