Trek to Machu Picchu – The Salkantay Route

Now, talk about a throwback! Back in 2016 I took a notion to travel to Peru for about a month. I had never visited South America and I was absolutely bursting to go. At the time none of my friends or family members were able to come with me so I took the plunge and off I went and what an opportunity it turned out to be!

I had some amazing experiences and met some wonderful people, but the highlight was definitely the trek to Machu Picchu. There are three different routes you can do: Inca Trail, The Salkantay Trek and The Lares Trek. The Inca Trial is the most iconic one, it’s the busiest and the permits sell out months in advance. The Salkantay Trek is “the hike for hikers” and because its longer than the Inca Trail, it’s not as busy. Finally The Lares Trek, which is the shortest. I’d love to tell you I did the Salkantay Trek because I’m an avid hiker, but truthfully, I left it too late to book and the Inca Trail was booked up. Its fair to say I was somewhat surprised on Day 1, when I realised some of my fellow travellers had been preparing for the hike for weeks!

It was a phenomenal 4-day hike from Mollepata where we were dropped off, to the town of Aguas Calientes. I must have taken more than 100 photos of the mountains but not one single one of them was able to capture how humbling it was! Words cannot describe how beautiful it really was, every day brought different coulors, and you could see snow in the morning and nearly dessert in the afternoon. The camps we stayed in as we went along were basic. I had no service on my phone for those 4 days. It was 4 days of peace and quiet, we didn’t come to a city or village until we came to Santa Teresa, where we stopped to for a well-deserved visit to the hot springs before getting into Aguas Calientes.

Aguas Calientes is the hub for exploring Machu Picchu and you could go there directly if you wanted to see The Lost City of the Incas without doing a trek.

We spent the night in Aguas Calientes before rising at 4am, to continue our hike into Machu Picchu. We got in as the sun was rising and before the bus loads of other visitors arrived. Once we were in the Lost City, there was lots of amazing photo opportunities and places to sit and admire.

It really was the trip of a lifetime and I would recommend it to anyone to do at least once in their lives! I also visited the Rainbow Mountain, Cusco and Lake Titicaca while I was in Peru. Get in touch to book your Peruvian Adventure!