Not sure if I can get this all in one post so I think I’ll break it up.
I decided to do the Inca Jungle hike, which was a 4-day/3-night hike/bike combo. I would have liked to do the fabled ‘Inca Trail’ trek (the most well known hike to Machu Picchu (MP)) but the trail has been backed up for months in booking due to the mud slides.
For those who aren’t familiar with MP, here is the wiki- HERE
Anyways, my friend decided to do another trek, the Salkantay (sp?), which was a 5-day/4-night hike. My guide told me that it was harder than the one I took…he said that in rankings of difficulty it was:
-some one I never heard of (nor can remember)
-Salkantay
-Inca Trail
-Inca Jungle
-Lares Trek
For some of the main treks to MP.
Day 1-
Anyways, the first day was just all biking, primarily down hill. It was fairly soft all around…we bussed to the top of a mountain, something like 4000 meters (m) up, with the plan to bike down for maybe 6 hours. The bikes were a bit ghetto but whatever…the weather was really nice, though, everyone was dressed in long sleeved shirts/jeans…I whispered “pussies” as I wore shorts and a t-shirt, chuckling to myself at how these people thought this was “cold” weather.
My group consisted of 12 people, which was rather large…usually these trips are 6-8 people but due to people signing up with agencies (with no other sign ups), they just melded all of us together in one super group (I think that these agencies just sell the contract to other companies). Our group was very diverse, with 4 South Africans, 2 Dutch, 2 Germans, 2 Americans, and 1 English/1 Welsh (we were later joined by 2 Canucks).
Anyways, I was able to get some cool pictures- the scenery on this trip was absolutely incredible throughout.
Anyways, yeah, biking was awesome. The first bit was very smooth, as the road was all asphalt/paved. It was very relaxing capturing the scenery, great weather, and going down at a pretty fast pace.
The second part of the biking trip was much different. We went over dirt roads, many of them very unkempt. The ‘danger’ factor was significantly increased, especially given the narrow roads/oncoming trucks/poor equipment. With that said, it was still very fun…the biking was very bumpy and more ‘extreme’. I was hauling ass and followed our guide too closely, eating huge shit when he braked suddenly.
We ended around 3 p.m., which sucked given how early it was…We killed a few hours eating and drinking at the tiny town (Santa Maria) and prepared for the next day.
Day 2-
We woke up early, something like 5:30 a.m., ready to go by 6 a.m. We were to do 28km that day with a mix of both flat/inclined road/trail.
It was pretty tough…I think it’s the longest I’ve walked in a day. It started fairly flat but we would wind in and out of the mountain through steep trails and valleys.
I’m glad I packed fairly light…many people packed a ton of shit and ended up paying for it huge during the hikes. Like day 1, the scenery was just incredible…walking in the jungle along the narrow paths while observing hidden ruins…just great. The weather was pretty awesome as well.
So around 12 noon we stopped in a tiny mountain town…there were dozens of these tiny villages that are supported by tourists going through. They could also charge $2-$3 a water bottle as well because frankly, we’re going to pay for it.
They had these weird chained animals-
We continued to hike. This was a really long day and we went up some steep trails. Here is one where the trail was fairly soft and showed some of the group-
So those are some shots of some of the basic trails…those were pretty nice compared to some of the rest.
We got into the hostel in Santa Theresa around 4 or so, tired as all hell. Everyone smelled like ass and was super hungry. We were happy to hear that the next day had few hard climbs and most of it was flat land hiking. We also only had to do around 20km or so until we arrived in Agua Calientes, the main base town for MP.
Sorry this is so long…Day 3 and 4 (MP) coming tomorrow (or later today, depending on how motivated I am).