We met our guide Fernando and the tour owner Carlos at the hostel around 5 to get a briefing on what to expect over the next 5 days. Didn’t sound too stressful, except maybe the very early morning starts. We were given a bag into which we had to patch our belongings for the 5 days – 7kg max. We then headed for a couple of drinks at the 180 View Escobar – best view of Cusco apparently or your money back – followed by a pizza at our favourite local pizza place. The guinea pig pizza was only tried by Andy.
We got picked up at 430am the next day and met the rest of our crew including Ebanhulio, our cook, the assistant cook plus the helper. We were all back to sleep in no time, to be woken up at the Inca ruins at Tarahuasi. Once again you could not help but marvel at their workmanship. We stopped for a great breakfast at Mollepata – a thriving little town that basically didn’t exist 15 years ago.
We arrived at Soraypampa around 10.30 for the start of our trek. We also got to meet our 7 mules and their 2 ‘mulers’. The numbers of trekkers was a bit scary but Fernando suggested we skip Humantay Lake, where they were all going, and head straight up to the Soraypampa campground – thus avoiding the crowds. It was a great move as we basically had the trail to ourselves. It was damn hard work climbing from the 3880m at the start to 4450m at the campground. The scenery was amazing although the lack of breath made it a wee bit of a challenge to really enjoy.
We arrived at the campground around 2.30 before getting stuck into an amazing lunch. – how Ebanhulio manages to cook the food on a few gas burners is incredible. The trout was amazing. A couple of our group took the opportunity of the tents being set up to catch some sleep, while the rest of us climbed another 200 metres to view the Salkantay lagoon. We were treated to a sunny afternoon which meant that colours of the lagoon, and the Salkantay and Palqay peaks, were amazing. We were also treated to several small avalanches. Day 1 involved a light 11km walk, taking us just over 7 hours for a total climb of 942 metres.
We all had a bit of a kip before joining Fernando in the mess tent for an hour of his history of the Inca empire. Very interesting. Amazingly we were the only campers on the whole site. We were treated to another great meal before all being tucked up in bed by 8 – bed was certainly the best way of avoiding the biting cold. Deryn and I were adamant we would not be getting up in the middle of the night for a pee as 1) it was too damn cold and 2) getting in and out of the tent required a degree of flexibility that we both lacked. We were both successful although we were told we missed an incredible night sky. Our hired sleeping bags were a bonus, albeit they were a bit like riding a bull, as they kept us warm while the rest of our crew struggled with the cold.
