My motto the last couple months:
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out when I get there.”
Took two days to complete the Salkantay Trek. 50+ kilometers (30+ miles) over an alpine mountain pass and down into the jungle below.
Lots of small villas throughout the trek selling cervezas and sandwiches. Refugios and huts, small coffee farms, countless chickens and ducks. Burros and horses moving up and down the trail, carrying loads for the guided groups. Cables strung for gondolas that cross the river, built for hauling supplies from the road to family settlements on the other side.
Rain and drizzle, with sudden, heavy thunderstorms at night. Clouds up high and fog that rolled in, obscuring views from the mountain side lookouts.
It isn’t easy to find info on how to do this trek unsupported. I spent a long time in Cusco looking for a map of this trek. The one I eventually found was horribly wrong: names of locations, distances between points, elevation gain, the location of critical trail junctions, and even what side of the river to stay on. I’ve never encountered a map as terrible as the one I had. It’s like they want you to use a guide service instead of trying it yourself.
Still, I figured it out and made it to the end. Even found myself a Starbucks in the jungle!
BTW, can anybody identify the super cute chinchilla-looking rodent I spotted? Is it an actual chinchilla? Viscacha? Giant cuy? Mutant rabbit?
Outside Ed Blog 