YA LEUM. 68 — Hiking to Machu Picchu: sleeping cold at 3820 m altitude, running in the mountain — part 2
We got to the highest point of this walk, 4630 m, and felt the taste of a big victory. Yet, now we had another goal to achieve… go down the mountain as much as possible to reduce the height. The highest the altitude, the colder it would be during the night…
We were told about a small campsite in Chaullay, at 2900 m high. After crossing the Salkantay Pass at 4630 m, we felt all the energy returning, mainly because we were now going down. We even ran down the mountain and that was really funny!
We walked as much as we could but the day started to get dark soon and we could not arrive at Chaullay. However, we got to another point, Huayrachmay, at a height of 3850 m. The weather was getting increasingly worse and we knew it was going to rain. There were a few shelters for tents but they looked abandoned. We found a couple who rented those shelters and when we started to set our tent, it was raining already. The shelter was not well-protected and it looked like the night would be rainy and, as expectable, cold.
That’s what happened! One of the worst nights of the trip. It rained for the entire night and it was so cold we could not sleep. During the night, we woke up with half of the tent filled with water and I spent the rest of the night against Mathieu to preserve the heat and to avoid touching the water.
As soon as the sun rose, we woke up, feeling quite sleepy and tired, ate the food we had, and went back to our path.
Due to the rainy night, the road was full of mud. We had to go through slippery slopes and dive our feet in the mud. After such a disastrous night, the day did not present itself at its best.
Finally, we went through Chaullay but we did not even stop. Although we were tired and had barely slept, we walked, slipped, and sat but kept going all the time.
It was a very hard day, although normally it is a good walk for most of the travelers.
After spending the entire day walking, we arrived at a small village where we found a place to rest and eat. In the same café, we met a group of friends who did one of the toughest walks of that area, called Choquequeirao, running. They only brought a small backpack, with some food and a sleeping bag. They told us they spent the night sleeping outdoors, inside the sleeping bag, near the river. I felt tired but after hearing about their adventures, I stopped complaining.
They said that we could catch a bus at the village that made the connection with Machu Picchu. Since the remaining path was entirely made of paved road, we joined them and went together to Aguas Calientes. In this village, we rented a room and spent the rest of the day and night with this group of Peruvians who had run in the mountains at a height of 4000 m.
On the next day, we woke up early for another three-hour walk, next to a railway. This path was also followed by all the travelers who choose to get to Machu Picchu through public transportation. It is not one of the most beautiful hikes but it was entertaining to pass by many groups with different people after walking through the mountains by ourselves.
Right before we got to the iconic Machu Picchu we still had to go up a steep hill that felt nearly as hard as getting to Salkantay Pass. The last moments are generally the toughest. It feels like the minutes become hours and the meters turn into kilometers.
But after 4 days on this trip, we finally arrived!
There were buses, Chineses, Brazilians, Americans, tourists everywhere. The majority of the people had arrived by bus, which left them at the entrance of Machu Picchu. We felt out of context: with our big backpacks, hiking poles, and our exhausted faces!
We were happy for reaching that sacred place in such a conscious and united manner. For me, that is the meaning of traveling: the journey you walk and not the place where you arrive.
Machu Picchu is, without a doubt, a magical place due to the smart and brave manner it was built, the magnificent nature in which it is inserted, and the ancestral symbolism of the Inca people.
Machu Picchu was built in the 15th century, at a height of 2400 m, and was abandoned when the Inca Empire was conquered by the Spanish, during the 16th century. It was built to protect the Inca elite and despite being so big, it could only accommodate 100 people. The remaining space was used to accommodate all the people who worked to take care of the place. The guide told me the path we hiked was frequently used by the servants, who had to run through it to deliver letters or run errands for important people in Cuzco.
This place is considered to have a unique architecture and each construction has a holy symbolism. One of the most impressive things about Machu Picchu is the way how the Inca people transported stones weighing 50 tons to make those buildings, considering they did not use the wheel. The gigantic stones were transported by the lamas, with the help of ropes and other lifting devices.
We had another historic experience from this magical world where we live.
April 2018,
Patricia Assis
