Soray Lodge - start: 4,221 m [13,845 ft]
Salkantay Pass: 4,600 m [15,090 ft]
Wayra Lodge - end: 3,906 m [12,812 ft]

Today was going to be a challenge - but so worth it. We started out early after a good breakfast and with a nice snack pack that we made up for ourselves (Mountain Lodges of Peru puts out a bunch of snack items which you can pack into your personal snack pack every morning - very nice!).

The trail started out as a rough road before it turned into a dirt track. Once we left the main valley we followed up the canyon ending up in an open area where we crossed a stream. Surprise, in the middle of nowhere we found a little concession shack (these are common for the major hiking routes). Here you could buy anything from a snack to a drink to even hiking sticks. We took a nice break near the stream while our guide chatted with the person running the shack. I must be an interesting life hiking up to the shack everyday, ensuring that it has items for sale and then talking with travelers. During the pandemic, many of these have shut down due to the lack of travel but it would be easy to imagine during normal times a lot of potential customers.

At the end of this valley there were a set of switchbacks called “7 Snakes” (there are more than 7!). This was a start of the rapid climb to the pass. We took a break in an open area strewn with giant boulder before the final section to the top. We were actually doing pretty well with the altitude. But here I got a surprise. I tend to be hypoglycemic (blood sugar can drop too low) but had been eating energy bars, etc as we went along to avoid a blood sugar crash. But suddenly I was feeling nauseous and my vision was starting to narrow - classic signs of a crash. It turns out that our guide for some reason wasn’t really into taking breaks. He told us to take our time and take pictures as we wanted to. But he kept going ahead so we kept going. Here it the lack of break caught up with me.

I wandered off to be by myself for a bit while I ate some more and did some recovery. The guide did check in with me and I ensured him that I was OK but needed more time before continuing. So he took the rest of our group on up the trail and said that he would meet me at the small lake before the final slope. He didn’t meet me there but I must say, our porter with his horses was awesome. Our porter met me at the lake, insisted on taking my daypack and stayed with me to the top. Super nice guy and never once made me feel like I was not keeping up.

It turns out our guide, as we discovered, seemed to like to hike ahead of the group and actually spent time talking with the locals more than with us. Nice guy but not someone I would ever use for a guide again. Very different from everyone else that I met in the Mountain Company lodges and their other guides. The luck of the draw I guess but it wasn’t going to spoil the trip.

At the top of the pass, it was spectacular. We all took a break and met with several other hikers making the trek. We didn’t need the down coats and gloves that we had brought - it was a beautiful day up there (chilly but very nice). I can imagine how bad the weather could be if the wind was blowing. But we were super lucky - an absolutely amazing day! It was hard to believe we were actually at 4,600 m [15,090 ft] in elevation. Way above anything I had done before.

After a short break, we started down the very long descent - 694 m (2,278 ft) to our next lodge. Once again, our guide didn’t believe in stopping but our group and our porter stayed together and kept at it. It wasn’t too steep and the views were fantastic.

By the time we got to the lodge, we were all dragging (had not eaten other than snacks since breakfast). My hypoglycemia was in full force so I sat for a while without talking and luckily the lodge was able to get me a couple of fruit juices to get my blood sugar back up. The food was really good as usual and the staff, while staying in the background, were very attentive.

It turns out the rush to get to the lodge without breaks was to have time for lunch. They had planned a pizza break in a hour or so and then dinner. Would have been much better to have a light trail lunch and then taken our time to get to the lodge.

Regardless, we all got some rest, enjoyed the hot tub (every lodge had one!), and the dinner once again was awesome. And we were definitely hungry :)

One note on this lodge - there are no roads into this area so everything has to be packed in by mules or horses including building materials, food, even fuels. They originally had started building this lodge out of adobe but discovered that the rains were so intense during the rainy season that they could not complete it before it literally washed away. So the current lodge was stone. Again, beautiful architecture and a wonderful setting.

They even had internet (limited bandwidth and only for certain hours). The electricity was also turned off after a certain time as it was all from gas powered generators. Amazing to have power and internet in such a remote location!