Peru VI: Salkantay Trek

After hiking to Lago Humantay, I spent the night near the trailhead in a beautiful skydome. The next morning we woke up very early and started hiking before sunrise over the Salkantay Trek. This incredible hike climbs up to a 15,300ft pass directly under 20,574ft Salkantay Mountain, then drops over six thousand feet down to the next camp area. Despite the grueling statistics and high altitude, it wasn't as hard as I expected thanks to already being acclimatized to Cusco's 11.5k elevation. It was incredible to watch the scenery change as we dropped from the barren and snowy high Andes down into the lush, green cloud forest. After spending the night at the second camp, we continued hiking another 10 miles or so, then were driven a few miles to Hidroelectrica, just under Machu Picchu mountain where we continued the trek on to Aguas Calientes.