Hike Start: 3,354 m [11,001 ft]
Soray Lodge - end: 3,869 m [12,690 ft]
Salkantay Peak: 6,271 m [20,574 ft]
Padreyoc Peak: 5,771 m [18,933 ft]
Today was an early start with a half day drive to get to the Salkantay Inca Trail trailhead. First stop was the Quillarumiyoc (Killarumiyuq) Archaeological site (Temple of the Moon). The site is not one of the well visited locations but is quite expansive (5,000 m2). Check out the moon carved in bas-relief (inner base diameter of 0.85 m) by Inca architects in the image 2206260018N seen here. In addition to the Incan steps and walls, we were able to visit one of the many small tombs found in the mountain side.
As we continued the drive up through the valley and over the top of a pass, we caught our first site of Salkantay (Savage Mountain), the highest peak in the Vilcabamba mountain range which our trek would take us past. We did a short stop in a comfortable little town called Limatambo before our drive up the mountain towards the trailhead. The park we stopped in had these beautiful Great Bougainvillea trees plus an interesting figurine called a Jackumodo as listed on the carving. Strangely enough I can’t find any references within Google to that name.
The road now took off from the main highway and was quite rough as it cut up the mountain side out of the valley. We had lunch at a very nice little place (unfortunately I did not write down its name and can’t find a reference to it but it was probably just before the village of Mollepata). They served an all natural lunch from their own small farm (and no, I did not try guinea pig even through they raised them there). As was common, they were selling many woven crafts and I picked up a nice table throw. I also discovered, wearing shorts, that some type of tiny little insect found my legs to be very tasty. I didn’t feel a thing when eating but a few hours later, the itching started up and my legs were a many spotted thing. Strangely, I seemed to have been the only one that they were attracted to. It took several days for the welts to heal over and it was terribly hard not to scratch (similar to tiny sand fly bites I experienced in New Zealand). Lesson - always use bug spray even if you don’t notice any bugs around.
We continued up the road to the trail head with several views of the much nearer (and clearly massive) Salkantay. We finally left our vehicles and hiked literally up the side of the mountain to eventually join the Salkantay Inca trail which followed in this section an ancient Incan aqueduct. Amazing how such a structure was still in place so many centuries after it had been built and it was still in use. Even though it did also contain a bright blue plastic pipe along with the running water :)
The trail was fairly gentle in this area as it followed the aqueduct with many views of Salkantay. A few places were a bit more challenging as the trail was stones on top of the running water with the side of the canyon dropping directly off on one side. We could see that our road was still down below us (more about that on the next day’s narration. After several hours we finally caught site of our first mountain lodge in a valley nestled under the peaks Salcantay on the right and Padreyoc on the left.
There are several lodges and campsites in this area just before the trail over the Salkantay Pass.
The Mountain Lodges of Peru has several lodges, all of which are unique in flavor. This first stop was the Soray Lodge. It actually housed more than one group at a time as they gained experience in hiking in high altitudes and prepared to head over the pass. I was able to meet one of the company’s managers, a few of the other guides along with several other hikers in different groups. Everyone was there for the challenge and experience. Super nice people all of them.
The lodge itself was comfortable. This was the first night with my roommate (had a private room all except for on the trail in the lodges). He was a very nice retired gentleman who was checking things off his bucket list. I normally avoid roommates but he turned out to be a good one, at least once I learned how great sound canceling headphones were while sleeping! I just hope that he also had a way to block out any noises that I made while I was sleeping :)
Oh yes, the view from the room - Salkantay itself!
The staff at this (and all the lodges) were great. And the food - one could not ask for a better experience - plenty and delicious.
Link on this page give an overview of the total Salkantay Trek, more on this first section and information on the Mountain Lodges of Peru.