The Salkantay Trek - The Shortest Day

Day 8
July 13, 2016
Aguas Calientes or Machu Picchu Pueblo

Final day of hiking. But first, a cab ride to the trail.

A curvy road along the Ullantambo River.

It's a long way down - drivers in Peru don't seem worried 

KD holds onto my hand tightly as the cab beeps, minibuses careen toward us, and the driver, unmoved, takes hairpin turns at high speeds. There are no guard rails to be found and the drop off is several hundred feet.

Finally we reach the trailhead. We sign in with a Peruvian ranger in a massive sign-in book that looks out of the Lord of the Rings.

Our trail for the day starts along the rail tracks. Litter covers nearly each segment of rail and timber cross tie. A sign of things to come.

The tracks where only the shade can hide much of the waste 

Julio and Valentino have to wait for 6 hours for a train to take them and the trek gear into Aguas Calientes. And we complain about MBTA or MTA train times. Only 2 trains pass through this station each day.

Bags of trash line the walk to Aguas Calientes. Nearly 90% of the waste, according to our guide, is plastic drinking water bottles bought and brought to Machu Picchu by tourists.

Waste off to the side of the train tracks

We pass a lot of Argentinean and Chilean tourists. They refuse to move or acknowledge the existence of anyone else along the track. According to our guide, much of the waste on the ground can be attributed to these tourists in particular.

Thanks Argentinians - just because your best player is named Messi, doesn't mean you have to be

Machu Picchu reveals itself - it sits like a resting Incan ruler on a green ridge. Machu Picchu mountain serves as the crown.

We learn that the man who discovered Machu Picchu did so by accident. His name is Melchor Arteaga. All history books or National Geographic specials give the honor of discovering Machu Picchu to Hiram Bingham, an American explorer and politician. Melchor, who led Bingham to the site, had been preparing his crops for harvest. Using a traditional slash and burn technique, he set his previous year's crop on fire. But, he made one major miscalculation. It was a windy day. The fire he lit spread quickly until it burned nearly one entire side of Machu Picchu Mountain. When the ashes settled, he saw a series of Incan stone terraces. For one Peruvian Sole (or 31 cents) Melchor guided Bingham to the site. Now, all that's left to honor Melchor is a faded sign next to what had been his house by train tracks made invisible by trash.

The true discoverer of Machu Picchu 

Entering Aguas Calientes, we are greeted by bags of trash. Bags of bottles stacked approximately twenty feet high and 100 feet across. Trash is only picked up Wednesdays and Sundays. Like the Spanish colonists who looted the Inca for their gold, the Peruvian government and the Chilean owned tourist bus and train companies do nothing to tackle Machu Picchu's major ecological issue: waste. It's a problem we share in the US where we consume "50 billion plastic drinking water bottles per year" and we only recycle 23%, leaving 38 billion plastic bottles in our landfills (for more info check out this site: https://www.banthebottle.net/bottled-water-facts/).

KD stands in front of a big building full of plastic bottles

A shredded message of hope to protect our natural environment

Cute frogs, but their bellies are empty of waste

Well, tomorrow is another day. We see majestic Machu Picchu at 4am.

Best,
PC