makaha

miraflores to morro solar

lomas de lima

more cuzco ruins viewing

next visit i’ll prioritize more time in the sacred valley

absolutely one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. 1000000% recommend this to anyone, but do 5 days instead of my 4. long description below for anyone interested

day 1:
fantastic route and fantastic group and fantastic guides. just about tied my altitude PR (14.1K feet) at lago humantay which was absolutely incredible. it had amazing blue color when viewed from the ridge slightly above the lake. lots of amazing flowers too. we stayed in star domes on after an incredible lunch, nap, then dinner. the clouds then cleared in time for some phenomenal star gazing, my first ever in the southern hemisphere

day 2:
we woke up to one the all time sunrises of my life, with nevado salkantay being the highlight. after breakfast, we began with the climb up to abra salkantay. great vibes and views. saw two chinchillas!!!! and a family of andean geese. i felt amazing on this climb, despite setting a new altitude PR of 15.2K feet. the clouds moved in by the time we hit the pass, but it was still incredible. we did a little chill ceremony at the top to get in touch with pachamama (mother earth). the descent down the other side was long and rainy but diverse and a privilege. one second we were in the alpine, and the next it was a full on jungle. amazing. that night, we split from half of our group since they were doing the 5 day trek, as opposed to the 4 days of myself and five others. a very sad goodbye. we then drove to our next star domes, this time in the jungle. the campsite was surprisingly lit despite everyone having a 5am alarm and being in the proper middle of nowhere, and i learned how to play kings in the corner which is now one of my favorite card games

day 3: 
we did some coffee making, before doing the coolest zip line course of my life. it was in an enormous canyon that we zig zagged across, finishing with a rope bridge. the rope bridge was kind of insane. we then went to some gorgeous hot springs. however, i recommend pants or bug spray for the jungle sections of this trek lol. we followed this by a lunch in hidroelectrica and a hike along the train tracks to aguas calientes, which gave big euro vibes in my walkabout with will and cj. cj and i went dancing at a bar that night which was quite fun. also, we took a car from the end of day 2 to hidroelectrica in order to do the zip line and hot springs, while still doing abra salkantay and machu picchu within four days

day 4:
a 4:30am alarm for 6am machu picchu tickets. the rest of my group took the bus up, which allowed me to run up the trail instead of hike. that was fun, but also fully in the clouds which had me worried. the start of the the tour was also in the clouds, but then it cleared for some of the most dreamlike views of machu picchu. absolutely incroyable. saw some llamas. nicholas, victoria, cj and i did huayna picchu afterward too, which was really cool and kind of exposed. all in all, a trip worthy of including one of the 7 modern wonders of the world :)

shoutout to the new friends, specifically the 4 dayers like will, coco, CJ, nicolas, victoria, and rene

Top Sports

Alexander Parker

Salkantay to Machu Picchu 4 Day Trek

25 Photos

13 Comments

Sign up to view more activities from Alexander Parker

makaha

miraflores to morro solar

lomas de lima

more cuzco ruins viewing

next visit i’ll prioritize more time in the sacred valley

Want to see more?

The #1 app for runners and cyclists

Sign Up for Free. Track your progress and reach goals. Join 100 million active people on Strava.

See More from Alexander