#adventuresofambian

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Final days of the Salkantay Trek, sin guia.

On the third morning we arose, and said holy crap what did we just do. We realized that we had this absolutely aching hunger as for the first time in his life; Ian went to bed without eating dinner. That was how exhausted we were from the previous two days.

The day before we had heard the guides promising their groups that the next day was all on the road, and it was, yet when we consulted our handy dandy GPS topographic maps over the first 5 km you lost another 1 km of altitude. Hearing this both of our knees told us to piss off and we re-evaluated our situation. The third days trek was supposed to be to the town of La Playa, however given the shape our bodies were in, when our host Andre suggested that there was a collectivo to La Playa we just about jumped in pure excitement.

We spent 15 soles each and piled into the collectivo, and are still thrilled about our decision. We took massive switchbacks coming down that 1 km, passing the groups who were walking on the road, and about 30 minutes into the drive the clouds opened up and it started to pour. Not a constant drizzle but a heavy, you are now in the jungle, kind of rain. Driving on this road was nuts, as the number of waterfalls we went under and rivers that we crossed was huge. We felt as if any second we may get swept off and into the raging river below.

We safely reached La Playa and the rain was still torrentially falling. The original plan was that we were to go from La Playa to Llacapata (another Mayan site) and camp there, however one of the groups guides warned us that this route was ‘mucho mas arriba por 3 horas’. Given how much it was raining and how much neither of us wanted to go up or down anymore we perked up when the driver of the collectivo said we could get to Santa Theresa for another 10 soles each.

In Santa Theresa there were hot springs, and that sounded like heaven to us at this point. So we hopped in another collectivo and went for it. The driver was fantastic and dropped us off at one of the places to camp in town. This place usually had an open field for folks to camp, but the lady (and us) were concerned about doing that with all the rain, so she let us set up our tent under a covered area they had. We had room to string up our line and begin to let our world dry out. We parked it for two nights here for 5 soles per night (the cheapest we had found yet), and the day after arriving treated ourselves to 4 hours soaking, floating, and being content in the hot springs (for 10 soles each a person).

It turns out that when you are on a tour, you walk the road from Chaullay to La Playa then a bus picks you up and drives you to Santa Theresa and the same people from the groups we saw in our journey ended up staying at the same place we were at.

The other thing that we learned later, on Machu Picchu, was from a couple from Washington State in the USA. They did the Salkantay on their own as well, and did the trek up to Llacapata where we all had read that there would be places to camp and things open for you to buy food at. They said it was a pretty miserable hike up in the rain, and when they arrived the place was a ghost town, nowhere to find food, and the person in charge of the place they camped was a 5 year-old who was on their own. After hearing all of this we are incredibly happy with our choice to head to La Playa, and chalk this up to another thing that is due to rainy season.

On the fifth day we got rolling on our journey to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) bright and early. The knees still weren’t feeling great so we decided to take a collectivo from Santa Theresa to Hidroelectrica for 5 soles a piece and then walk the last 14 km from there, as you can either walk or pay quite a bit of money for the train. The final hike in to Aguas Calientes was wonderful: the scenery is beautiful, there was no rain, there was sun, and because you are walking the railroad tracks into town it is a nice gentle grade. The only stressful bit of that hike is running through train tunnels trying to dodge the trains.

As we left at 5:30 AM from Santa Theresa, we casually rolled in to Aguas Calientes at 9 AM after our lovely walk up the train tracks. We got settled at our AirBnB (which again was absolutely fantastic to use in Peru) and had probably the longest and hottest shower of our lives.

At the end of the day our costs over those final 3 days were 60 soles in collectivos, 50 soles per day in food (150 total), 20 soles for the hot springs, 10 soles camping in Santa Theresa and $22 CAD for our AirBnB. Averaging out to about $40/day. Given that over the 5 days we spent approximately $200 CAD, the cheapest Salkantay Trek tour is $170 USD ($230 CAD) we saved quite a bit of money doing it on our own. Although our Machu Picchu tickets were not included in this ($160 CAD for the two of us to do the Wayna Picchu at 10 AM) we are still coming our ahead by at least $100 CAD. PLUS tour companies don’t let you upgrade to Wayna Picchu tickets, and that was a must for us to do.

Pictures from our amazing day at Machu Picchu are up next so be sure to check back for them! Here is one last teaser, as atop this beautiful rock face is Wayna Picchu, and tucked in behind is Machu Picchu. You can't see any of it from the river and tracks, but knowing it is there grows the anticipation.

Love always, AL + Ian

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Salkantay Trek without a guide: Day #2

We started Day #2 with a spring in our step as we thought there was no way that Day #2 could be any harder than Day #1.

Everyone should now insert their maniacal, silly children laugh here.

There are fewer photos on this post because we took very few photos, as we were just that exhausted.

The day began at 5:30 AM as we packed up all of our gear and tried to get ourselves on the trail. We felt rather confident as we started out between two tour groups that we managed to keep pace with. As we gained the first 300 m of elevation for the day the clouds and fog in the valley began to lift and we stumbled into a beautiful grassy meadow at the foot of Nevado Salkantay, and the structures at Salkantaypampa.

And if you haven't been following us before and seen this picture yet, here is the beautiful Nevado Salkantay from Salkantaypampa.

At this point we were in grand spirits and with this heavenly view how could we not be! However, soon after setting off from Salkantaypampa the fog and the clouds crowded back in and took away our inspiring view. With that gone, it was hard going up the final 400 m in elevation to get to the Abra Salkantay.

Carrying our packs and doing the trek alone at this point seemed like a terrible idea as the route was fairly steep, and each breath left you gasping for more air. Reaching the top was so lightening both emotionally and physically (as we shed our packs for some photos).

Although the fog and clouds were still socked in, we began to hear the rolling and crashing of avalanches echoing down the valley (that is if you could hear them between our gasps of breath). Although we were never treated to the sight of them the sounds will be forever etched into our memories.

Now up to this point our day had been fairly pleasant (we use fairly as a very liberal term). The 7 km and 700 m gained in elevation took us until about 11:30, with plenty of snack breaks, view breaks, and catching our freaken breath breaks. What followed was less than pleasant. This is the part of the trek that we really wish that we had been with a group and a donkey was carrying our bags.

Over the next 15 km we descended 1.8 km of altitude, ending at Chaullay (2850 m). It was a constant downhill that would be hard on the body not carrying any weight. We slowly caught up to and were then passed again by the tour groups, as they would break for warm food and tea, while we were snacking on nuts and dried fruit in the cold. This side of the pass was much colder than the other side, and we are incredibly happy for all the warm (yet soaked) layers that we had with us. Even with all these layers, the constant drizzle and biting wind made the first 10 km of the descent very uncomfortable.

One of the other things that no tour group will ever tell you, nor will you find on anyone else's blog posts, is that during rainy season the "path" that you walk down to get to Chaullay is not a path, but stream at most points and river at the others. Our water proof hiking boots were no match for being submerged for the better part of 6 hours.

The way down was immensely harder mentally than the climb. Our bodies were aching and both of our knees were not enjoying the constant downhill to say the least. The hardest mental hurdle was that for the first 14 km of that descent there was nowhere to camp that we wouldn't become popsicles overnight with the constant rain and crippling wind. We had no choice but to move forward, one rock at a time through the stream and make it to Chaullay. The descent did warm up a bit, and we entered into the high jungle on the rock slopes. Many more waterfalls rushed down around us, but we were too tired and too focused on our end goal of cover and safety to pay attention.

Upon arrival in town, we made it to the first door we came to and asked for a place to camp. Andre, had smaller shelters than our luxurious space at Sorraypampa, however it was perfect for the night and had a very beautiful view the following morning.

At the end of the day our costs were 10 soles for our little tent covering yurt at Andres, and 50 soles for food (brought with us from Cusco) for a grand total of 60 soles or about $24 CAD.

Here are our major lessons for Day #2 of the Salkantay Trek without a guide:

1.

Start early, there is nothing fun about chasing daylight to get to your destination in the Andes.

2.

Waterproof hiking boots, even though ours soaked through doing that trip during rainy season in runners would be a disaster.

3.

For those of you that have bad knees, a) take the drugs before and b) think about a tour group where the donkey gets to do all the heavy lifting.

4.

Find strength together. More of a philosophical and emotional point, but most definitely the most important. Adventuring solo shows you who you can rely on to get you through the toughest of times.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Salkantay journey, as well as the stunning Machu Picchu.

Love always, AL + Ian

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Salkantay Trek without a guide: Day #1

Now that we are a little bit warmer (only a little bit) in La Paz, Bolivia and have somewhat of a decent WiFi connection, it is time to share our experience about doing the Salkantay Trek without a guide.

Before we set out on this excursion, as there is not a lot of information available about doing this trek on your own, we spent quite a bit of time checking blogs and talking to tour companies about the trek. We also spent $25 CAD and bought a GPS software for our phone (Gaia GPS) that has topographic maps, and allows you to plan routes…etc.

Starting the trek we quickly realized a couple things:

1.

All the tour companies advertise that they start in a town called Mollepata, however they don’t, they start 6 km past and 500 m higher in altitude than Mollepata at a place called Mocashqo.

2.

Anyone who has actually done the trek on their own and blogged about it, has done it in dry season. We, happened to be smack dab in the middle of wet season.

Here we go!

Day #1 We woke up at 4:00 in the morning, left our AirBnB and went to the street (Arcopata) where the collectivos leave to go to Mollepata. On our way we nimbly were dodging drunk Peruvians stumbling out of the clubs, and also dodging the puddles of piss on the ground on the bar street. We also managed to pick up a little female dog who was in heat and being chased by two males, we must have looked like salvation to her and she became our best friend for the next little bit. The collectivo (15 soles per person) to Mollepata starts loading at 5:00 AM so we were there right on time, but it doesn’t leave until there are 11 people. So! In this lies challenge #1 for our day – we didn’t actually leave Cusco until 6:30 AM and weren’t on our feet and walking until 9 AM, about an hour behind what we had hoped for.

Challenge #2 didn’t show its face until we had already completed the first 6 km of our trek and gained 500 m in altitude going from Mollepata (2900 m) to Mocashqo (3400 m). We arrived at Mocashqo after being poured rain on and walking through mud and streams for the better part 2.5 hours, and were greeted with a sign outlining the rest of our journey in front of us. It was 11:30 and we were only at the point where the tour companies start their journey, and they advertise the first day as a moderately hard 5-7 hours. After already climbing 500 m in elevation with our 20 and 30 kg packs, 5-7 more hours of ‘moderately hard’ transformed into pretty miserable hiking for us.

For the next 6 km, we gained another exhausting 400 m in elevation as we began to make our way to a ridgeline. Challenge #3 (it was a constant throughout our entire journey) - At this point, the rain hadn’t let up and had only gotten stronger so any attempts we made at taking a break resulted in shivering and being even more soaked than we already were.

It was about 2:30 PM and we caught a really big break in our day. We ran into a local herding his donkeys, and we asked him how much farther to our final destination for the day (Sorraypampa), and he said 2.5 hours more, which was really disheartening, BUT he told us to head up this little path and then our route to Sorraypampa would be ‘mas plano’ (more flat) than if we were to take the road. This was a beautiful life-saver for us!

The road was pretty up and down the last 8 km to town, and the little ridge path we were on was a gradual slope up for the rest of the walk, not to mention it had some absolutely stunning views of the valley we were in. There were multiple ‘troll-bridges’ as Amber-Leigh so fondly calls them, and honestly neither of us have seen so many waterfalls in our lives.

It was absolutely breathtaking, and was a shame that we were head down walking as hard as we possibly could to avoid being stranded in the valley at night. Coming down into Sorraypampa (3960 m) was also beautiful, not just in the scenery around but a beautiful sense of relief that we had made it. Although before we could get into Sorraypampa we had one last task to complete, and thank goodness for another local guy we met. During rainy season there is a raging river separating Sorraypampa from the trail, and you need to cross it somehow. Luckily there was a movable (though it weighed 200 pounds easily) bridge/ladder contraption that you could put into just the right place on the river and walk across. Thankfully, the local man showed us where to a) find the bridge, b) where to put the bridge, and finally c) actually helped Ian put the bridge in place. Turns out that if they put a more permanent bridge in place, it usually gets swept away, so the movable alternative is the best bet.

After this point we were so exhausted that we asked the first place we got to if we could camp there for the night. They said no, but pointed us in the direction of Señor Antonio, and his lovely family Roxanne and Sadie. They had a shelter that we could set up our tent in, with another side to cook in. Now you may be thinking at this point, oh that’s lame, you should have just camped outside. But did we mention before in this post that it was raining? And not just a drizzle, but crazy full-blown rain storm while being 1 or 2 degrees Celsius outside. So, paying 20 soles for cover was likely major gringo prices but they were a very nice family, we were frozen, and setting up our tarp/ground sheet/tent did not sound like a fun proposition in the rain. Cover also gave us a chance to ‘try’ to dry out wet clothes, but we ended up just freezing them instead.

So at the end of day number 1, aside from being cold and wet, and wet and cold; we were 9 hours of hiking from Mollepata to Sorraypampa, covering 20 km and gaining about 1 km in altitude. Our total costs for the day were 30 Soles for the collective (15 soles per person) and 20 Soles for our camping arrangements. Our estimated food costs (that we brought with us) were about 50 Soles total. Total day cost in CAD was about $40.

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Hey AL, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore!

By Kansas we most definitely mean the warmth of Central America, but you follow.

There is lots of text to follow, but we promise that there are tons of pretty pictures to break it up!

Wednesday of last week was our final day in Nicaragua, which surprised us greatly as 6 months travelling has absolutely flown by. We had a nice Valentines Day dinner with a good friend (we aren’t big into V-Day so we like to spread the love around), and then were off and on our way bright and early the following morning to Peru!

We planned our travel day to be the easiest (ie. least transfers/border crossings) and cheapest day possible. We figured out due to the awesome help of Google Flights (they are essentially doing what SkyScanner and Kayak are doing) that flying out of San José, Costa Rica was about $400 USD cheaper than flying from Managua, Nicaragua and also could find a direct flight (whereas Managua you had at least 2 connections). Leaving from San Juan we took a shuttle to the San Jose airport, which was actually on time, something that NEVER happens in Nicaragua. It was a very long, but seamless, travel day taking us about 15 hours door to door.

Landing in Lima was an odd feeling for us. We have been living in and visiting towns and cities of no more than 50 or 100 thousand people and all of a sudden we were smack dab in the middle of an 11 million person, a very spread out city. We lucked out with where we stayed, Barranco district, as we were close to a beautiful district in Lima called Miraflores, but not paying Miraflores prices to stay there.

As a side note to this, AirBnB has been INCREDIBLE so far in Peru, and we are staying in awesome places for a fraction of the price we would pay at even hostels.

Continuing on with Miraflores, it has a boardwalk area that stretches the coast and is immensely beautiful. We saw so many people out for a walks on the nice sunny afternoon. Although we are not naïve that all of Lima is similar to these few beautiful areas, it was an amazing spot to visit and see.

In Miraflores we found a ceviche place that made us think we had died and gone to heaven, and heaven is called La Mar. Although it was a bit on the expensive end (what it would cost for a decent dinner at the KEG at home) it was beyond incredible. The flavours were tantalizing and the fish itself was so fresh and melt in your mouth that we are still salivating over it.

After our brief stint in Lima, we decided to fly to Cusco, as we found flights for only slightly more expensive than the 24-hour bus ride over the Andes so we jumped on the opportunity. Within minutes of stepping off the plane we were both hit with headaches and felt pretty foggy (the classic presentation of altitude sickness) and definitely took advantage of the free coca leaves that were at the arrivals in the airport.

As another side note here, most places (outdoor adventure stores) or touristy locations offer free coca tea or leaves to help the millions of unprepared tourists that likely come through Cusco in a year.

But coca leaves/tea does wonders and has us feeling pretty good on the altitude front currently. For the last 2 days we have been putting some miles on our hiking shoes and collecting the last bit of gear/acclimatizing for the Salkantay Trek that we are about to undertake in a few days to Machu Picchu. It is rainy season in Peru and a little bit chilly but we are getting ourselves prepared for what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful treks in the Andes. And if it gets too rainy, the way down will be more like a waterslide than a trek but we are okay with it.

Tons more photos and updates to come after the trek!

Love always, AL + Ian

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Recapturing what was lost!

We’ve been keeping you in the dark for what looks like awhile - sorry friends. 

This next entry is sandwiched between Semuc Champey and Belize, at the mighty ruins of Tikal, Guatemala. 

Love always, Amber-Leigh + Ian

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVAphLZkFqc)