Breathless on the Salkantay trek and blown away by Machu Picchu

After leaving the Galapagos Islands, and spending one night in Guayaquil, we took back to back bus rides of 22 and 26 hours respectively (bus breakdown included) to arrive in Arequipa, Peru. The ¨White City¨proved to be beautiful, with cobblestone streets, ornate cathedrals, and colonial buildings constructed of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock that sparkles in the sun. We paid a visit to Juanita, the Ice Princess, a mummified girl of 15 who was sacrificed to the volcano by the Incans on the summit of Mount Ampato about 500 years ago, who now ¨lives¨on display in a kind of transparent mini-fridge for all to visit. She is incredibly well preserved, and her clothing and other artifacts that were found with her appear almost as if they were new.

Another overnight bus put us into Cusco early in the morning on Wednesday the 11th. We took in a city tour which included a visit to several Incan sites. According to legend, by drinking three times from one of the springs at the ruins, we should expect triplets! We were also lucky enough to see a parade for a children´s festival, with about one hundred children in all types of costumes dancing in the streets.


On Friday we began our 5-day trek to Machu Picchu, via the Salkantay region. We had decided not to do the ¨real¨Inca trail, as we had heard that although less historic, the Salkantay promised spectacular views, and much fewer trekkers (about 30 hikers start the Salkantay per day versus up to 500 daily on the Inca trail). There were 15 trekkers in our group, from all around the world, great people who along with the guides, cooks and support team made the trip very special.

The trek began in a little town called Mollepata, and our first day involved walking 21kms, and a 1000m ascent to the base of Salkantay mountain where we had a very cold night camping at 3900m. The view along the way was beautiful as the Humantay glacier (5917m) and then Peru´s second highest mountain, the Salkantay (6270m) came into view. The second day was the longest, walking 25kms, and an ascent over the Salkantay pass at 4600m, and down to our second camp at 2900m. Knees were knocking, and most of us were quite breathless trekking at this altitude, but the views on this second day were absolutely beautiful. Days 3 and 4 involved long walking days through what is called ¨high jungle¨, a visit to some hot springs at Santa Teresa, zipping across a river in a scary flimsy cable car, to end in the touristy little town of Agua Calientes, aka Machu Picchu town.

On the fifth morning, we woke up at 4:00am to join our group for some bread and coffee before doing our final one hour 1000m slog up the mountain to Machu Picchu. We arrived for the site´s opening at 6:00am hoping to witness the sunrise, but lots of clouds beat us to the top, and our first views were of Machu Picchu cloaked in mist. Still, we were blown away by the remoteness and beauty of the ¨Lost City¨, surrounded by 600m deep valleys on either side, which provided the Incans a natural defence from potential attackers. After a guided tour of the site´s temples, courtyards, and terraces, the sun broke through the clouds, and Edwin and I were joined by Nicole (Germany) and Corinne (Switzerland) to climb Wayna Picchu for views from the opposite side. After 8 hours of exploring, we took the bus down to Agua Calientes, and joined our fellow trekkers for the train ride and bus ride back to Cusco.

The trek and Machu Picchu has truly been one of the highlights of our travels so far. In total, we walked 78kms in 4 days, we enjoyed beautiful scenery, excellent meals and guiding, and great company along the way.

Location: La Paz, Bolivia

Tortoises, sea lions, sharks, oh my!

It´s hard to know where to start in describing the past two weeks we have spent here in the Galapagos Islands. We came with high expectations and all were surpassed with the landscapes, vegetation, and of course the animals, birds and sea life here.

We joined 18 other travellers on an 8-day cruise aboard an old 54-foot converted sailing vessel called the Free Enterprise, although the word "cruise" should probably have a few caveats thrown in (and it definitely wasn´t free). The generator was not the most reliable, so some days electricity (translate working lights, flushing toilets, and water for washing) was optional, but the excellent food and great guides more than made up for the dark and smelly cabins. Each day we usually had two land visits and at least one snorkelling excursion, sometimes with a little motoring in between, although the long journeys were done at night.

We began our journey on Santa Cruz, with a visit to the highlands to see giant tortoises and to walk and crawl through some lava tunnels. Like most of the animals on the Galapagos, the tortoises have not been conditioned to fear people, so we were able to stand very near to these amazing creatures, the oldest of which was 150 years.

Some of the highlights of our land visits include: blue footed boobies, masked boobies, waved albatross, great frigate birds, flamingos, lava lizards, marine and land iguanas, and sea lions. We were able to get within a couple metres of all of these animals, and sometimes they were curious enough to come take a closer look at us. On one visit, I thought a land iguana was going to come and take my camera, he came so close to the lens. While busy taking photos of the waved albatross courtship dance, another albatross surprised Edwin by walking almost full circle around him.

I think we have about 200 photos of sea lions. While the males would spend their time patrolling their beach from the water, the females and pups would sun themselves on the beach, barely batting an eye at us as we walked past. One of the cutest, yet saddest sights was the pups looking for their moms on the beach. Usually the mom was out in the sea, feeding, but if something had happened to the mom, the pup would look frantically, and the other females would ignore or move away from it, as they will only nurse their own, and never adopt an abandoned pup.

The snorkelling was also wonderful, as we swam with colourful fish, turtles, rays, white tipped reef sharks and very playful sea lions. On one of our best snorkelling trips, the two of us separated from the group to look for turtles and were able to spend about ten minutes hanging out with one, that was very relaxed with us. It would come to the surface to breathe, look at us unbothered, and return to his little rock on the bottom. On our last snorkelling trip, a female sea lion came to play with us, swimming right up to our masks, and at the last moment diving, blowing bubbles up as she´d swim upside down just below us.

The landscapes and vegetation were also mind-blowing, from moon-like lava fields, to the aquamarine color of the sea, to cactus trees that were more than 7 metres tall.

After leaving the boat, we hopped in a speed boat for a very bumpy ride to Isla Isabela, where we stayed for 3 nights. There, we took a tour on horseback up Volcan Sierra Negra to the rim of the crater. The volcano´s crater is the second largest in the world at 9km by 10km, and is still active, with the last eruption happening October, 2005. The landscape was incredible, with steam rising from the middle of the crater, and black and red lava forming lava rivers, tunnels, and huge crevices.

Five days after leaving the Free Enterprise, we both have times during the day when we feel like we are swaying back and forth! We are now back in Puerto Ayora, the most populated town in the islands. On Friday, we will fly back to the mainland, and travel about 50 hours by bus to Cuzco to trek the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu. We are sad to leave the Galapagos, but excited about our next adventure!

Location: Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos