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Camping—Your experience begins when we pick you up from your hotel at 5:00 a.m. View the majestic, snow-capped mountains of Apus Salkantay and Humantay via the bus window. After the first two hours of driving, stop in Mollepata to use the restrooms, browse for souvenirs, and have an optional breakfast at a restaurant.
Continue driving to Challacancha, the beginning site for this trip. Meet your support team, who will coordinate all the equipment and freight mules. Begin walking to Soraypampa (3850m) at 09:30 a.m.
The initial leg of the walk takes you through several steep valleys. To get to Soraypampa, trek 7 kilometers in 3 hours. Have lunch at Mount Salkantay’s base camp. After lunch and a little break, proceed to the magnificent Humantay Lake (4200m). This is a 5-kilometer round-trip that will take you three hours. The lake’s magnificent blue-green water reflects the alpine glaciers of Apu Humantay.
Enjoy the majesty of the sparkling night sky from your tent at Soraypampa, which is high up in the center of a glacier valley. See stars, constellations, and even comets racing across the pitch-black sky, free of city lights and pollution.
Camping—Wake up with the first rays of the light at 5:30 a.m. and have breakfast. Begin walking to the trail’s highest point, the Salkantay Pass (4650m). The walk includes a 7-kilometer uphill rise that you must complete in three hours. At the summit of the pass, take in the breathtaking views of the surrounding valleys and the towering snowy peaks of Salkantay, Humantay, Tucarhuay, and Pumasillo.
Mount Salkantay is the second-tallest peak in the Cusco area and was adored by the Incas. Walk 5 kilometers downhill before stopping to relax and eat lunch. This downhill trip takes you down a sinuous, rough, gravel slope to the Huayracmachay campsite.
After lunch, begin your descend to the upper levels of the Amazon jungle. Complete the 10-kilometer downhill route in three hours. The terrain changes dramatically as you go from the Andes to the Amazon.
This path is breathtakingly gorgeous, with green slopes and deep trees all around. End your journey at Chaullay, a community at an elevation of 2900 meters.
Camping—Leave Chaullay at 6:00 a.m. and trek to the little village of La Playa through the Santa Teresa Valley. You will pass by rivers, waterfalls, and coffee, banana, and avocado farms. After a full lunch at La Playa, take public transportation to the Hydroelectric Train Station.
If you are fatigued by this time, you can take the train from this stop to Aguas Calientes. If you’re still up for a hike, you can cover the distance in three hours. There is a wonderful trail close to the train tracks that leads all the way to Aguas Caliente.
This is the same road taken by Hiram Bingham, an American professor who found Machu Picchu in the early twentieth century. Once at Aguas Calientes, you can relax in the hotel before supper. There are no automobiles in Aguas Calientes, and the mood is calm. Your deluxe room will have a private bathroom, a hot shower, and Wi-Fi. You may even store your stuff at the hotel while visiting Machu Picchu.
Camping—Wake up early and travel to Machu Picchu. If you like, you can take a bus to the Inca fortress. Enjoy a two-hour guided tour of this historic city. Explore its temples, terraces, palaces, priest’s residences, sundial, industrial zone, and fields. Be astounded by the Incas’ engineering genius since they accomplished all of this without modern tools or even steel and iron to work with.
Following the guided trip, you are free to climb Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain. You may even climb to the Sun Gate, Machu Picchu’s main entrance, from the Inca Trail. Another alternative is to stroll to visit the Incan Bridge.
Stay and explore this magnificent city for around 7 hours before climbing down to Aguas Calientes to catch the 18:20 evening train to Ollantaytambo. A private bus will pick you up from there and drop you off at your Cusco hotel about 22:00 p.m.
