Hiking Guide: Salkantay Trek - Days 3 & 4

Day 3: Santa Teresa Valley

Distance: 16km

Ascent/Descent: Mostly flat

Time to walk: 5 hours, inc. breaks

Our wake-up cocoa tea arrived at our hut door at 5:30am, we had an early breakfast at 6am and were ready for a much shorter day of hiking by 6:30am.

The morning hike was mostly flat through lush terrain. We stopped at a fruit farm for morning tea - we had the tastiest avocado sandwiches I’ve ever had for only PEN5/AUD$2.10/USD$1.35! They had lots of exotic fruits on offer also.

Little did we know at the time, but the next part of the trail was the last we would see of our 4-day group! Once we got to the pick up point for the vans to take us to the coffee tour, we were told to jump in the van with the other group and we would meet back up at the coffee tour to say our farewells - this wasn’t the case though, as we would find out the other group went to a different plantation!

So here began our journey with our new group. We had already made friends with a few of the group given we stayed in the same accommodation each evening, so it was an easy transition.

After learning about how the infamous Santa Teresa coffee is produced in the area, we set off back in the vans to our campsite for the night. This was the first and only time we actually stayed in tents!

We had lunch at the campsite, then jumped back in a van to go to a ziplining centre. It was really cheap for ziplining, but given I have ziplined many times before (having worked for ZipTrek in Whistler, Canada) I decided to skip the ziplining - as did half of our group. Instead, we headed straight to the Santa Teresa Hot Springs.

The hot springs cost PEN 40/AUD$16.70/USD$10.70, and was a perfect way of spending the afternoon. My only complaint was they weren’t that hot, but it was a nice break from hiking. After relaxing for a couple of hours, we went to a local bar outside and had a couple of rounds of margaritas - it was such a fun afternoon, and a great bonding experience with our new group!

We got picked up around 6pm to be taken back to our campsite where a huge feast was awaiting us - including the tastiest chips and guacamole ever (it also could have been the margaritas in my system that attributed to that!).

Given we had another big day of hiking the following day, I was sensible and went to bed relatively early - around 9pm, leaving some of the others to carry on the festivities.

Day 4: Hike to Agua Calientes

Distance: 24km

Ascent: approx. 650m

Descent: approx. 1,000

Time to walk: 8.5 hours, inc. breaks

I actually think this was the toughest day - I found it harder than the Salkantay Pass on day 2!

I was relieved I had my beauty sleep the night before, because once we hit the trail at 7am, you could already feel the humidity creeping into the air.

We hiked for about 3 hours up through a steep, humid forest until we reached a viewpoint of Machu Picchu - just for it to be completely hidden in clouds. We waited around for about 45 minutes and then had a lucky break in the clouds - Machu Picchu, albeit far away and very small, peeped through into sight! We had a whole minute of awe before the clouds covered it again.

We continued on to the ruins of Llactapata, where we stopped to learn more about the incan history. Archaeologists believe that Llactapata may have two purposes: a spiritual site to honor Pachamama (Mother Earth) and a resting point for Incan travellers heading to Machu Picchu.

From there we descended the steep path to Hidroeléctrica, where we stopped for lunch. Hidroeléctrica is creatively named after the hydroelectric station that is there, and there isn’t much there except for a train stop with restaurants and accommodation lining the railway line.

The last part of our journey was a 3-hour walk along the train line to reach Agua Calientes. The walk was beautiful but it felt so long, after such a full-on day!

We reached Agua Calientes around 5pm, and we were assigned rooms in a basic hotel, that felt so lush after being in huts and tents for the past few nights! After showering, we met up back downstairs in the hotels restaurant for some much deserved cocktails (and it was happy hour, so there were a lot of pisco sours consumed!).