Salkantay Trek - The Longest Day

Day 6
Salkantay Trail

The longest day of hiking.

Wake up in a beautiful campsite surrounded by the snowy summits of the San Miguel range - Humantay and Salkantay reign supreme.

The view down the trail

Our campsite as seen from the trail

Along the trail we learned about Alpaca Expeditions sustainable practices:

• Porters, cooks, and waiters are all hired from the poorest districts - they all have limited access to an education or skilled jobs 
• A lot of folks are hired - some seasonally, some permanently (approximately 70 guides, 70 cooks, and 140 porters) 
• Wages paid by Alpaca far exceed the traditional earnings from day labor, farming, or in local stores 
• Proceeds from treks go in part to pay for sustainable development projects - for example, money from previous treks was used to purchase a classroom set of computers for a school 
• All produce purchased from local markets 
• All cooking utensils, cookware, silverware, and dining ware is reusable - nothing plastic, nothing styrofoam 
• All water boiled from local sources for drinking and cooking 
• All waste packed and packed out
• Visit and support local sustainable businesses along the trek like a coffee plantation where we purchased beans 

Our amazing trek squad

A lot of downhill walking - some near vertical stretches. 

We travel down and way from the mountains, leaving the Andean high alpine for the low alpine 

Flowers blossom in the southern equatorial winter. 

This flower is called colloquially the "corn flower" - it looks like corn

Birds sing (the first we see is a small flock of parakeets) 

The temperature rises. Our layers peel off. 

KD and PC - happy to be warm again

We pass through a small village where we see every type of domesticated animal: 

• A cow milked awkwardly by two very uncomfortable men
• Spotted ducks 
• Dogs of all breeds, sizes
• Turkeys 
• Chickens and roosters
• Pigs (the day before we saw a dog pulling a pig by a leash) 
• Sheep 

This puppy doesn't know why those ducks won't leave him alone.

We camp at La Playa and share the campground with a group of American students who are surprisingly quiet. Still can't sleep. Water from a nearby river gushes all night. The stars fill the sky. I see a llama constellation. 

Until the next post ... only two more days to Machu Picchu. 

Best,

PC