April Adventures: Trek Day 4

The previous afternoon, we had to figure out our plans for the fourth and final day of our hike.  The horses that had carried our tents and cooking equipment, as well as our duffel bags and other people’s backpacks, had come to the campsite earlier that morning, dropped everything off, and returned over the mountain to Mollepata to meet up with another group.  We would be able to eat our dinner and breakfast in the restaurant and would be staying in a hostel in Aguas Calientes on the 4^th night. 

However, this meant that we were now responsible for carrying our backpacks and duffel bags, something our tour booking agency hadn’t told us.  The original route called for us to climb up again significantly and then descend again, which would take about 10 hours.  However, given all of our stuff, our guide suggested that we hire a combi to take us to the last town on this side of the river, where we could then take a cable car across the river, and walk about 4 hours to reach Aguas Calientes.  Some of the folks in our group, who apparently we aware of this self-carry part of the hike, were interested in doing the longer day, while others said they had too much stuff and were too tired.  Initially our guide was pressing us to make one group decision, but JP helpfully pointed out (in Spanish) that we had a guide and an assistant guide so we could split up if the groups were big enough.  After some more discussion, it was decided that seven people would go on the long route and the rest of us (including me and JP) would take the combi to the cable car and then do the walk from there.

So, in the morning, the walking group got up early and took off, and the rest of us had a more leisurely breakfast, bought some more snacks, and hopped into the combi.  There were ten of us plus our guide, and we all held on as the car sped along the rocky dirt path, through waterfalls and over puddles.  In truth, the driver was fast but was savvy, doing a good job navigating the waterfalls and other hazards in the path.  I felt safe, except that we were sitting in the back and I was holding onto the bottom of the seat so that I didn’t hit my head on the roof every time we hit a rock.  After a surprisingly quick hour or so, we arrived at the river.

We found the cable car, and our guide, Nilton, decided to have two of the guys in the group, JP and Gustavo, go over first in the cable car so they could help pull the rest of us across.  They set off with a push from Nilton:

Then they had to pull themselves along to the other side, using the rope that attached to the front of the car.  The distance was a few hundred feet, and they slowly made their way across, getting closer and closer to the other side, until all of a sudden they stopped!  On our side, we realized that the rope had gotten tangled and started pulling them back to untangle the rope so they could continue. However, they had decided that they were too heavy with the luggage they had, so once we got the rope untangled and tried to tell them to go back, they kept coming.  The water was so loud that they couldn’t hear us, so we tried to help pull them back.  Once they got there we explained what happened on our side and vice versa.  They ditched the bags anyway and pulled themselves across again, and with some extra effort were able to make it to the end.  From there, we sent people over two by two, and it was much faster after the first time, although it was a lot of work for JP and Gustavo.  Here you can see them in action:

From there, we had about a two hour walk along the river to the hydroelectric plant, and then two hours along the railroad tracks to Aguas Calientes.  The walk along the river was pretty and warm, and there was a nice wide trail.

My bag was significantly heavier than the previous days and JP heroically carried the duffel bags most of the way.  We put the lightest stuff we could in them, but I found them awkward to carry, so it was great that he was able to do it so much of the time.

We got to the hydroelectric plant/train station and took a break. Some people ate their ‘to-go’ lunch that we had been given in the morning but it did not look appealing to me at all.  We had to cut up one more big hill to reach the main railroad track, and then the walk was pretty straight from there.

We stayed along the river most of the way:

We also saw the actual Peru Rail train on the railroad tracks.  (We had the option of taking the train but it was expensive and didn’t leave until the late afternoon, so we just kept walking.)

As we got closer, we could also see little bits of Machu Picchu on the hill waaaay up above us, which made us feel encouraged that we were almost there. 

The walk was mostly flat, which was nice, but I could feel my blisters and we were getting tired.  Eventually the trail dumped us out on a road and the guide showed us where the road to Machu Picchu crossed the river, and we walked for maybe 10 minutes and we could see the town:

Hooray!  We walked into the center of town and found our hostel after a little waiting.  We were able to take a shower for the first time since Sunday (it was now Wednesday) and lie down on a nice soft bed.  We walked around in the town a little bit but mostly just rested—it was great to feel clean and relaxed.

We had dinner with our group at the restaurant downstairs, which was included in our tour, and we decided not to get up at 4:30 am with the group to get to Machu Picchu the next morning, but instead to go up on our own.  The site opens at 6 and several people wanted to sign up to hike another smaller mountain, Wayna Picchu, which required getting there when it opens.  The plan was to get up there and have the guide give the group a tour, and then people could climb and explore on their own.  Our train back to Cuzco ddin’t leave until 9:30 the following night, so we didn’t want to be exhausted.  We also felt that the guided tour would be pretty skippable, and we would rather rest.  At first our guide was a little taken aback but then he gave us our tickets and let us go on our own.

Next up: Machu Picchu (at last!)