Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

Before coming to South America it was one of my goals to do a hiking trek for several days to Machu Picchu. The salkantay trek is a famous trek that you can do in 4 or 5 days but it’s also a quite tough one due to the amounts of kilometres you walk ever day and especially due to the altitudes you reach! Especially the second and the fourth day were pretty exhausting since on the second day we went up to 4.600m and since we are still in the rainy season, both of the days it was raining heavily. Nevertheless, the views we had and the hiking days which were filled with compelling conversations with other members of the (Papi’s-) group were worth the struggle! After 4 days of hiking we then arrived in Aguas Calientes, the town next to Machu Picchu. Due to the manifestations these days it was all empty and we were not 100% sure if we can enter Machu Picchu the next day. Our guides told us to go as early as possible in order to arrive before the strikers and pass the entry so we got up at 3:30am and walked up the last challenging kilometres up to the Machu Picchu! In the end we were rewarded with a beautiful view over the mountains and the archeological site (apparently not that common in rainy season) and since many tours these days were cancelled, we could experience Machu Picchu as a quiet and peaceful place instead of a tourist hotspot🙏🏼After the hike which was in the end about 100km in 5 days, we needed some rest in Cusco again to process the whole experience!Read more