Salkantay Trek

The Inca trail is booked up months in advance so its really common to do an alternative trek instead, to get to Macchu Picchu- myself and the American girl Becky chose the hardest one called the Salkantay which is a 5 day trek. It is possible not to trek at all and just get the train up, which we were contemplating for a while, but Im sooo glad we didn´t go for the easy option as it was absolutely asmazing. Our only mistake was to book it at the last minute ie 10pm on a Sunday night, so that we would get back in time to party for the weekend in Cusco, so we got feck all sleep before being picked up the first day.

Our group was a mix of ages and nationalities. We bonded mostly with a slightly older Irish couple and some Argentinian boys. I was so unfit which made climbing the mountains a killer, but you just take breaks to get your breath back, so it was fine.The scenery on the whole trip was out of this world and really varied from day to day- better than Lord of the Rings. At night we camped and our guides cooked for us.

The first day I had food poisoning/diarrohea again which was a bit of a nightmare. I had to stay at the back of the group so I could go to the side of the road at a minutes notice. Not nice at all. Enough said. The second day I was surprised I was able to even walk as I hadn´t eaten hardly anything the day before but I managed fine and wasn´t the slowest by a long shot. On the third day, I knocked avocados and passion fruits out of some trees along the way. Sounds ridiculous out loud but it was so much fun. That night we went to a natural hot springs to ease our aching muscles and I dont think Ive ever been so relaxed and happy. Maybe it was the setting or the endorphines from all the exercise. On the fourth day we spent a few hours just walking along railway tracks. So surreal. Reminded me of the movie Stand by Me, I think. We stopped with the boys to swim in the nearby river. I was too mortified to strip to my underwear so I just took photos of the rest of them.