How to fit five days worth of walking and sight seeing into three days:

1) Go it alone,

2) Don’t take breaks,

3) Try to keep up with the locals on the uphills,

4) Pack more chocolate than you think you need – it still won’t be enough. 

The famous Inca Trail to Machu Pichu is expensive and sells out around six months in advance. The Salkantay Trail is its lesser known but very popular cousin which I’d heard great things about and you could book a tour last minute or go unguided. Our successful Santa Cruz trek inspired me to take it on without a guide so after a bus to Lima and a flight to Cusco I spent Tuesday afternoon buying/renting/gathering everything I’d need for four days and three nights of hiking and visiting Machu Pichu. 

The normal guided tour takes five full days but I’d decided to skip the first 10km by taking a taxi as far up the hill as possible from where the bus dropped me at Mollepata. So my plan was three days of hiking and one day to see the ruins and travel back to Cusco by train. 

Day 1 – Cusco – Soraypampa- Collipapampa (20km)

Wednesday morning my alarm went off at 3.30am and I was out the gap by 3.45. The first collectivos leave at 4am from the end of Avenida Arcopata which luckily was right beside my hostel. These vans cost 15 soles and don’t leave until they’re full which wasn’t until 4.30 in this case – we arrived in Mollepata at 6.30. After some quick but relatively unsuccessful bartering with a taxi driver we agreed he’d take me to Soraypampa for 80 soles (around 20 euro). I shared the taxi with two locals who I’m pretty sure paid him about 10 soles each, maybe even less – no worries guys, this one’s on the gringa. 

No hard feelings though as one of them was a woman who would be hiking the Salkantay pass too and after walking off ahead of me she suddenly turned around and handed me a walking stick she’d pulled out of a bush. Gracias! I gave her some dry bread and unripe banana as a token of my appreciation. She spoke no English and I no Spanish but we chatted for a while – I’m sure non-sensically to anyone who could understand both languages. The trail goes upwards almost immediately and I being a foreigner with an obscenely large backpack compared to this local carrying hardly anything our paces didn’t quite match. She would take breaks but usher me to keep going and every time she caught me would take another break. But I wasn’t allowed to stop! Slowly but surely (slowly compared to this lady – I’d like to note that I was faster than a lot of other tourists with tiny daypacks, just saying) I made it to the top which is 4600m and gave her a big hug for pushing me up the hill. 

I needed to eat something so I told her to go on ahead as we’d be separating on the trail soon anyway. She asked a tour guide to look after me and he agreed but I scooted off without him after I’d eaten some chocolate as I didn’t want to get caught up waiting for a group. 

The next four hours were all downhill and the scenery was spectacular as I moved away from the glacier covered pass and down towards the jungle. 

The track was dusty and even though I’d promised myself lunch at midday there was nowhere decent to stop without getting molested by sand flies. I kept going until I made it to Collipapampa at 2pm where I collapsed in a dusty, sweaty heap and ate the rest of my bread with some cheese and a cold coke I bought from the girl running the campsite. It was very early to stop walking but as far as my research could tell me the next campsite at La Playa was 3.5 hours away. I was not up for that so decided to stay put and have a nap. The campsite had WiFi so I shot some “I’m safe” messages home and passed out until 5pm when I woke up and had some hot chocolate with a Belgian couple who were also trekking alone. I made my dinner and went back to sleep at around 8pm.

Day 2 – Collipapampa – Llactapata (23km)

5.30am alarm after a very solid I-don’t-even-know how many hours of sleep was not too awful at all and I bounced out of my tent to start making my porridge. By 7.05am I was fed, packed up and making my way down the road for the trail to the town of La Playa where I arrived three hours later. After La Playa I had a choice to make, take the road to Santa Teresa which was considered a boring but easy walk or climb for 3 hours to Llactapata. Santa Teresa had hot springs but Llactapata was supposed to have amazing views and scenery. I turned right for the beautiful climb and after a while four locals in matching Alpaca Tour outfits pulled out onto the trail just in front of me. I kept up with them while the incline was moderate and eventually the one at the back noticed me and started to chat. His name was Carlos and he was a tour guide. They’d let their gringos head off up the trail on their own earlier in the morning while he, the other guide and the porters rested for a couple of hours. Now they were marching up the hill to catch their group at the top, and I was going with them. Again I had a local pushing me up a climb at a pace I had no business maintaining with the size of the pack on my back. After a while I was slowing and we lost the others but Carlos waited with me and encouraged me all the way up. We caught them again having a beer stop near the top but by the time we got there they were ready to go so only a small rest for me. We got up to the top by 1.30pm and after a 15 minute descent finally made it to camp. The view was pretty bloody spectacular. 

I was shattered. I managed to eat some crackers, cheese and avocado, chat to some of the people in Carlos’ tour group and have a very cold shower before falling asleep in my tent for far too long. I woke up sometime after 6 and it was already dark – oops. Made my pasta, ate my pasta and got back into my sleeping bag to read for a bit and eat Saturday’s chocolate bars. Saturday Sinead would have to deal with that one as Thursday Sinead was too hungry to care. Another tour group had arrived and built a fire rather near my tent……it didn’t set me alight luckily and by the time they put it out and gone to bed at around 10pm I was ready for another sleep. 

Day 3 – Llactapata – Aguas Calientes (15km) – Machu Pichu – Cusco 

I got up at 6am in no real rush as today would be a relatively easy day. 4 hours of downhill/flatish walking to Aguas Calientes which is the town beneath Machu Pichu. I would spend the afternoon chilling out and organising myself for the visit to the ruins the following day. I wondered if I should try to do it all today……naaaah that would be mental. 

So I set off at 7.15 and made it to Hydroelectrica by 8.45 where it’s possible to take a train the rest of the way. I opted to walk alongside the train track which was a beautiful jaunt through a valley surrounded by jungle covered mountains. Pretty surreal to be honest. 

I arrived at a campsite beside the gate to Machu Pichu at around 11, set up my tent and jumped inside to eat my lunch away from the flies that had descended as soon as I stopped walking. Still I wondered if I could do Machu Pichu today and get back to Cusco tonight so I walked into town to ask about changing my train ticket which indeed I could. Success. Off to the Machu Pichu ticket office I went to see if they still had tickets for today. They did! And what’s more, they would be 25% cheaper because I’d be going in after 1pm. Double success. I bought a small shoulder bag in the market to carry my valuables as they were currently hanging from my wrist in a plastic shopping bag. I successfully haggled with the boy on the stall who couldn’t have been more than 10 years old and as I was transferring my things from the plastic to the real bag I spotted my last chocolate bar and handed it to him. Delighted with himself he gave me a little Peruvian pin in return. Triple success.

Pretty pleased with myself I headed off for the steps to Machu Pichu at midday. It was hot. I was a sweaty mess by the time I got to the entrance 50 minutes later but I’d made it and I spent a good two hours wandering up to the Sun Gate, the Inca Bridge and having a look around the rest of the ruins. They’really amazing but I can’t help thinking that they do look a bit like the house my granny grew up in back in Connemara…… 

I flew back down the steps dreaming of cold Coke and pizza, packed my tent back into my bag and marched quickly back up into town to horse some food into me before my 5.23pm train. 

Doing the Salkantay unguided is very doable and gives you the freedom to decide your route and change plans as you fancy. I enjoyed doing it alone but I’m sure a few good quality hiking pals would have made the experience even more pleasant. I was very well acclimatised after doing Santa Cruz and I’m also still a bit strong after all the training I did this year – I wouldn’t recommend the three day option unless you’re very used to carrying a pack or were a very stubborn mule in a past life like me. 

Oh, and wear long trousers. My legs and the legs of anyone who wore shorts on the trail have been destroyed by insect bites……

I went to Rainbow Mountain today which was pretty cool and now I’m waiting for a bus to take me to La Paz. Felt right at home in the high vis today!