Salkantay Day 3 and 4
Saturday August 31, 2019
We continued through the rainforest, admiring the flora and fauna. Our guide pointed various plants important to the Incans, like ones used for medicine as well as ones used for colouring clothes. There were some forest fires on the other side of the river, and it was pretty sad to see the smoke filling the air like that.
We got to try some of the locally farmed food - the maracuya is a sweet passionfruit, as well as some deliciously creamy avocado. We got shown how coffee was harvested, prepared, roasted and ground as well.
Our final stretch for our third day was along the train track between Hidroelectrica and Aguas Caliente. The path follows the river that circles around Machu Picchu. We arrived just before dusk and settled in for our last day of the trek.
It was another early morning to take the bus to Machu Picchu. We decided not to walk up because it would have been dark, and we wanted to save our strength for going up the mountain. We got an explanation of Inca history from our tour guide and we said our goodbyes as we started our hike up the mountain stairs. It was tough, basically just rocky steps the entire way but after 75 minutes, we reached the summit. What an amazing view of the citadel from above. You could even see Salkantay Mountain beyond the ridge near us. We spent half an hour admiring the view and taking pictures before descending and walking around the ruins.
The ruins are fascinating in their own way. You can tell that there were houses and terraces for farming crops, and the Condor Temple was pretty neat as well. We saw a chinchilla dozing off in the sun, and of course the llamas grazing in the main field.
We were exhausted after the mountain ascent and walking around the ruins so we took the bus back down to Aguas Caliente and had lunch (and purple corn ice cream!) before taking a train and van back to Cusco.
Posted by Jeremy at 6:00pm on Saturday August 31, 2019 :: 0 comments :: 